Big Zap The Grandma Gap Cyber Monday Sale

From the Zap The Grandma Gap Blog: 

Our biggest sale ever will happen on Cyber Monday this year.

All e-books will be 50% off.  No coupon necessary.  

Just check out the website on Monday for great ideas to help you connect with your family.

Family History Table Decorations

Recently, a good friend asked us to create placemats for his wedding luncheon.  We put together a chart that showed how all of his family members were related to the new couple and designed it to match the wedding decorations and invitations.  They turned out beautifully and I'm sure they were helpful to make sure that everyone new who was who at the party.  It was a brilliant idea, and we were happy to be part of it.

It reminded me of the table runner I created last thanksgiving.  Copying an idea I had seen on pinterest, I put together many of my family's pictures and we printed the piece on vinyl so that it would hold up to lots of use. It brought a new level of meaning to our Thanksgiving table to sit and look at the faces of the people who brought us to where we are now. 

Any of our charts can be adjusted to create placemats or table decorations.  We can print on vinyl, or laminate regular paper.  You could even use our game cards to make a game out of it and see what your family knows about their family history.  Really any kind of genealogy chart could work, such as examples from our gallery like this one, or this one or this one. 

I hope your family has a wonderful holiday season together.  We'd be happy to create a table runner or some chart placemats or runners for you as well.  And remember with any of our charts, after the first copy, any extra copies are 1/2 price.  Just send your pictures and/or your genealogy information via our free consultation.  We REALLY CAN create any kind of family history art presentation for you. We love bringing your family memories front and center in your modern family to enrich and strengthen those around you now. 

10 Cool Things You Can Do With a Family ChartMasters Chart

Over the years, we have created hundreds of charts that our clients have used for a multitude of occasions. Let us tell you what you can do with a chart designed by Family ChartMasters...

1. Show It Off

 

Display a chart in your home as a focal point to honor your family's heritage and remind them who they came from.

2. Decorate Your Wedding

Use a Family ChartMasters chart to show the family lines of the bride and groom through information and photos.

3. Celebrate A Milestone

Decorate a loved one's birthday, anniversary or graduation party with an heirloom chart.

4. Honor Loved Ones

 

Remember a loved one's life with a memorial chart on display at funeral service.

5. Give As A Holiday Gift

 

A custom decorative chart makes an unforgettable gift for your family and multiple copies of the same chart are always 1/2 price.

6.  Connect Your Generations

 

 Show multiple generations through photos in a simple and beautiful chart.

7.  Gather Information

 Order an inexpensive working chart and ask family members to update their information at a family reunion.

8.  Journal Your Ancestors

Included additional information on the chart to memorialize your ancestors' unique lives and experiences.

9.  Honor Cultural Heritage

Customize a family legacy chart with maps and flags representing your ancestors.

10.  Celebrate A New Baby

 

Decorate your baby's nursery with a custom family chart filled with photos.

Please give us a call here at Family ChartMasters and we'd be happy to discuss other options or ideas you may have.  Or visit our free consultation page, send us your file, and we'll get started on it right away.  

Holiday Deadlines

Holiday deadlines are fast approaching and we want to give you plenty of notice so we can help you get your gifts ready on time.

Here are Family ChartMasters' deadlines for sending us your family history information and starting a genealogy chart if you want to avoid extra rush fees or expedited shipping charges:

• Nov 16th Hanukkah Gifts
• Nov 23rd Charts that need International Shipping
• Dec 7th Decorative charts shipped in the United States
• Dec 14th Working charts (no preview) shipped in the United States
• We're happy to work on charts for you after these dates and we'll do our best to get them to you in time, but there may be rush fees or expedited shipping charges.  

If you can't decide what you are looking for, check out our new Gallery.  You may also find inspiration on our Decorative Chart Pages or in the charts section of this blog.  Virtually anything you can dream up, we can design.  Just send us your information for a Free Consultation and we'll have your own personal designer send you some options.  Or if you are an Ancestry.com or FamilySearch user you can use our new Ancestry Upload Page, or the FamilySearch Upload Page.  We want to make it really easy for you. 

We recently created a chart for a wonderful lady that was donated by an anonymous benefactor.  We had so much fun participating in this generous act of kindness, and spoiling this sweet client with lots of attention and making sure she received exactly what she wanted.  Please know that we love helping you with stealthy gift giving. We'll treat anyone who receives one of our gift certificates like a VIP. And if you want to design a chart yourself to give, we'll work back and forth with you over a private email account, leave the invoice out of the package, and ship to alternative addresses. When you give the gift of a chart we'll do everything we can to meet your deadline and make it perfect.  And the gift certificates are an instant download.  Let us know what you need us to do to keep this gift a surprise and we will make your special person feel well taken care of.  We love making you look good and we are really awesome at keeping secrets.  Think of Family ChartMasters as your undercover gift giving elves; making it easy on you and bringing total delight with a meaningful gift.

New Family ChartMasters Website

familychartmasters.com

We are so excited to announce a new look to our Family ChartMasters website!  Not only did we change the layout and make it mobile-user friendly, we added an extensive testimonials page showing off our happy customers and enhanced our chart gallery with over 40 different chart designs exclusive to FamilyChartMasters.

Family ChartMasters Chart Gallery

Also it is now easier than ever to upload your family tree to Family ChartMasters from Ancestry.com. Follow the instructions on our new webpage and we'll take a look at your file and get right back to you.

Directly Download from Ancestry

To download your family tree from Ancestry.com:
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.)

We can create a chart from any type of genealogy computer data file such as Family Tree Maker, RootsMagic, Legacy Family Tree, Ancestral Quest, Family Tree Builder, The Master Genealogist, Personal Ancestral File, and many others. We would prefer the actual data file i.e. .ftm, .rmgc, .fdb, .paf, etc. All genealogy programs have the ability to export a .gedcom file and we can use that as well. Feel free to send us the whole file and we can take out just the parts we need.

If you have your data on a genealogy website, we would need a .gedcom file to create the chart. Most websites have instructions to let you create a .gedcom file. You can contact the website company and ask for instructions on how to do this, or if you want to give us a call we can walk you through it over the phone. To download your family tree from FamilySearch, just use our easy Family Search Download Page.

If you don’t have your information in a genealogy format, we can still work with what you have. We do need to eventually use a genealogy file but we can create one for you. We charge $15.00 per hour to do Data Entry. Just get us your genealogy information any way you can and we’ll send you a quote before we start. E-mail, Excel, Word—any format you can get to us will work.

How do I create my own over-sized genealogy chart and have Family ChartMasters print it?
You might try one of the following programs:

• Ancestral Quest www.ancquest.com
• Charting Companion for Ancestry Family Tree by progenysoftware.com
• Charting Companion for Ancestral Quest by progenysoftware.com
• Charting Companion for Legacy by progenysoftware.com
• Family Tree Maker by www.myfamily.com
• Legacy Family Tree by Millennia Corp. legacyfamilytree.com
• Rootsmagic and Rootsmagic Chart by Rootsmagic, Inc rootsmagic.com
• The Master Genealogist and Virtual Chartform by whollygenes.com
• Tree Draw Legacy by spansoft.org

What if I have something else in mind and it is not like any of the sample charts you have on the website?

After 11 years of experience in building and printing a multitude of genealogy chart styles from every kind of genealogy file, we're confident in our ability to say that we really can print exactly what you're looking for. We'll do everything we can to create a beautiful representation of your family history.

Family ChartMasters makes it super easy for you! Send us your file and we'll take it from there. We'll make you look really good.  Your in-laws will love you.

November Sale Free Shipping

We've never done free shipping on orders within the US before, but we are feeling really generous for the month of November.  If you want to pay full price for shipping you can, but be sure to send the check to Janet and mark it "Christmas Bonus for Erin, Wendy, and Christine."
Otherwise, just mention coupon code FREETOUSA to receive your free shipping.

This offer is good for any working or decorative charts that we design. If you need ideas for your chart, check out our new and improved chart gallery or give us a call at 801.87.CHART (801.872.4278.) We'd be happy to chat with you.