GenesReunited.co.uk is a sister site of Friends Reunited. It has a friendly approach and believes that the building of your family tree should be an enjoyable and rewarding experience.  Genes Reunited was launched in 2003 and has since grown to become the UK’s largest family history website. It marked a revolution in genealogy and ancestry by combining them with social-networking. Genes Reunited members can become 'cyber detectives', building their family tree by posting it on the site and investigating which ancestors they share with other members. They currently have over 9 million members worldwide and over 500 million names listed. One new name is added to the site every single second.

The "Hot Matches" is a brilliant idea. They have some kind of search engine software that matches up the relatives in your family tree with the relatives in everyone else's. Once every two weeks you'll receive an email listing members with common ancestors. They're not always the right people, they might have different places of birth to your ancestors or even have exactly matching details but just be a coincidence but it's a great place to start. From your Hot Matches you can message other members, tell them a little bit about what you know of the relative(s) in question and ask if they think you might share relatives. A lot of the time you'll be disappointed but every now and then a little gem turns up and you suddenly have twenty ancestors to add to your tree thanks to your great aunt's husband's second cousin. You'd be surprised.

For the price you're paying I would recommend this site to anyone interested in researching their family tree. I started with about 25 relatives in my tree and now have an amazing 861 relatives and ancestors in there, some of whom date back to the 1500's. My tree has provided me with hours of entertainment through research that's been both challenging and interesting in places. Although I owe some of the groundwork to my finding records on Ancestry, it was thanks to Genes Reunited that I came across my early relatives. For some branches of my tree I have come across distant relatives who use Genes Reunited and have shared their parish records research with me. And sharing research is really what Genes Reunited is all about. You don't have to know anything about your ancestors when you start. As long as you know your parents names you'll get somewhere. According to Genes Reunited there are now 95,000,000 relations in the database making them the best place to start.

 Other features of Genes Reunited:

• GenesReunited.co.uk gives you the opportunity to search through a database of 500 million names to build your particular family tree.
• Registering on GenesReunited.co.uk is free. Once a member you will have access to all the drop down menus including:
  • Family Tree. This opens in a new window with your name automatically entered at the top of the page. You then have the option to add partner, child, sibling, father and mother. You simply click any of these and add the relevant information. If you don't have the information required you can type in "unknown" or if you don't know the date of birth you can tick the "circa" box. You can actually see the tree building at the top of the page.  This is a great way to use family tree maker, and it's part of the free membership package.
  • Search Trees. Type in the name of a relation to discover if they appear in other trees on GenesReunited.co.uk Then send the tree-owner a message to discover a connection.
  • Search records. Simply enter the name of a relative to search millions of historical records including:
    • Census records from 1841 to 1901.
    • Births, marriages and deaths.
    • Military records including WW1 and WW2 deaths.
  • Hot matches. GenesReunited.co.uk has a search engine which can match the relatives in your family tree with those in all the other family trees registered in the site. An email is sent every 14 days showing a list of members who may share your ancestors.
  • Messages. Send and receive messages privately from other members. If you want to keep details of living relatives confidential you can tick a box in "account details" so that the information is not accessible to all members.
  • Community. This contains:
    • Success stories which is just that really. Members share their success stories about relatives they've found through Genesreunited.co.uk.
    • General topics. This is really just a chatroom where members talk about their lives and exchange views about just about everything. Not really relevant if you're building a family tree!
    • Chat. Really this is a waste of time to a serious genealogist.
    • Records office. Members can help each other out with visits to local records offices and post their findings on this page.
    • Tips Board. This can be a really useful place to exchange experiences with other members, asking questions about any problems you may be having and offering advice and tips whenever you can.
    • Trying to find. Members can post names of lost relatives here in an effort to locate them. Other members reply with various information which may or may not prove to be helpful but it's certainly worth a try.
    • History. Similarly names can be posted here in an effort to locate them.
    • Surname information. Members can locate ancestors here by surname. There are 100 pages of requests here leading us to believe that this is a popular page with the members of Genesreunited.co.uk
    • Help centre. A dedicated support team promises to answer all emails within 2-3 working days.
• GenesReunited.co.uk offers the opportunity to talk to a genealogy expert online via Web Chat. Members can also read previously asked questions and answers affording them an opportunity to acquire information via other people's experiences and problems.

A genogram is created with simple symbols representing the gender, with various lines to illustrate family relationships. Some genogram users also put circles around members who live in the same living spaces. Genograms can be prepared by using a complex word processor, or a computer drawing program. There are also computer programs that are custom designed for genograms.

A genogram can contain a wealth of information on the families represented. It will not only show you the names of people who belong to your family lineage, but how these relatives relate to each other. For example, a genogram will not only tell you that your uncle Paul and his wife Lily have three children, but that their eldest child was sent to boarding school, that their middle child is always in conflict with her mother, that their youngest has juvenile diabetes, that Uncle Paul suffered from depression, was an alcoholic, and a philosopher, while Aunt Lily has not spoken to her brother for years, has breast cancer and has a history of quitting her jobs.

One of the advantages of a genogram is the ability to use colour-coded lines to define different types of relationships such as family relationships, emotional relationships and social relationships. Within family relationships, you can illustrate if a couple is married, divorced, common-law, engaged, etc.

In genealogy, genograms are used to record family history through the lives of each of its members. Genograms allow the genealogist to graphically portray complex family trees that show marriages and divorces, reconstituted families, adoptions, strained relationships, family cohesion, etc. Genealogists can use genograms to discover and analyze interesting facts about their family history, such as a naming pattern, sibling rivalry, or significant events like immigration.

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