Genealogy Chat

Hi
I have worked on 3 family member trees and have got all of them back to 1700's or earlier. However, im now at the stage where family members are asking me to see an actual hand written tree.
I want to include brothers and sisters of each direct relation and whom they married but wont include their children. The trouble is i must have gone through a whole pack of paper trying to work out how i do it, does anyone know how to do this or have a template i could use or even know a website i could use.
I dont know where to start, what size paper i need , whether there is such thing as a print out template that i fill in details of or what ik do.
So confused can someone please help
Thanks

I use Family Tree Maker, if someone contacts me from any of the family branches i can print off a genealogy report for just that side so it doesnt confuse anyone who isnt connected to other parts of my family.
You can download a gedcom file from genes to an family tree file like FTM or Legacy. Its worth looking into as genes tree isnt that well organised for passing on info

I do have family tree maker both 2007 addition and 2009 edition but i havent had a chance to transfer data over to them at all.

Some of the family are very elderly and find looking at computers very mind boggling so prefer it on paper which is why i thought i would draw it up. Also i would just like a paper copy for hereditary reasons. (After all i would hate to think that all my research was for nothing)

how about a roll of wallpaper!!!!

Great minds Anne of Green Gables!

You'd have to start at the left hand side with the original couple, but just take one of them.

On the other hand, if they are elderly, they won't appreciate having to crawl around the floor to work it out.

Have you looked at the templates on here to give you an idea you could adapt?


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We have some printable charts on the site that you can print out and fill in. They can be found here:

Fan chart:

http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/_resources/pdf/fan.pdf

Pedigree chart:

http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/_resources/pdf/pedigree.pdf

Family group sheet:

http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/_resources/pdf/familygroup.pdf

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Edit - scrub the above as the link appears to be broken

Take a look at these people. I've heard very good reports and their stuff looked quite good at WDYTYA Live.

www.genealogyprinters.com

You need to put your tree onto your FTM program - you don't need a website.....!

The latest version i.e. FTM 2010 has the option to create around 30 charts and reports. They can be customised in terms of the names you wish to include, the amount of information to include, appearance, look and feel. There is also the option to produce a book which can contain reports, charts, text and photos etc. Once created you can save them, print them, email them etc.

Even if you use a company such Genealogy Printers then you will need to send them a data file.

It really is a no-brainer - give it a try

Hi Ian
I have a leather file for each branch of the man faimly a total of eight and at the beginning of each file I have a tree working back from my children to the furthest back from each family .I just type it up and link the the tree by drawing in lines with ruler and pen very old fashiond I know but it works.
I find it wasy when working on each file to look at the particular tree for that branch.
Hope I have explained this ok very difficult i know when you can't see it

Norma

I am like Norma.

I have a lever arch file for each arm of the family, ie my mums parents. I do both her mum and dad backwards, including both maternal and paternal lines
I print off all census for each direct ancester. On the tree I highlight the person I am following and his name is then highlighted in the same colour through all the census. When the census then shows their father I continue using a different colour.
I find this system is easier for elderly relatives to follow as they can see the link.
If I have an address etc I write it on the census printout.
I don't like to leave things to chance as last year my pc died and all the data lost.

I don't like things that are too technical, so the good old paper and pen works well for me. It is also more satifying to see in all the folders.
Good luck
Cheryl

I agree with you Cheryl it is nice to see all the files and so easy to work from when doing updates and so much less technical.I have heard of a few people like you that uses different colour highlighters for different branches of rthe family

Norma

As people have said, you need a roll of wallpaper to display full details, even without all the siblings.

I wonder if people are wanting to see the sort of tree that you get in stately homes - which start with just one of the gg grandparents and work down to the famous person? That's okay, but it does only show one line. Bearing in mind a person has 16 gg grandparents, so it would need 16 charts to show them all.

I prefer a chart which starts at the left with my father (and a separate one for my mother) and moves back through the generations showing only the direct ancestors. With FTM 2006 you can fit about 4 generations on an A4 page (i.e back to gg grandparents). I then do a separate chart for each gg grandparent backwards, some of which are very sparse, some go back another 3-4 generations. I supplement all that with a Genealogy report for each parent, with details of siblings.

I don't think there is an ideal solution that shows all you want to show on a single sheet of paper.

I did roughly the same as madmeg for different sections of the family, which I did from Family Search. (I in fact went back as far as I could and printed out the information as descendants) I also gave them copies of what I had of census returns, registration entries and references to show where I sourced the information - and which would give them a base if they wanted to find out anything further.

It doesn't of course show any personal information you might have put in the notes but it does show the scope of a family tree

Always use wallpaper, best way to do it lol.
There in front of you found best way for lasr 13 yrs.

FTM 2010 will let you choose how many generations fit on a page. Obvously the more there is, the smaller the printing. It also two presentation options for a pedigree chart Wallpaper, in which you put all the pages together to make one big display, or book form with links to tell you the next page to go to. This can easily be put into a binder with other documents.

You can add notes too, indeed any information you have on the system can be included, but this is better left to a Genealogy Report, rather than a chart.

Once you have mastered a program such as FTM to produce your chart, you would never want to go back to handwriting them.

might as well save all the bother and put it straight on the wall!!!!

When I tried that the wife went up it.....!