You don't choose your family

But you can totes make one up on genealogy sites My Heritage and Geni. I got so into making up a family that I took myself right out of it, rebuilt the whole thing from the ground up. It's off to the right on my sidebar, the family of Hallelujah Cerovac (her friends call her Holly. Don't call her).

Both sites use a similar visual layout to set up the family tree - parents up, kids down, siblings and partners to the left and the right. There's scope for vast amounts of detail, but you can just enter the bare minimum if that's all you know. What's most useful about these sites is the way they're set up wiki-styles, so any member of the family can edit entries. Pretty sure Russian Exchange Uncle Boris was born in Vladivostok in 1902 but not quite sure? Send an email to Aunt Awful, bring here online, and she can fill in the details of that side of the family. What's it been, six Xmases since they showed up anyway? That's a dead branch.

In my role these sites are most useful as a distraction while avoiding work, but of course all of those distractions get tagged and go on file as potential answers to customer questions. While I've never been asked about genealogy tools, I may one day be. I'm ready (if distracted).