Happy Holidays from Family ChartMasters

At Family ChartMasters, this is our favorite time of the year, because we get to help so many of you create beautiful meaningful gifts for your loved ones.  As we reflect on the years we have shared with our loyal clients, we are so thankful for all of the amazing people, and all of their amazing ancestors that we've been able to work with.  We are privileged to help you share your family memories and make sure they are always remembered. 

Thank you for letting us be a part of your holidays.  Love, The Family ChartMasters Family.

All New Gift Certificate Format--Just In Time For The Holidays

We have re-designed our gift certificates to be more explanatory, and just more beautiful.  Take a look: 

Order Here for Regular Gift Certificates

When you order, the gift certificate will be sent immediately to your email address and you can print and gift it right away.  They are designed to fold into thirds and fit inside an envelope, but you can roll them and put a ribbon around them, or just give them as they are.

We have $25 and $50 gift certificates for custom charts (above) and also DNA chart certificates good for each type of paper/pdf.   They are easy to redeem and last for one year. 

Order Here for DNA Charts

Sometimes we have clients who want to give a genealogy chart, but it is challenging to know what the recipient would like in design, size etc.  And sometimes it is hard to get the genealogy information you need but still retain an element of surprise.  Voila--we've designed these certificates just for those occasions.  You can share a meaningful gift, and still be able to accommodate the recipients desires. 

And best of all, the DNA gift certificates and the regular chart certificates are 25% off this week only.  Order Here for Regular Charts and Order Here for DNA Charts.  Just in time for giving.  No code necessary--the system fills it in for you automatically.  It is the perfect time to pick up a discount if you know you will be printing charts yourself in the coming year.  Or it is a thoughtful instant gift for a loved one.  Either way, we'll look forward to printing you the perfect chart to display your family history. 

More Holiday Sales

Two Sales Going On Now: 

Gifts and Resources to Help You Teach Your Family About Their Family History.

 

25% Off User Designed Charts  Upload Your File Now

Submit your own design for printing. We take files you have created with RootsMagic, Family Tree Maker, Legacy, TMG, Ancestral Quest, design programs, PDFs and more. You can choose from seven different paper qualities ranging from draft to archival for printing. Just send your file through our free consultation page, and use the code "HOLIDAYSAVINGS" during checkout.

 

30% Off DNA Chart Prints 

Order One Now 

   

It only takes 5 minutes to create your own personalized 20x24 Family History DNA chart. A great gift for someone who has taken a DNA test for you.  Just enter your ethnicity estimates, choose from the three beautiful styles, upload an optional picture, and then order your chart. Just use the code "HAPPYHOLIDAYS" during checkout.

 

We're working hard to make sure you have everything you need to share your family history and inspire your family this holiday season.  Please email or give us a call at 801-872-4278 if you have any questions.  We love helping you honor your heritage and share it with those you love.

Who could you impress with a family history chart?

There are lots of people you could impress with a family history chart.  Neighbors, friends, family.. A beautiful chart is a genealogist's best communication tool. 

We're working hard to make sure you have everything you need to share your family history and inspire your family this holiday season.  Please email or give us a call at 801-872-4278 if you have any questions.  We love helping you honor your heritage and share it with those you love.   

And don't forget,  

Dec 5th--Four days left to avoid extra fees. 

Deadline for Decorative charts shipped in the United States

• Dec 13th Working charts (no preview) shipped in the United States
• Dec 16th 
  User-Designed charts (no preview) shipped in the United States

We're happy to work on charts for you after these dates, but there will be a $45 rush fee added and there may be expedited shipping charges.  Last year we had to turn away several last minute clients as the holidays got closer because we couldn't finish their charts even with the additional rush order.  We'd hate to do that with your chart.  Get started today by submitting your family information for a Free Consultation.   

Holiday Sales

We have a whole bunch of awesome holiday sales coming your way with deeper discounts than we've ever done before.  And some new products that are sure to help you create gifts and resources that will help you teach your family about their family history. They're all listed at familychartmasters.com/thanksgiving but you can see them here as well.

On Sale November 18–27

50% Off Family Gathering Idea Book
20 pages of Family Gathering ideas from our Family Reunion books. Never before sold separately. $20 value! All the best ideas to make family history fun playing together as a family.

50% Off All Zap the Grandma Gap Ebooks
Every book in the series, including the main textbook, the workbook and all 8 of the children's activity books. Even the complete Family Reunion books are on sale at ½ price. Tons of fun activities for the holidays to help your family learn about their history.

Both of these are available at https://zapthegrandmagap.com/orderpg.html

 

On Sale November 24–27 (Our deepest discounts for 2017!)

All new Gift Certificates

50% Off DNA Chart Gift Certificates
Help your friends and family show off the results of their DNA test in a beautiful way. Gift Certificates arrive instantly in your email ready to print and give. Perhaps you don't have easy access to their DNA test results, or you just want an easy and meaningful gift for a family member who has helped you with your research by taking a DNA test.

40% Off DNA Chart and Testing Kit Bundle
The .pdf Gift Certificate good for the cost of an Artist's Grade Canvas print arrives instantly to your email, and the Ancestry.com DNA kit is shipped to the shipping address you provide. Send in the DNA kit, and about 6 weeks later when you have your results, you can order your chart at familychartmasters.com/dna. Give the gift of a Canvas Ethnicity chart and a testing kit for not much more than the test alone.

Both of these are available at https://familychartmasters.com/dnagc 

No worries if you are spending time with your family this weekend.  We want you to be able to focus on them and make lots of great memories.  So these sales last all weekend.  No promo code necessary.  And keep your eyes peeled for more great sales coming in November.  Lots of great things to share with your family.  

Happy Veteran's Day

I love Veteran's Day.  It makes me so grateful for the sacrifices that have been made for me.  I don't come from a particularly military family, but I do have ancestors and a brother-in-law who have served and we just can't thank them enough.

My Maternal Grandfather, Darrell C Dana shipped out the day after he married my Grandmother Eila.  They had a long happy marriage, but what a way to start.  It makes me sad to think of how lonely my grandmother must have been as a newlywed.

The day after he was married to Eila.

My Paternal Grandfather George Alvin Carpenter worked with German POWs here in the Western United States. He had spent time in Germany previous to the war and he knew German so he was able to get along with the prisoners better than most.  He had alot of compassion for them. The family story is that they were working in agriculture and when they hoeing beets, the first one finished was allowed to stand up and salute the German Army.

A couple of years ago, my daughter and I created a little video about some of the decorations we had created to honor the service of our veteran family members.  I enjoyed working on that with her and we both learned more about the sacrifices that had been made in our family.  It was a fun project. Take a look:

At Family ChartMasters, we honor our military year round.  We have special embellishments you can use to designate service.  You can see them and many of our other designs at https://familychartmasters.com/embellishments.html#emblems  We're always happy to work up something special for your family.  Some of the military icons are included here:

You can see a chart we created with some of these emblems here:

You can see she added military notations for the people who had served.

We'd love to create a beautiful chart for your family honoring the ancestors who have served as well.  You can start by sending in your information for a free consultation https://familychartmasters.com/consult/  We'll send you an online preview and work back and forth with your suggestions and more previews until it is the perfect way to honor your family.  Let us know what we can do to help you easily make a beautiful chart.

2017 Holiday Deadlines

We are always dedicated to making sure we meet your deadlines, whether it be for gifts or for a family gathering.  We want to make sure you have what you need to show off your family history.  Please don't wait until the last minute if you are hoping to give the gift of a heirloom chart.  We want to make sure we hae time to make everything exactly perfect for you. 

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 22nd Charts that need International Shipping
• Dec 5th Decorative charts shipped in the United States
• Dec 13th Working charts (no preview) shipped in the United States
• Dec 16th User-Designed charts (no preview) shipped in the United States

We're happy to work on charts for you after these dates, but there will be a $45 rush fee added and there may be expedited shipping charges.  Last year we had to turn away several last minute clients as the holidays got closer.  Avoid the rush and let us help you get started today.  Any custom charts submitted by Nov 15th can also receive a free extra copy with our BOGO special. 

If you can't decide what you are looking for, check out the new additions to our 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.  We want to make it really easy for you.

Buy One Get One Sale Through Novemeber 15th on Custom Charts

Family History Charts are a family thing right?  So we know you are often going to want to make copies for family members.  That's why every chart we design comes with copies for 1/2 price.  As our tagline says, we want to make it easy for you to "SHARE, HONOR, INSPIRE."

But for the next couple of weeks, we're going to make it even easier.  

Just mention the code "BOGO 2017" when you upload your file for our Free Consultation.  Any charts started by November 15th will receive an extra copy free.  

So the first copy is full price, the second copy is free, and then any additional copies are still only 1/2 price.  That way you can get one for Cousin John, Aunt Harriet, and all the nieces and nephews.  Cool huh?

And I don't know about you, but around here we are all impressed with Karli, our designer who always has all of her Christmas shopping done by now.  If you are one of those early-birds, now is a great time to get going on your holiday gifts.  And what better to give your family members than a Family History chart that can inspire them with their heritage an help them feel connected to their family members?  We're eager to help you create the perfect masterpiece to honor your family heritage.  Just upload your information today and we can take it from there.  Any last minute issues can always be straightened out as you work through our online preview system.

If you are looking for holiday gifts, now is the perfect time to get started too.  Our holiday deadlines will come up faster than you think.  Let us know what we can do to help you get started today.  Feel free to give us a call at 801-872-4278 or email us at info@familychartmasters.com with any questions you might have.  We'll look forward to printing a beautiful chart for you. 

Why Would a Family History Chart Matter Anyway?

It seems our mortality was front and center this past summer.  Three experiences recently impressed me with the gravity and importance of the industry we work in and the fragility of life.

We had two clients this summer whose dying wish was to print charts for their family members so that they could show their families the research they had worked on.  These clients both wanted to inspire their family members to press forward with preserving their heritage and inspire them with the heritage that had already been collected.  It was alot of pressure for us to come up with something so important to these families.  One of the clients was in and out of the hospital quite a bit.  Obviously, I was more than happy to stay up with him late into the night to finish the design work.  What an honor it is to help with something so important.

Roger Grua's chart for his Mother-in-Law

And then, one of our life-long friends, Roger Grua, lost his beloved wife Marlene this summer.  Roger was a client from 2009 when he and Marlene worked on a beautiful 36x48 chart with over 200 pictures to honor Marlene's mother.  Roger and I enjoyed working on that chart together and I got to know his family quite well.  He was a favored son-in-law after presenting the chart and rightfully so :)  It was a privilege for me to meet with Roger and Marlene at conferences over the years and to meet many of their children and grandchildren.  Roger and Marlene had a beautiful marriage and were such an example of love and light to me.  And it has been both heartbreaking and inspiring to me to watch Roger go through this loss.  He is truly one of the world's greatest men.

We are just so privileged to work with these families.  We always say that genealogists are the best people in the world and they truly are.  It is an honor to remember the lives of these people, near and far and celebrate their loves and their challenges.  We strive every day to be worthy of that trust. 

You've Come A Long Way Baby

I was going through some old boxes today, and look what I found--an old conference notebook for taking chart orders. This booklet was pre-Family ChartMasters, back from the earliest days when we called ourselves Generation Maps.  Remember that?  Wow.  You've come a long way baby.

In the beginning, like with any entrepreneurial endeavor, we didn't know what we were doing.  We got some things wrong but we did get a few things right.  It was interesting to see how far we've come and how much better we are at it all now.  Take a look:

This was our three ring binder for clients to browse:

And this is the 47 page booklet we offer at conferences now.

We did offer 100% satisfaction guarantee and free previews from the very beginning.  And extra copies were 50% off.  So we did that right.  Look at the explanation page in the binder.

I've gotten better at explaining things I think.  I certainly hope so. 

And look at these crazy embellishments we offered at first.

Wow.  I'm sure glad we've gotten better at that. 
Now you can see hundreds of design ideas and samples and graphics on our Gallery.

We limited the font styles.  We picked some good ones that we still use all the time.  Castellar and Edwardian are some of our most popular.  But now you can choose anything you want.  Thank heavens.

But one of the most amusing was this page.  The borders.  At least I don't call them frames anymore (to avoid confusing them with actual frames that you would frame a print with.)

Again, we're much better now with lots of borders to choose from.  But the funny thing was that we still use the calligraphy borders, and the straight 1 (tri-line) border has been our most popular forever--even with a familiar household-name designer choosing them for his personal family charts.

So life is good.  It is nice to be able to see how far you've come, and how good you've gotten at something.  Not only are we better, but our whole team of designers are fantastic at displaying any vision you might have for showing off your family history.  You'll have to check out our new 47 page idea book at a future conference, or click around our website.

I wish I'd counted how many charts we have shipped from the beginning.  We probably aren't up to McDonald's "Billions and Billions Served" but we recently crossed an annual 6,000 mark. So I know there are lots and lots of Family ChartMasters charts out there binding and inspiring families. 

And you know what, you ain't seen nothing yet.  Just wait until you see what is next. 

Congratulations to our October Contest Winner.

Our first #myFCMchart contest is now over and a big congratulations is in order for Bob Sargent.  He posted photos of the chart we did this summer for his 50th Annual Labor Day Family Reunion.  We helped him with a 29 foot chart going back to the 1500s.  You can search the hashtag on Facebook and see the great photo he posted. 

We have several DNA kits that we are going to be awarding over the next year to random people who post their charts with the hashtag.  So keep your eyes peeled.  Not only will you be able to see some great charts, you may end up with a DNA kit that you can use to further your research. 

Welcome to our New Employee

We have an exciting new addition to the Family ChartMasters team to tell you about.   Please help us give a warm welcome to Tamara Jones, our new designer.

Tamara was born and raised in Idaho. She met her husband 22 years ago at their place of employment and they now have 15 year old triplets, one girl and two boys. She truly enjoys her crazy busy life with triplets. She loves spending time with her family and has truly loved her children's more recent love of lacrosse. All three of her children play lacrosse and they love taking vacations that are centered around lacrosse tournaments. Getting to know and interact with so many other families in the lacrosse world has been an unexpected joy. Tamara's family enjoys traveling and vacationing anywhere that there is a beach.  Tamara comes to us from another customer service position so we know she is going to be a great fit for our super-client-oriented/100%-customer-satisfaction company.

Tamara learned about genealogy from her mother years ago. Her mother spent hours and hours researching family history for herself and for many others. Tamara is now constantly encouraging her family to document stories and label pictures so the stories of her family history are not lost. She is excited to help other families do the same.

Tamara is coming in to replace Christine Fazulyanov.  Christine has done so, so many great things for us at FCM.  She has been such a help with marketing and has helped us make so many customers happy.  We're really going to miss Christine but we wish her all the best in her new endeavors.  

So now, to go update the company "about us" page.....  Yikes.  I've needed to do that.  Just too many exciting things going on. 

Fun Charts Summer 2017--Royalty chart

We've done some fantastic charts this summer, and as usual, I'm too shy to ask people if I can share them with you.  I know they are such personal expressions of a family that it's just hard for me to ask.  But this one, I had to be brave on, because look at this awesome photo!

We were approached at the Southern California Society Jamboree by a client who wanted to celebrate this young man and show off his line that goes back to royalty.  We developed a great chart with photos and a big "Whereas..." statement about what a wonderful guy he was.  I'm not sure what they did for the celebration, but I know he was king for the day and we were delighted to hear back from them that he loved the chart.

We LOVE photos like this.  They always make our day.  So we've changed our email signature a little.  When  you correspond with us, you'll see this at the bottom of each email:
Tag your chart with #myfcmchart
instagram.com/familychartmaster
facebook.com/familychartmasters
twitter.com/familychartmstr

And to get things going, we've devised a social media contest. 

You can enter to win our October Giveaway!   We know how excited you are to receive your Family ChartMasters chart and we LOVE seeing you share you it with others! Take a picture of you with your chart or your chart displayed on the wall, post it on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter with the hashtag: #myfcmchart  and you will be entered to win our giveaway for a FREE DNA chart from Family ChartMasters! This contest is open to all our former and current customers.  The contest closes Oct 19, when we'll randomly select a winner so you have a two weeks to snap a pic of your chart and hashtag it with #myfcmchart!   We can't wait to see all of your beautiful charts!

Personalized DNA Ethnicity Chart

 

New Genealogy Chart Created for Showing Off DNA Test Results 

A beautiful new way to display the results of a genetic family history test has been created for the millions of people who are getting to know their ancestors through DNA testing.  Family ChartMasters, the genealogy chart printing leader for over 15 years, has designed a new DNA ethnicity chart to help family history enthusiasts show off their genetic heritage.  

"We hope that this new chart will help people who have become curious about their genealogy through DNA testing become even more excited about searching out their ancestors," says owner Janet Hovorka.  "At Family ChartMasters we believe that family history can save the world.  The more people know about their background, the more they are inspired with civility, gratitude and compassion for other people because they find out we are all more alike than different.  We want to help people make that easy to remember every day."

The new DNA chart comes in three styles, Basic, Modern and Antique, to fit different décor styles.  In less than five minutes a person can enter the ethnicity estimates from their DNA test (currently aligned with Ancestry's DNA regions), and upload an optional photo.  After viewing a preview, an order can be placed to print the chart on archival Professional Paper or Artist's Grade Canvas.  Following Family ChartMasters' proven track record of superior service, the beautiful print will arrive rolled in a tube and ready to frame.  PDF downloads are also available for immediate delivery to an email inbox.  Pricing starts at $19.95.

 

   

Genealogists will find this chart to be an easy and meaningful gift for a family member who has helped them with their research by taking a DNA test or for family members who are interested in their ethnic makeup.  "We love helping family historians share their findings,"

says Hovorka.  "Just like all of our other genealogy charts, this new DNA chart will help families bond over their common roots and appreciate their heritage."

Order your DNA chart today!