Family History for Right Now

Several years ago, there was much ado about Bruce Feiler's article in the New York Times entitled "The Stories that Bind Us."  In it he talked about how family history stories give kids resilience.  His assertions were based on some studies done in the Psychology Department of Emory University.  There, in the Emory Center for Myth and Ritual in American Life, Marshall Duke, Robyn Fivush, Jennifer Bohanek, noticed that children who knew more about their family history did better in therapy.  They created the "Do You Know" test with 20 questions about family history.  They found that the children who scored the highest on on the test also scored higher in tests of feeling like they have a sense of control in their world, lower levels of anxiety and more resilience.  

A sense of control in the world, lower levels of anxiety and more resilience!! Exactly what we all need--no matter what age you are--in these surprising, challenging, crazy pandemic times.  

Now is the perfect moment for each of us to look to our ancestors for strength and inspiration.  Now is the perfect time to instill those stories in our family members to lower anxiety and produce more resilience.  When you tell a family story, in person, over social media or over video conferencing, you are creating more peace in the midst of the storm.

SO, we've decided to look to our ancestors with you, over social media, our newsletter and etc. with the hashtag #ResilientRoots.  We hope you will join us and share your ancestor's stories of faith, resilience, patience, perseverance, flexibility, optimism, kindness, grace and connection.  We're excited to share ours with you.  I think we can all find the hope we need already inside us.  It is in the very DNA they gave us.  

Watch over the next couple of weeks:

Here on the blog

On Instagram

On Facebook

On Twitter

And On Our Newsletter

To read more: 

My previous writings about the science behind family history: https://zapthegrandmagap.blogspot.com/search/label/Science

Bruce Feiler's RootsTech Keynote: https://youtu.be/i8sZl-Ny2D0

Fivush, Robyn. Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia; Bohanek, Jennifer G. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Duke, Marshall.  Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia.  “The Intergenerational Self: Subjective Perspective and Family History.” in F. Sani (Ed.) Individual and Collective Self-Continuity.  Mahwah, NH: Erlbaum, 2007. Available at https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ad62/42da2284543ed3fe161049f941b3f0a43daf.pdf

Fivush, Robyn. Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia; Bohanek, Jennifer G. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Zayman, Widaad. Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia.  “Personal and intergenerational narratives in relation to adolescents’ well-being.” In T. Habermas (ed.). The development of autobiographical reasoning in adolescence and beyond. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 131. 45-57. 

Basically the Best

We have the best family of employees here at Family ChartMasters. They are hardworking, creative, and just a joy to work with.  I truly love getting feedback from customers who love their charts, and their experience with their designers!  Here is one example:

Hello Janet,

Just wanted to thank you and Karli for doing an exceptional job both designing and delivering such beautiful chart. I didn't even know what I wanted when we first spoke on the phone. With your expertise you were able to create a pedigree chart that exceeded my expectations. Feel free to display my chart if you wish at you conventions. Also if you could archive my information that would be greatly appreciated. 

Thank you 

Karli truly is exceptional!  Here is the chart she made for him:

It's so different from any other chart we have made!  He loved it, and we think it's pretty neat.

We also continually get good reviews about our designer, Erin.  One of her clients sent her this picture, along with this lovely comment:

Here we are, Erin. I’ve just returned to Leicester, England after the reunion of cousins in Rotherham, S. Yorkshire, England yesterday, and was SO pleased with the working family trees. I’m including photos of working on it - sadly I neglected taking shots as I was so caught up in it with cousins that I’d forgotten until the end. Thank you SO much again for all you did.

I’m sure I’ll be contacting you again for the next revision when I go to England again. I can’t be any happier!

We will say it again and again, our designers are basically the best! Look for more highlights about our amazing employees in the coming months!

Another great review for Erin

Stu said we could share this with you.  He worked with our designer Erin:

I've been into my family's genealogy for a bit more than a year and a half.  I've had a great time doing it.  I've learned many many things and have found some cousins throughout the United States.  One result of the search is that we're going to have a Family Reunion.  I wanted to have a chart of our ancestors as well as many of the children that we could get on the chart.  Family ChartMasters was too easy to deal with!!!  The return emails were prompt and questions were directly answered.  I was surprised at how quickly everything went from start to finish.  I have no qualms recommending this company to anyone who wants a printed family tree.

Stu Berlin

We're so happy we could help you with your chart Stu.  I don't know that you can ever be *too* easy to deal with but we're happy to try.  We hope your family loves the chart!

A Lovely Client Email

Claude Fields said I could share this with you:

Dear Janet & Erin,

Let me first tell you that it has been a pleasure working with Family ChartMasters!  Our family chart cumulates over ten years of my work and even more counting those that have helped me in my ancestry research.  The journey that I have been on has been amazing.  The folks I have met along the way from lost cousins to historians that I have traveled to visit with, has been a incredible journey.  The history I have learned along the way was more than I had ever learned in school.  This work has been a roller coaster ride at times from joy to tears and sadness.  I have written both my mother and fathers direct lineage telling the story of both families from the time they arrived in America until today.  The chart shows my direct lineage.  Arriving here from seven different nationalities as early as 1630.

My writings tell the story, but how could I show the big picture (and big it is!)  I wanted to see my ancestry not by paging through many pages but looking at all my direct ancestry in one picture.  Mom always told me a picture is worth a thousand words.  I began my research to find a company that I could trust to show all my work and effort.  I found your company on the internet and reviewed your website.  I don't do anything without reading reviews and researching as any genealogist would.  I chose Family Chartmasters to design and make my ancestry chart and I'm so pleased I did.  Erin has been a treat to work with and had a lot of patience working with me and making suggestions for the design of the chart.  Today we picked the chart up from the frame shop and hung it on the wall.  I look with amazement at it and I am so pleased how it came out.  What a wonderful way to see my ancestors and how they are all related and tied back to their original nationalities.  I am very proud of my ancestors and what they gave to make this great country.  Your company can be proud of the chart you have provided my family, a real picture of our ancestry!

Sincerely,

Claude Fields

Thanks Claude!  We're so delighted to see how well the framing turned out and we're so honored to be able to help you display your family history.  Thank you for your trust. 

We're Hiring

The Family ChartMasters Team is looking for a few more people.  If you have design or marketing skills and are in the Southern Salt Lake/Northern Utah County area we may have the perfect job for you. Career development, education opportunities and flexible schedule options are available in this growing company for the right applicant.

Family ChartMasters is a tight knit, high energy team. The right applicant will be highly-motivated, detail oriented and driven with a passion for family history and the impact it can have to change lives. This position is perfect for someone looking for career that will really make a difference in an industry that creates powerful personal discovery opportunities. Family ChartMasters has been in business for 15 years and is the market leader in family history display. 
Apply at https://familychartmasters.com/hiring.

Two New Employees-

We have two new employees that I'm excited to introduce to you.  

Stacy Wightman is our new associate designer. Stacy grew up in Spokane, Washington.  She obtained a math education/psychology degree from BYU and taught math for several years before starting her family.  She has always had a great interest in family history and enjoys the search for ancestors.  She also loves anything to do with computers and especially enjoys using the computer to do research and design/edit genealogy charts.  She is a great organizer and enjoys using her talents to assist in the work at Family Chartmasters.

Emily Park is our new Social Media director.  Emily worked for us previously while she was going to school but then took a hiatus while she finished her degree in art education and started her family.  She taught for five years at American Preparatory Academy where she received the "Builder of the Year" Teacher Award. She has a super cute two-year-old son and is expecting a daughter next spring.  Emily is just adorable and perfect for keeping our social media fun and engaging., with lots of new ideas about sharing your family history.

Both Stacy and Emily are going to be great assets and we're looking forward to utilizing their skills to serve you better.  They both understand how important your family history is and are dedicated to helping you share it and show it off.  Let us know what we can do to help you!

Retreat

For a couple of years now we've taken our team up to Park City for a weekend to relax, have fun, evaluate, and think through ideas about how we can better serve you.  These have been some of our most productive days, and have made a big difference in the efficiency of the company and the value we are able to bring you.  Everyone has worked so hard this year, we wanted to take care of them and treat them to something.

Our new designers group photo

This year, as part of the retreat, we also treated our designers to makeovers and a photo shoot for some new plans we have for the website.  I'm so excited to show you what we have in store there but that will have to wait for now.  What I can show you though, is how much fun we had. 

Erin having her makeup done

Doesn't Stacy look beautiful?

Waiting their turn at Seiren Salon

Beautiful Marti making us beautiful.

A stop for tea at the Grand America

Relaxing with tea and cakes.

Adorable Sassy Karli.  Isn't she the cutest?

Grub Steak in Park City

All the goodies

Putting our feet up

Hanging out.  Too Many laughs

Great-Grandmother's Cottage Chees Pancakes

Famous Legers sandwiches

So apparently I take more photos of food than of people.  But those were the only times we stopped to take a breath.  Rest assured--we came up with some mammoth new ideas about how to improve our services around here and I can't wait to put them into effect.  Just watch.  2019 is going to be our best yet!

Scenes from #SCGS2018

We love the Southern California Genealogy Society conference.  We've gone to this conference every year for over a decade from the time our children were little and we drove down with the whole family for an extended vacation, through their teenage years when I got to bring each of them individually to work for us an visit their favorite sites, to this year when Erin came down early so that I could stay for our youngest child's high school graduation.  We love this conference and the people here are like family.

Each year we take a short tour of the family history sites on my Mother's side, Naylor Avenue in Westchester, the Santa Monica Pier and 1433 5th Street, and the Los Angeles LDS temple.  SCGS Jamboree is both a family history conference with my genealogy family and a family history trip with my family family. 

This year again was a sweet trip, coming in a day late, I felt like I had come home.  One of our favorite moments was when Paul VanDenBrink brought in the chart we printed him several years ago, all marked up and well loved.  It's great to see he's used it perfectly and found more information.  We have several families from SCGS that need new charts this year and we are honored to help. 

Another favorite moment was when I rented a convertible to take Erin and Maureen Taylor out to dinner in Malibu.  We've come to this conference during the years we struggled to pay the hotel bill while we were still trying to get the company up and running.  And now it's nice to be here when I have the resources to treat our wonderful Erin and our great friend Maureen out to a Malibu Barbie night. 

Here are some scenes from the conference that I managed to capture in one of the quieter moments.  Keep up the great work SCGS Jamboree team.  We really appreciate your dedication and the fabulous conference you put on. 

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.

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. 

Family ChartMasters Goals for 2017

I've been evaluating things and working on personal and company goals for 2017 this week and I'm really excited about the coming year.  We have big things ahead of us.  Here are a couple of things we're going to be working on:

1. We are going to work on taking even better care of our customers.  
Family ChartMasters has been super intentional about the great customer service we give each client as we create our custom charts.  We are happy to answer questions and work back and forth until we find perfection.  That's a rare thing now, with so many modern companies doing away with customer service departments.  We are always interested in getting feedback on how we are doing and we are committed to always finding new ways to make our clients delighted.  In 2017 we are going to roll out a new streamlined Family ChartMasters website with easier navigation and better communication so that everyone can find what they need quickly and easily.  And we are going to double down on making sure our policies and practices foster the best customer service we can provide.

2. We are going to take even better care of our Family ChartMasters employees.  
I've been doing alot of reading about customer service and one of the biggest parts of taking good care of customers is taking good care of your employees.  I'm really proud of the comfortable jobs Family ChartMasters has created, working to emphasize each person's strengths for a good fit and making sure each person has the flexibility to create a healthy work/life balance.  In 2017 we are going to focus on more training, and empowering each person to perform at their very best.  We're going to focus more on employee appreciation and fostering a positive work environment.  I love the people I get to work with--we're really great friends and I'm so thankful for that.  So appreciation is really easy around here.  We're also going to be revising our employee handbook so that all of our business systems are clear and we can step in to help each other more.

3. I am going to continue learning more about effective management.
Like so many small business owners, I started out doing something I love and now spend most of my days doing more management than the actual work of the company.  With this transition comes the need for new skills and new focus.  While the key players in our company talked me out of going back to school for an MBA last year, I've been working on a self styled MBA of sorts, focusing on specifics I felt I needed to learn rather than going through a whole program.  I've been devouring business books and implementing the ideas I've learned has really helped.  I'm about 1/4 way through a list of books that I"m sure will continue to grow, so I'll be working hard on that.  If we continue to see the benefits from the next principles I learn at the rate we have been going, we'll make great strides in 2017.

4. I'm going to continue to pay it forward.
We have been blessed with so many great mentors in this market, I feel a deep desire to help others with what we have learned.  In 2016 I began working on the Genealogy Business Alliance and I think we've already seen benefits from that.  I love teaching the "Intro to Genealogy Technology" and "Genealogy Business" classes at Salt Lake Community College.  They keep me grounded in the issues people face in this market.  I'm going to continue working with the Mastermind groups I meet with.  And the business column I began writing in 2016 for the Association of Professional Genealogists Quarterly has given me a good stretch.  It has been good to be able to share some of what I have learned from our successes.

5. I am going to strive to expand our vision of what the genealogy market needs. 
I'm really proud of the new solution we brought to the market in genealogyDOTcoach last year and I'm excited to see where it will go in this coming year.  I think we've found a critical need and I hope it will continue to serve genealogists who need a bit of help from a professional.  Along with that, I'm going to continue to seek out the truth about what this market really needs and what we can do to make genealogy research easier and more attractive to newcomers.  More people need to understand the power in Family History. 

And, even with all of the planning, I'm sure the year will be full of surprises too.  I can't wait to see what is around the bend.  2017 is going to be a stand out year for Family ChartMasters.  I just know it.  

8 Reasons To Choose Family ChartMasters For Your Genealogy Chart

We know that you may find other companies to design and print your genealogy chart...but here are 8 reasons why you should chose Family ChartMasters:
 
1. Experience. Family ChartMasters has been creating, designing, and printing genealogy charts for 14 years with thousands of happy customers. Take a look at Family ChartMaster's blog, TheChartChick, to read our many glowing customer testimonials.

2. Customer Service. Family ChartMasters serves you with high end customer service. Our customers have commented that our team is friendly, patient, and will meet your needs with a smile. We don't quit until you are 100% happy and satisfied.

3. Expert Designers. Our designers have created thousands of charts in many different styles and layouts.  They are experts in genealogy standards and willing to suggest complementary design elements, layout ideas, and color combinations that can display even the most complicated family relationships.

4. Any Kind of Chart. Family ChartMasters designs and prints ancestor charts, descendant charts, fan charts, circle charts, all-in-one charts, and inexpensive working charts for your family reunion so that attendees can write in updated info. We also design custom decorative genealogy charts that can be displayed as a beautiful art piece in your home.  These are all individualized for the needs of your family. The Family ChartMasters online gallery shows over 50 chart design ideas to get you started thinking about what type of chart you would like. If you need other ideas, we are happy to brainstorm and consult with you. 

5. Any Size of Chart. The size of your chart depends on many factors including how many people are in your file,  how many generations are included, how much information is listed in the data boxes, and how many photos or other decorative details you choose to place on your chart. Our designers will work with you to design a size that works best for your needs. We can print your decorative chart in a standard frame size for easy framing, or we can print up to 150 feet continuous without a break.  The largest chart Family ChartMasters has printed was over 700 feet!

6. Any Kind of File.  Whatever file or form your data is in, we can turn it into a genealogy chart. Family Search, Ancestry, PAF, Gedcom, Legacy, RootsMagic, Family Tree Maker, Excel, Word, Apple Pages, or even your own handwriting. As long as you have the info, we can create a chart for you!

7. Creativity. The talented and creative Family ChartMasters designers can make your family's info come alive in a beautiful chart that works for your decor needs. Because our genealogy charts are hand-crafted, we have the ability to create original, one-of-a-kind charts that perfectly represent your unique family.

8. Trust. Family ChartMasters will represent your family's information in a way that will make you proud.  We have high standards for quality control in our inks and papers. We print and ship in time for your deadlines.  You can trust your genealogy chart with Family ChartMasters.

From inexpensive draft working charts to high end giclee canvas fine art pieces, Family ChartMasters is truly the master in genealogy printing. Give us a call or visit the Family ChartMasters website and we will gladly provide you with a free consultation.

Family ChartMasters Price Increase For Custom Decorative Charts

Amazing, perfect, gorgeous professional charts are our specialty.   And experts are pretty much who we have at Family ChartMasters.  Experts who will attend to every detail, work back and forth with you until it is exactly what you are looking for.  Experts who will do whatever it takes to make sure it is perfect for you. 

You want a cream distressed background? They can do it.

You need 38 photos added to your chart along with a map of your ancestor's hometown as the background?  They can do it.

Want to show every single person in your file, sidelines, in-laws, in-laws ancestors, neighbors and pets and who all the fire fighters are in your lines?  They can do it. 

These talented graphic designers take your black and white data and wave their magic wand in the form of carefully arranged layouts, meticulous attention to detail, and customization of each chart until it is the perfect genealogy chart for you. But expert designers don't come cheap.  Since they will take leaps and bounds to make you happy, we need to keep them happy and pay them nicely for their skills.


We are raising prices on our custom decorative family history charts on November 1, 2016, so we are giving you a little heads up.  October 31 will be the last day at our old prices.  Not only are we saving you money, but saving you time because if you order your chart in September or October, you will beat the holiday rush.  And let me tell you, it gets a little hectic around here in November and December.  Send your file now to Family ChartMasters and let us create the perfect family history chart for you.

Two new wonderful additions to the Family ChartMasters team

This summer we were lucky enough to find two more wonderful people to help us with your genealogy charts.  We'd like to introduce you to:

Lynette Salmond

Lynnette is a California girl from Cupertino, home of Apple Computers, before they were born, when it was the home of prune and apricot trees. At 23, she served a humanitarian mission in Paraguay where she gained a desire to help children in need. She met and married her husband nearly 30 years ago in California and soon discovered that, as children, they had attended the same family reunion.  She started researching her genealogy and found where their family trees had merged a few generations back.  She earned her BS at BYU in Sociology Education, with a minor in Spanish Education and graduated when she was pregnant with her second child.  After graduation, she and her sweetie returned to the Bay Area where they stayed for 15 years.  They soon became foster parents and have adopted 5 of their foster children. Life is always an adventure at their house.  They moved to Utah 10 years ago when the economy in California started to swing and they haven't looked back. She is now a grandmother and is excited for the adventures yet to come.

and

Karli Ledkins

Karli was born and raised in Utah. She met her wonderful husband 16 years ago and has 2 amazing children. She came from a big family, which is very close, but knew she wanted a small one. One boy...one girl...the perfect balance. She loves spending time with family and does not often go anywhere without her children. They love the outdoors and spending time fishing, 4-wheeling, hiking and exploring new places. She loves anything crafty and often spends hours creating fun projects. Karli got the genealogy bug about 4 years ago. She loves researching and is excited to find new stories, photos, and especially ancestors. Always thinking her family history was complete, she was pleasantly surprised to find there was much work to be done!  She loves working on her own family history and is equally excited to be helping others with their own charts!

Both of these delightful ladies are ready to help you create the perfect expression of your family's history.  Let us know what you are envisioning on our free consultation page.  

What I did for summer "vacation"

Took lots of these to the post office.

Well, I've never worked so hard in my life.  That's what I did.  My last post seems like eons ago and I've done almost no other social networking either. But I'm back now and I've missed it. I've had my nose to the grindstone.  We did take a few short breaks, but I'm glad we had that great break with the Roudabushes in May because we were about to pay for it.

We have had the busiest summer ever at Family ChartMasters.  Yea!  We hired two new employees (next post tomorrow) who we had to just throw in the mix and let them swim for it.  We didn't even have any time to train them.  But they've done beautifully and we're excited to have them. Double Yea!!  It is so delightful to be able to help so many people create amazing family history displays for their family reunions. We're excited to share some of the beautiful charts we've done here soon too. 

We had a great time talking with everyone at SCGS and at the BYU conferences.  Those conferences are busy but they don't seem like work because we love visiting with you all so much.  And I did get to run away up to Sundance one blissful night with Lisa Louise Cooke.  The kids have been busy with Eagle Scout Projects, humanitarian trips, cosmetology school and learning to drive so it has been exciting around here. 

But the biggest thing I've been working on is a new project that I am super excited about.  We will be making announcements on Monday and I can't wait to tell you about it.  It is something we're so passionate about, we have been working all day for Family ChartMasters and then Kim and I have been working all night on this new thing.  So stay tuned...  We've got some big news coming down the pike..... 

Goodbye to Wendy and Hello to Linda

Our wonderful designer, Wendy Johnson is getting married and moving and we are so happy for her.  We send her and her new husband John off with our very best wishes.  We will miss Wendy terribly, but we are excited for her and her new adventure.

The good news is, we've found another wonderful person to help us create beautiful charts for you.
Linda is a native Californian girl. She moved to Utah 7 years ago, but still dreams of the beach. Living in the Rockies has made her a bit of a farm girl enjoying raising chickens and gardening. She has four wonderful children who constantly amaze her. She has been married to her sweetheart for 24 years. After receiving her BA from BYU-Hawaii, she went on to finish her Masters of Library and Information Science, turning in her thesis paper with her two year old wrapped around her leg and a newborn in her arms. Linda says she could live in a library as it is filled with her favorite things…books and people who love books. Her favorite place in the summer is the family cabin at Electric Lake, where she loves to bribe her children into taking long hikes to spot wildlife with her. Linda’s children think her greatest talent is baking for them; apple pies disappear quickly at their home. ¬¬Her grandmother was the family genealogist so she is excited to get to carry on the tradition and help others create beautiful family history charts.

Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy 2016 and the UGA Award of Merit

As usual the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy was a phenomenal success and I enjoyed myself immensely.  This year was even more fantastic though because Kim and I were able to take the whole week off and simply sit in class.  For the last five years I've been involved with UGA and the SLIG committee in helping put on the institute, but this year I was able to just relax and be a student--enjoy it with my husband--and learn tons.  Thanks so much to our employees who kept Family ChartMasters humming and to the SLIG team for making the conference such a success.

Kim and I took Blaine Bettinger's Beginning DNA for Genealogy course.  If you haven't ever attended an institute, it is really something special.  We were able to take 20 courses just about DNA and it's use in genealogy.  Even though I knew quite a bit about DNA's use in genealogy, and we've had all of our parent's generation tested who were willing, along with all of Kim's brothers and our son, I'm really sure now that I have filled in all the holes, and have a really good understanding of the foundation of DNA research.  Not only that, I have a partner now who can work with me to solve genealogy problems and extend our research.  We studied YDNA, mtDNA, and atDNA and learned about all of the companies who do the testing, their pricing and databases, the third party tools that will help you interpret the data, the ways you can apply it to genealogy and the ethical considerations to be aware of.  We heard case studies about how it has been used to solve complex problems, and best of all, we were able to discuss the issues with many of the leaders in the genealogy industry as we spent the week with them.  I learned so much, over lunch, in the hallways and with dear friends.  So so awesome.  Blaine is a phenomenal teacher.  I really appreciate him as a well-educated instructor and as a good friend. 

As usual, I didn't think to take any pictures until the last day, and I'm shy about asking to take pictures with people anyway.  Here's Kim and I extracting strawberry DNA during the last class.  So fun to take the class together. 

One of the highlights of the week was getting to meet Jessica Taylor of Legacy Tree Genealogists. It was great to be able to talk to someone who is running a genealogy company and dealing with many of the same issues that we are.  Really competent genealogy business people are hard to come by so it is a real treasure when you find a new one.  I so appreciate all of our genealogy business friends that I can bounce ideas off and learn from and I'm so excited to find a new one. 

And to top it all off, I was completely surprised Friday night when they gave me the UGA Award of Merit for my service to the association.  I had so many people come up to me and thank me and tell me I had really done great things.  I was overwhelmed. And then, when I posted this picture to Facebook, the outpouring was unbelievable.  I had so many comments and likes, I've got to be careful not to get a big head.  Tessa Keough made my day when she commented, " you are so positive and enthusiastic. Your company provides a great product and you do lots of volunteer activities - people notice and see you do things for the right reasons, furthering genealogy and family history. You show that you can be "in it" for others and also be successful, all with graciousness. Congratulations - well deserved."  Wow.  

And all of this was ten times better because Kim was able to be there with me. It was so fun to introduce him to all my SLIG friends and have him to hang out with us. Thanks so much to our awesome people at Family ChartMasters for letting us go.  Life is just really really good.

Meet with your own Personal Designer at RootsTech

Announcing a new Family ChartMasters service for RootsTech 2016, a one-on-one consultation with your own personal chart designer.

We love talking to our clients and friends at conferences, but sometimes you want to spend a little more time with one of our designers, talking specifically about your ideas and going over your family history information.  We've always offered Free Consultations, but never before have you been able to schedule an appointment and have someone all to yourself, live and in person.  We'll evaluate your information and give you some ideas right on the spot at the conference. 

Just bring in any genealogy file and the visions you have for the chart you would like to create.  We'll have someone there waiting for you who can look at your file and help you turn those visions into reality.

familychartmasters.youcanbook.me

We're announcing it here first, for 24 hours our blog readers will get the first chance to schedule an appointment.  Hurry and snag a consultation quick, before we share it over social media and through our newsletter.  We're looking forward to talking to you.  We'll see  you at the Family ChartMasters Booth 1045 in the RootsTech Vendor's Hall.

Rearranging things

So we've been going back and forth with the blogging over this last year and I think we've come to some new conclusions.  If you've been a regular reader you may have noticed some subtle changes.  And I think you'll notice as we make this next change.

I've been caught in the typical small business exchange between the many hats you juggle as a company starts to grow.  We've hired wonderful, competent people and I've tried to figure out what to pass off and what is critical to keep my hands on.  Last year, we hired Michelle Phillips and she did a wonderful job of helping me keep the blogs and other social networking going. 
Then when she had to leave in February, we've had Christine Fazulyanov helping out along with many other critical things she does for the company.  Both of these ladies have added so much to our online presence, fleshing out my ideas and adding their own.  I don't know what I would have done without their help.

But we've decided that my blogs The Chart Chick, and Zap The Grandma Gap really are best when they are completely and entirely fleshed out by me and on a more regular basis.  So I've cleared my plate of some of my other responsibilities so that I can focus here.  Since so much of the work we do with our clients is online, we want you to know about who we really are, so that you can feel like you are working with real people--which we are!

We love getting to know you through your charts and your family history stories and pictures.  Just yesterday, our newest team member Wendy was excited about a lovely picture someone had sent her for a chart.  Discussion ensued about how discovering beautiful photos was one of the fun perks of the job.  We are privileged to share your family history with you.  So we want to be open and transparent with you about our lives here on the blogs.  So watch for more fun here.  And let me know what you think.  We always want to hear your ideas about what we are doing.  We love working with you to figure out this whole family history thing.

How To Remove a Chart From the Shipping Tube

Great news! This is our team member Wendy in her YouTube debut with a video tutorial showing how to remove your chart from the shipping tube.  It's all in the finger placement with a twisting action.

After all your hard work researching your family, we want to make sure your chart arrives in mint condition. We encourage you to view this video after placing your chart order.  We hope this will be a great help to show you how to successfully retrieve your chart from the shipping tube!