Descendancy charts

Well, the family reunion season has hit us this week. Things had been a little slow for a couple of weeks, and I was beginning to wonder if all the news about the slowing economy was going to affect us. But I am happy to report, it is just the regular bad-news-sells rhetoric and we have more than made up for the slowing this week. No bad economy around here. Quite a bit of it was for family reunions already, so I thought I would talk to you about descendancy charts.

In the past it has been really hard to figure out how to print a descendancy chart. How big is it going to be; how much; where do I get it printed? Likewise it is hard for us to predict the size and price because different families plot out different ways. A person can have 1 child or 12 children, and then different generations can go different directions. Generation Maps solves that problem with our FREE CONSULTATION offer. Just send us your information. We will get right back to you with different options and prices for printing your information. From 50 people to 40,000, we can print it out with images that will entice more questions, and space to add more information.

Most people think of a descendancy chart as the ancestor at the top, and their children and grandchildren, etc streching out beneath them. We can certainly chart things out that way, but usually that gives you a very short, and wide chart. So we can do other options for you too. Often we'll take a descendancy chart and do it left to right, with the ancestor on the left and their children and grandchildren stretching out to the right. That saves quite a bit of space because of the way the boxes are laid out (they are wider than they are tall.) This left to right chart is usually 1/2 to 1/3 as big as a top to bottom chart. We often have people print descendancy charts left to right to save space, but then hang them on a wall at a family reunion sideways and people have to tilt their head to read the information. Then they don't have to find as big of a wall.

Lots of other options exist too, including wrapping parts of the family down and underneath, or splitting things up different ways. Then when you add pictures--even a few, decorative elements, flags and ethnic elements, or color-coding--you have a chart worthy your wonderful family. We have lots of different charts we can do depending on your priorities: space, readability, adding information or just creating a spectacular centerpiece to your reunion.

We are constantly thanked for making the family reunion a success. A great chart creates lots of family history discussion, makes everyone feel included and creates a space to gather more information. So, whatever kind of descendancy chart you need, we can figure it out for you. Whatever you do, don't tape 8 1/2 x 11s together. We can make it much easier for you. Just send your file to our free consultation to get started.