Monday, September 1, 2014

An Open Letter to MyCanvas Users

As Ancestry announced recently that they are shutting down MyCanvas as of September 5th, we have been inundated with calls from their concerned users about how they can print charts.  Of course we'd love to help, and while what we offer is a little different, they may find options with us that go beyond what MyCanvas could provide.  I thought you might be interested in what we've been sending out to inquires that come through email:

Hi...
When we create a decorative genealogy chart, we put together a preview and mail you a link to it so you can check it and make sure it is what you are envisioning and the information is all right.  We can create virtually any design you can describe to us.  We work back and forth with you with previews until it is perfect and then when you give us the ok we'll take payment and print and ship it to you.  You can look at some of the custom charts we have done in the past here:  https://familychartmasters.com/php/custom.php and here:http://thechartchick.blogspot.com/search/label/charts.  Unlike the set styles in MyCanvas, anything you can dream up we can do for you here. 

We also do what we call working charts that go far beyond the capabilities of MyCanvas. Here you let us know what you want, ancestor, descendant, etc, you tell us the number of generations, and who you want to start with.  Then we create the chart, we print on inexpensive paper and then ship it to you.  We don't include a preview on these in order to keep the pricing low.

To download your family tree from Ancestry: When you are logged in, scroll down on the home page to where you can see your family tree box (under the "recent activity" box).  Click to "view this tree".  At the top of the tree you'll see "tree pages" with a down arrow.  Click once on the down arrow and you'll see the menu item "tree settings."   On the right you will see a green button that says "Export Tree"  After processing, the button will change to say "Download your gedcom file."  Click on that button and save the file to a place where you will remember where it is (the desktop is a good place to put it if you are unsure.) 

Give us a call and we will help you in uploading the information to Family ChartMasters.  Or you can go to https://familychartmasters.com/php/upload.php and follow the directions there to upload it to us.  You can also upload any graphics that you want included in your chart.  As soon as we hear from you, we'll take a look at the file and get right back to you with options for sizes and prices and a mock up if you are looking for a decorative chart.

As another option, we can also print straight from your Family Tree Maker file.  You are welcome to send us any FTM file or backup and we can take your family information from the file to create a decorative or working chart.  Or if you want to create a chart in FTM yourself, just save the chart in your file and then send it off to us through our free consultation.  Just let us know the name of the saved chart and we can pull it up and print it on any of our seven papers. 

Please don't hesitate to call us if you are having any trouble with it.  We are happy to walk you through it over the phone at 801-872-4278  We want to make it easy on you.  Once you get us the information, we'll take it from there and create what you are envisioning. 

Thank you for your interest in Family ChartMasters, I hope together we can make you a beautiful chart.  Let us know what we can do to make it easy for you.
We hope to hear from you soon.
Thanks,
Janet

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