I started this family tree last year sometime, after trying out a few family tree programs. This one's the easiest to use. You should be able to see the whole tree here, but you have to click on various people to see all of it (you can't see it all at once.)
Here's the main branch of my heroine's family. No, she's not related to Princess Leia, Caravaggio, Pussy Galore, Sophie Marceau and Terrence Howard.
On the right are the French. They don't show up until Henry V... I'm still on Henry IV. So I haven't developed anything but their names and their villainy.
Afro-Americans are over-represented in my story, for California. But almost everyone descends from the Hawkins brothers (Red, Green and Pinky) so one branch is Afro-Chinese, one is Afro-Hispanic, and the third is Afro-Euro, with an adopted Native woman. It's the "it's a small world" approach to multi-representation--Taishanese (Chinese), African-American, Puerto Rican, Dominican, Mexican, New Orleans Francophones, Muwekma (Nat Amer), several gay people, probably all sorts of mental illness, and so far one disabled guy (there are two World Wars in here after all.) And not everyone is this beautiful... I just choose actors to anchor my mental image on.
I really wish Jilly Cooper had written a book on how she writes, because she's one of the few authors who uses this many frikkin' characters every time. I guess I'll read a Cooper book next.
