The Family Group Sheet Exchange has been sometimes imitated, but never duplicated. We have over 200,000 pages of family group sheets in our paper files and several hundred thousand more on disk. The family group sheet is one of the most handy tools ever invented for the genealogist. There are many different formats which have been published over the past fifty years or so, but each form concerns the family unit - husband, wife, and children. There are spaces for births, deaths, and marriages, and usually some room is provided for notes and sources.
Most versions call for the name and address of the person filling in the form.
While the pedigree chart maps out the skeleton of a genealogy, the family group sheet provides the details. The first of three essential uses for this ubiquitous tool is as an intermediary between raw data and a finished manuscript. Many people have prepared very extensive family histories by simply filling in the blanks on family group sheets. Secondly, the family group sheet serves as a guide when gathering information. At a quick glance it is easy to see what information is known and what is missing.