Who is who in this tree?

As promised, in this post I will name names.

But things are rarely as easy as they seem. So far in this chapter of my story, I have made many formatting changes and content revisions, which is to be expected considering this is a written document. In the interest of getting a product to the 'finished' stage, however, I finally decided on what you are about to read.

First, I decided on content. The one rule and other conventions I will follow are:

1. The one rule: Except for me, I will not name any living relative, which is easy enough and will not take away from my project. All people 'above me' in the tree are deceased; only my siblings, my children, and their children remain alive. To protect their privacy, I will not name them or give any identifiable information about them. 
2. Birth names are used. Unless otherwise specified, a reader can assume a woman's married last name is the same as her male partner's. Example: My paternal grandparents, Fred and Minnie Wilkinson, shown below.
3. Names, spellings, and dates have been verified by at least two separate genealogical source. Considering I have no written history from my ancestors, this has been a challenge. In some cased, determining the "correct" spelling has become a major focus of my journey, even though my family's names are very common and English-based. Example: My paternal grandfather, Fred Wilkinson, appears in some records as Frederick, though not enough to make me wonder if that was his true name; I always knew him a Grampy Fred and my father's name is Fred, not Frederick.

Without further delay, here we go up the tree, starting with me, my parents, and my grandparents.

James Michael Wilkinson; born 1949, Nashua, New Hampshire.

• Siblings: Two brothers and two sisters; 
• Children: six biological children; four step-children; 
• Grandchildren: more than 10;
• Great-grandchildren: None ... yet.
• Since they are all alive, I will not identify any of these people.

Biological parents:

• Fred James Wilkinson; born May 3, 1927, Wilton, NH. Died Aug 19, 1990
• Beverly Lorraine Burke; born Nov 22, 1928, Nashua, NH. Died Oct 30, 1987

Maternal grandparents:

• John Frances Burke; born July 4, 1891, Wilton, NH. Died Jan 28, 1963
• Nina Lillian Thompson; born Oct 23, 1901, Quebec, Canada. Died Aug 30, 1979

Paternal grandparents:

1. Fred Wilkinson (no middle name); born Jan 16, 1901, Yorkshire, England. Died Jul 27, 1993
2. Minnie Batty (no middle name); born Mar 9, 1898, Lancashire, England. Died May 3, 1968 (she passed away on her son's (my Dad's) 41st birthday)

Keep in mind my main purpose for this blog is to describe in some detail how I learn and verify the 'leaves' on my own family tree. I am not a professional genealogist and everything I know I have learned by myself; I have not had any professional training. I am still learning!

Next time, I will explain how I learned about these relatives, the sources I used, and any roadblocks I encountered. The search becomes much more complicated and time-consuming as I move back into my past, but there is excitement, too, as I learn about relatives I never heard of in my childhood and those who were close to me when I was young but never met.

Until then, I continue my own climb up my family tree!