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

FamilySearch Blogger Dinner part II

So I promised to tell you about the rest of the blogger dinner.  They had some really interesting things to say about searching on FamilySearch

First Mark Gowan talked about the Record Hints.  They've been there for a while, but they are making things slicker with three new icons.  1) A gold icon for Record Hints.  These are places where indexing has uncovered a document that FamilySearch has been able to determine fits into your tree.  This is the same as the "Record Hints" that were previously on the right hand screen.  But the cute little magnifying class icon fits into other parts of the user experience--the pedigree chart, the descendancy view, etc.  That will help lead alot of the beginner users to the sources more effectively.  A good step in the right direction.  Other icons include 2) a blue icon for Research Suggestions and 3) a red icon for Data Problems.  These weren't really explained, but I'm excited to explore these more.  Anything that brings real research skills closer to the beginner is a good thing.

The power behind these icons is what is important though.  According to Robert Kehrer, FamilySearch has developed a really good algorithm that brings back good hints--not just hints-- an all important distinction.  Robert explained that the algorithm collects all of the person's data, and then collects all of the person's relatives and their data.  They take that whole cloud and compare it with the documents that have been indexed.  Then Robert showed us the new functionality that shows the whole family in that record and puts them on one side of the screen and shows the family from the tree on the other side of the screen.  Seeing those relationships helps a new researcher to make better decisions.  They can then go through and attach the source to each person in the tree.   This is a vast improvement over the previous user interface where you had to attach everyone separately through several steps. 

I applaud the movement toward source centricity and FamilySearch's continued efforts to make it easy for the beginner researcher to get into the documents easily.  This is a great step toward making it easier for newbies to play together with more advanced researchers.  FamilySearch will always need to work more on "newbie proofing"  One of FamilySearch's main agendas is to attract the 90%+ members of the LDS faith to genealogy.  Every step towards making it easy for newbies to focus on documents is a step in the right direction.  And as I've said many times before, that new person may have a box in the attic that solves all of your issues.  We have to love newbies if we are going to thrive as a community. But most of these screens work best with simple documents like the censuses.  Once you get into more complicated documents, it gets a little trickier.

There were the typical concerns in the room about the common tree aspect of FamilySearch.  What about the sources that are hard to interpret?  Once you get out of the censuses it gets trickier.  Judy Russell mentioned a source where her Uncle is listed as Bertie and is listed as a girl when his real name was Bert.  The regular criticism of creating a common tree rather than having individual trees like Ancestry and MyHeritage is that the records aren't clean enough to come to a common consensus.  Robert and Mark had the best answer I've heard yet about FamilySearch's position on that.  He said they are "Idealists" that they believe most of the disputes will come to a consensus.  Lots of people think they are too optimistic.  While there will be some unending disputes, we can hope that they are right.  Time will tell.  I personally love that they ask for a reason when adding a source to the tree and give us a place for discussions.  While that won't help in some sticky situations with ongoing cousin wars, at least they are providing an avenue to capture that all important document *analysis* that most databases have overlooked in the past.  I remember talking to Ransom Love and others about this in our affiliate meetings years before new.familysearch was launched.  Even back then, one could see that the person with the most time to track the database is going to win the dispute--not necessarily the person with the most knowledge.  FamilySearch has always had that optimism.  In a couple more years, it will be interesting to see if the breakdown is 98% settled vs. 2% disputed, or 80% settled vs. 20% disputed, or 30% settled and 70% disputed. One can hope.

It was also good to hear the clearest explanation I've heard yet about copyright issues related to uploading images to the database.  FamilySearch is not policing copyright upfront--they don't require you to click a button to state that you have copyright permission (like we do at familychartmasters.com)  Their approach has been to state in the Terms of Use that the user is responsible for copyright and then deal with any complaints and problems that arise.  Hopefully the users will respect the copyrights of the record holders.  I know I have found some really great stuff that I'd love to add to the database, but really can't--I can only write good source citations that will point people in the right direction.  It was good to hear what the official policy and plan of attack FamilySearch is working with on that.

Finally, the best part of the night was when Robert went to attach a source to a person on the tree and lightning struck outside at that exact moment.  Considering that FamilySearch is sponsored by the LDS church, does that mean that your genealogy research can come with Divine approval?  Now there is something to really hope for. I only wish it could all be that correct.

Report from the FamilySearch Blogger Dinner Part I

I got to go to the blogger dinner last night to catch up on everything that FamilySearch is doing.  It was great seeing everyone and getting a chance to listen to the FamilySearch presenters and have some time to talk to them.  Lots of exciting new things going on.

David Rencher started out by talking about how they are ramping up the camera teams.  They are hoping to have 500 teams around the world doing digitization by next year.  He also said there are 10 images created for every one image that is indexed.  So we are in great need of more indexing.  That's still a great problem to have though.

He also said they are getting better at tracking what is going on in the Family Tree.  They are tracking people with multiple parents (especially many sets of parents--obviously a problem) and that number is starting to go down.  We are making progress on cleaning up the data that was brought in from the myriad of FamilySearch databases when Family Tree was created.  And we are getting better at putting in good data.  So that is good news too.

Then Dan Call spoke about the upcoming RootsTech conference.  I'm really excited about the two lectures they accepted of mine, "Family History Adhesive: The Science of Why History Binds Families and the Simple Tech of How to Do It" and "6 Steps to Choreograph Your Research Across the Internet" (More to come on that in a bit) The theme is "Who Inspires You?"  I don't remember seeing that theme in the call for papers. I wish I had known about it because I might have submitted entirely different stuff.  I'm always talking about being inspired by your family history (for example here and here--besides my books).  I think I have alot to say about that.

One statistic that caught my eye was that in 2013 there were 5250 paying attendees of RootsTech.  And in 2014 there were 5500.  I thought that was interesting that the profitable part of the conference only increased by 250 people.  Yet the exhibitors jumped from 140 to 170.  I think the size of the non-paying attendees (Family Discovery Day, etc.) has made this look like a profitable industry and encouraged new companies to enter the waters, but in reality, the market really hasn't grown that much.  It is disconcerting to me that the expo hall has doubled each year, and is going to double in size next year, and yet the financially vested attendees has not.  This, combined with the fact that a select few RootsTech talks have been broadcast far and wide and spawned a multitude of smaller family history fairs--without vendors--has the potential to affect the industry adversely. 

Next, Bryce Roper talked about the FamilySearch Mobile App that is now available on iOS and Android.  It is looking really good.  It can help you discover something new, add stories and links to the database, quickly add photos of sources with your device's camera, and --coolest part-- create and upload a recording.  Bryce said the recordings can be up to 15 meg (about 30 minutes).  Such a great tool for people to do interviews with.  Soon you'll be able to edit vital statistics and add people to the tree.  I'm excited to see this development as I think it will attract a whole new demographic.  We had seen FamilySearch affiliates try to create a commercial app without success--again disconcerting--but I'm glad the job is getting done.  I wish a commercial app had been a viable option because we need a stronger genealogy industry.  The Memories app is also helping to capture stories and pictures etc but according to Bryce is only available in iOS so far and is not connecting those things to the tree yet.  So more to watch for there.  This is big for youth--of course one of my passions.  I think apps for mobile devices is a game changer for anyone under 30.  It is going to be alot easier to work on this with my kids now. 

We're heading out this morning to get set up for the conference.  Mark Gowan and Robert Kehrer also had some really interesting things to say about searching.  I'll cover that in FamilySearch Blogger dinner part II shortly.  In the meantime, what do you think about these issues? 

San Antonio, Here We Come!

We are heading out for the Federation of Genealogical Societies Conference tomorrow, bright and early, and we could not be more excited!  It's happening August 27th-30th in San Antonio, Texas.  Erin is joining me this year and we are so looking forward to seeing many of you there.  We hope you'll swing by the booth to visit us but also to participate in our "Outside the Box" sessions that will be happening in between classes.  We're teaming up with our good friends Lisa Louise Cooke and Maureen Taylor, as well as Diahan Southard on Saturday.  We've joined booth space with Lisa and Maureen before to offer these little mini-classes and it was such a great experience that we decided to do it again.  We really hope you'll look over our schedule and watch for Tweets and Facebook posts to remind your of our classes.  They are free to the public and only 20 minutes long, with two full-length sessions being offered on Saturday.  On Friday I am going way, way "outside of the box" with one of my mini-sessions with a Genealogy Game Show and Pedigree Challenge.  A fun story-telling contest with a twist will be thrown in for good measure.  You'll have a chance to unwind, get silly, and earn prizes.  You won't want to miss it.

I'll be there all week, until Friday night, however, Erin will be staying through Saturday.  I am coming home for a family reunion being held in honor of my great grandparents which I am so excited about.  My mother has been hard at work on a 500 page book that details their lives, including five years (!!!) when they lived in the South Pacific building schools and church buildings.  I have been helping mom with the layout of the book and it has been such a wonderful experience that I just couldn't not be there for the unveiling after mom asked me to come.  Of course I am coming!  Still, Erin will be there on Saturday to visit and help you and the classes will still go on with Lisa, Maureen, and Diahan.  Be sure to come by and see us at booth 218.

You will also want to be sure to sign up for a free e-book and a grand prize drawing from all three of us as well.  If you can't go, feel free to drop me an email at janet (at) familychartmasters (dot) com and I will send you the ebook.

Conference Energy

My son teaching his class at the BYU conference.

Don't you just love conferences?  I love conferences.  I get to see and visit with so many friends, old and new.  Our team has enjoyed meeting with so many of you over the last couple of days at both the BYU Continuing Education Conference of Family History and Genealogy and the IAJGS in Salt Lake City.  We love talking to you all about our products as well as having the opportunity for you to sign up for our newsletter for charts and our 52 week newsletter for Zap The Grandma Gap.  I also especially loved seeing Matthew present his "Get to Know Your Geezers" class Tuesday.  Talk about a parenting payday!  But I would like to say that my team and I also really love the feelings we get being right there in the middle of it all.

Genealogy is, no secret to us within the community, contagious (for lack of a better word).  It's such an important work we do, connecting our families--past, present, and future.  There is such a force and energy around it that to say it's a hobby is almost a fallacy.  It may start as a hobby for some of us, but once you get going, you know it's so much more important than that little word.  Golf is a hobby.  Knitting is a hobby.  Jogging, scrapbooking, bowling, and baking are hobbies.  Genealogy... well, that's life saving on so many levels.  It's not a hobby.  Genealogy has the power to change people's lives almost instantly.  Even when we discover unhappy things from the past within our families, those things can bring so much understanding and healing to our present.  Eventually the knowledge of those things can change our future.  I know we all understand that on a logical level (I hope we do) but sometimes it's easy to forget.  Until you get to be around hundreds of other people feeling the exact same feelings and then it just becomes palpable and electric.  It becomes a tangible fact that this life of research and records reaches so far in every direction of time that we can't even fully comprehend the good we are doing.

So, I just felt the need to tap into that energy and share it a bit with all of you.  It was so great to see so many of you this week.  If not, I hope we'll see you at the next conference.  You'll find us there, happy to meet with you.  And if you are far away, or can't make it for some reason, well, say "hi" right here in the comments.  I would love to hear about some of your great conference moments from this week or in the past.  Conferences are a wonderful place to get energized, learn more and make new friends. See you at another one soon.

Conferences

There are two big conferences this week and next that I'd like to tell you about. I will be making the rounds at both and invite you to stop by and say "hello," if you happen to be attending either. Members of my team, Erin, Lara, and Michelle, will all be in attendance (at one or both conferences) as well.  Be sure to look for us.  We love being able to meet and talk with all of you when the opportunity arises.

The first conference I want to tell you about actually opened yesterday, July 27th, and will run through August 1st. It is the 34th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy in Salt Lake City, Utah. Be sure to check out the schedule from the link above, as there will be some great classes. I won't be presenting at this conference but I'll definitely be around, so keep an eye out for me and I'll watch for you.

The second conference, the BYU Conference on Family History & Genealogy, is starting tomorrow, July 29th, and both Matthew and I will be presenting here. We are each teaching classes on Tuesday, the first day. Matthew will be presenting "Get to Know Your Geezers" at 11:00 am.  I will have two classes that day, back-to-back.  I'll be presenting "Family Reunion Activities for All Ages" at 12:15 pm and then "Zap the Grandma Gap: Family History for Youth" at 12:45 pm.  Check out the other classes available at the link above, but hopefully Matthew or I will see you in one of our classes.

We love conferences and we love being able to teach others new ways to be more involved in their personal family histories. I look forward to meeting up with friends, both old and new, this week!

I Am Thankful, Part 4

To sum up my journey of "big genealogy business" gratitude, I need to mention FamilySearch.  Of course they bring a lot to the genealogy community.  First and foremost, FamilySearch brings in a huge influx of money into genealogy. Because profitability isn't the end goal for them, FamilySearch can take risks. Which, when you think about it, is pretty exciting.  Rootstech, among other conferences, is a great example of the good that comes from having deep pockets and no need to make a profit.  I think we can all agree that we're pretty grateful for programs like that, not to mention all of the Family History Libraries that anyone can access. A steady income, with only a minor focus on margins, makes a big difference for the rest of us.

As a quick side note to that, I feel like I should mention why it doesn't particularly bother me that members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints get free access to companies like MyHeritage.com, Ancestry.com, and FindMyPast.com as a result of FamilySearch's partnerships with these companies. I know it doesn't seem fair to everyone else in the genealogical community.  However, you may not realize that LDS church members already give 10% of their income to their church, which helps fund FamilySearch, among other things.  So, they already have a financial stake (in addition to their own volunteer time) in FamilySearch's partnerships.  As a result, I can see why they are able to benefit from that for their own personal family history research and work. That makes me wonder, though,  if anyone would be willing to donate 10% of their income to Family ChartMasters in exchange for some partnership benefits? We wouldn't mind experimenting with some deeper pockets of our own. ;)

All kidding aside and back to my gratitude for FamilySearch... I truly appreciate the volunteerism and work ethic coming from its users.  It's quite simply a given for FamilySearch contributors that family history work is important and something that we all need to do.  The volunteer effort put in by people who index and work on records collection and preservation is pretty astounding.  These folks do it because they know it's important and they don't expect anything in return.  That's the real spirit of family history work right there: helping others find the missing links in their own histories because it's the right thing to do.  I have some real love for that.

In the end, FamilySearch (along with the MyHeritage and Ancestry) brings a lot to the table for all of us.  Sometimes as a small business owner it can feel a bit daunting to work alongside these giants; but there are so many things to be thankful for.  I have learned lots in my business and personal dealings with these companies, I love working alongside the good people who work for them and I truly am thankful for the roles they play in my company's success.  I am thankful everyday that I get to work in this industry and love the work I do so much.  I hope you'll be able to look around and find some things you are thankful for too.  There is lots to be grateful for when you look for it. 

I Am Thankful, Part 3

Today, I would like to talk about MyHeritage.com. This company is based in Israel and the CEO, Gilad Japhet, is my kind of CEO. We partnered with MyHeritage.com back in 2010 and we have really enjoyed our relationship with them. We handle their chart printing for them and it has been such a great experience for us because we feel our companies mirror one another in our shared desire for everyone to be active participants in their own family history. You can see their passion in the people that work for them and that is a refreshing and joyful thing to watch on the business side of things.
One thing I have some real gratitude for with this company is their worldwide reach. We have shipped charts for them to all ends of the earth! We regularly ship their charts to places like Ghana, Malta, Saudi Arabia, Nepal, New Caledonia, Russia, New Zealand, Columbia, Costa Rica, Argentina.. you get the drift.  We've printed their charts in a variety of languages as well, which just makes my job fun.  It is so cool to look at the pictures and see the families on all these charts.  I love seeing how far this company reaches across the globe because that means that genealogy is a real global passion for so many people out there and MyHeritage.com is a big key to that.

Something else that I love particularly about their website is the joy and fun they infuse into family history.  If you haven't been to the apps tab on their website you should take a look.  The Family Game, The Look-Alike Meter and the Family Crest have been fun for my kids and Matthew talks about them in his "Get to Know Your Geezers" talk. These are engaging games to help draw in your youngsters and show them that family history is fun! The family matching game is fun online and you can even purchase the cards.  One of their goals is to help you and your children care about your family history and to have fun doing it.  Like I said earlier, completely shared missions here.

In the end, I just really need to tip my hat to Gilad and his team.  They really "get" what genealogy and family history are all about.  When genealogy is your job, it's a business, sure, but it's also so much more than that.  I love and appreciate MyHeritage.com for their global reach, their focus, and their belief and understanding that our families matter.  I just really love finding a company, like ours, that makes their personal passion their livelihood.  It's a great example for all of us in the genealogical community, so three cheers for that!

I Am Thankful, Part 2

First up on the things to be grateful for is Ancestry.com. Sometimes, when you are a small and specialized business like ours, gratitude for the "big guys" doesn't always come easy because they can feel like a fortress in the community. This can make it difficult for smaller businesses to break through into the market. Still, none of us can deny the importance Ancestry plays for all of us and I have felt the need to share some of the things I appreciate about Ancestry's presence in our market.

I think we all learned how much we depend on them, personally and professionally, with the recent shutdown and denial of service attack. It felt like the end of the world and some of us were ready to jump from the rooftops when all of that went down. So, sure, Ancestry feels pretty impenetrable sometimes, but clearly, we all learned how much we want and need them around.

One of my favorite things about Ancestry, from a business perspective, is that they have proven the virtue of being commercial in the genealogy market. They've blazed a pretty wide trail for many of us and shown that capitalism works in this market. Kudos for that.

And a sincere note of gratitude on this list is for the good Ancestry has done for spreading the word about family history to the general, mainstream culture. These folks are definitely the poster face for the genealogy community to the rest of the world and people have turned to researching their personal histories as a result of the advertising Ancestry has done. In the end, isn't that what we as genealogists really want anyway--people to become interested and invested in their family history? I know that is one of my personal passions and I have to give Ancestry some credit here for the role they play in that.

As a little post script, I suppose I should also say that I am particularly grateful that Ancestry has recently shuttered their chart printing business (more on that later). I mean, that is a definite boost for my company, so thank you Ancestry! I'm especially thankful for that business decision. Speaking of which, is anybody in need of a family chart?

I Am Thankful For... Part 1

Gratitude has been on my mind a lot lately, especially as it pertains to my business and book writing. I love what I do! We are so happy to be a small business.  I really enjoy every aspect of being a "boutique" business and how it allows our company to have very specialized interaction with each of you. We've built some amazing relationships along the way that have touched our lives both professionally and personally. These partnerships, relationships, and interactions have taught us so much.

We genealogists definitely have a very synergistic community and the knowledge, emotional support, and business support we give one another are all very critical to us.  And so, I'm grateful.  To all of you. I'm also grateful for bigger aspects of the genealogy world and I feel the need to share exactly why.  So I'm taking a little bit of time to do a short series on the big business side of genealogy and how I have become grateful for the experiences and knowledge I have gained from my interaction with "the big three."  Please come back over the next several days as I share some how's and why's for my current grateful-for state of mind.

Customer Love

Here's what some of our customers are saying about their charts:

"I received my charts today - I can't believe how quick a turn around that was!  I just wanted to let you know how perfectly the colors turned out. I am so happy I went with that option as they are just like what I have in my database.  Thanks so much for your help and for getting this to me so quickly - what perfect timing for me as I have a 4-day weekend coming up that I plan to devote to genealogy." --Diana Ritchie (Diana has the first copy on her wall and then bought a second copy at 50% off to fold up on her desk and makes notations on it as she works.  What a great idea that was!)

"Attached are three photos from the reunion last Friday.   The charts were a big hit, especially the circle chart.Several took your business cards and said they wanted to order one." -- Roger Grua

"My client wrote me back tonight to let me know that he was 'very pleased with how the two charts turned out' Great work!!'   I have a very pleased client, so you definitely made me look good. Thank you again:).  As I mentioned on FB, I will definitely refer you and use you again for any kind of chart request from a client!!" --Susan Thompson

"I have been working with Erin to develop my family chart.  I want to tell you how very pleased I was with her help and suggestions.  I received the chart today and am so very happy with it. She was so very cooperative to work with...
The charts arrived today!!  I just discovered the pkg on my front steps...I assumed it would arrive Tues.  I was delightfully surprised.

I am so very, very pleased with how it turned out.  It sure is fun to see the whole family+extended family all together.  I am happy that you suggested the larger font.  It is great and again, thank you so much for all your help...the hours you put into it must have been many!!" --Donna Sweeney

We can help you create a fantastic chart for your family too!  You can start with a free consultation.  Just send us your information and we'll take it from there!

Five Fabulous Family Reunion Ideas

Summer is here and it’s the Family Reunion High Season. It feels almost like Christmas, doesn’t it? Well, just like any holiday season, a successful—not to mention happy—family reunion requires some extra planning and behind the scenes preparation to make the magic happen. Our goal is for a seamless magic that no one really notices but they can see the sparkles just on the edges as they think, “Wow, this is really special.” I’ve been posting some great ideas to pinterest lately that will give you great ideas for your next family gathering. Check out my “Top Five Favorite” Pinterest pins for great family activities that will have both young and old experiencing “sparkly moments” at your next family reunion.

1. Pictures with Captions: This one comes from History Tech  and the original idea suggests placing comment bubbles on a historical picture in order to get some funny quotes going about a specific event. Let people mingle about, review the pictures, and add a saying or two wherever they feel inspired. Can you imagine what some of your family members will come up with? It’s sure to be side-splitting entertainment. 
2. Story Telling Contest I shared this tip from a reader on my Zap the Grandma Gap blog  a little over a year ago but I think it is worth revisiting. For a reunion, you would let the adults know in advance that they should be prepared to present a family story in an engaging and fun way. The real fun, however, will come in when you make the kids at the reunion the judges! Kids are about the most honest people I know and if you stink at storytelling, they won’t hesitate to tell you. Everyone will want to step up their game for this one! 
3. Family Crest Artwork  Look up your family crest in advance to place on display. You could then provide paper and pens/crayons to see who can draw the closest likeness. Or, find a template of a blank family crest and see what kind of imagination runs through your family as people create how they think your family crest should look. Save the artwork for review at your next family reunion while you are at it. 
4. Create a Keepsake This one comes from Lynne Palazzi for Country Living  and let me tell you, it’s one for the generations. A tablecloth that everyone signs when they arrive that is then embroidered over to keep the memories from fading. Pull it out for every family reunion so the list of names can grow right along with your family. 
5. And of Course, A Chart : How could you go wrong with this one? Imagine welcoming your family with a beautifully crafted, personalized Family Chart from Family ChartMasters . If you purchase a decorative chart, we’ll make it possible for the members of your family to purchase copies of that chart for 50% off. A really great deal! Or, order a working chart for a more utilitarian purpose. One of my favorite charts we’ve done recently was a large working chart where everyone in attendance had a space to sign their name under their place on the family tree. Much better than a boring guest book and such a creative idea! 

So there you have it, folks. My top five Pinterest inspired family reunion ideas. I hope it gets the creative juices flowing for all of you. If you have a great idea, please share it with me in the comments below. In the mean time, I hope you are all enjoying the magic and “sparkles” of the Family Reunion season.

Updates, Disclosures, and a New Employee... Oh My!

So, as you may know, I haven’t blogged for a while. In fact, I’ve been pretty quiet on all of the social media fronts lately. Not that long ago, I posted about being important and in that post I mentioned the importance of valuing our time with family and trying to avoid the social media whirlpool when it becomes overwhelming. I’m working on that while I am facing some big life changes that are coming up for our family. My oldest will be a Senior in high school next year and I am feeling the pressure of getting him ready to leave the nest. Of course the next two are pressing hard behind him and like every mama, I want to make sure they are ready to fly when the time comes. Still, I have so much to say and share with all of you. We’re in the full swing of family reunion season (hooray!) and we have been able to make some really fantastic charts lately (a future blog post, I hope). And we have two big conferences coming up, so that’s a pretty big mountain I am staring down at the moment. But I made a New Year’s goal to get a real handle on the social media side of things. It hasn’t quite come together like I was hoping though, as testified by the many scraps of paper, full outlines, and stacks of ideas facing me down from my desk. So what’s a gal to do when something isn’t working? Well, try something else, of course!

 Enter Michelle Phillips. Michelle is our newest employee here at Family ChartMasters. I think I can fairly say the excitement is mutual over this new partnership. Michelle is joining the team to help me get a grip on all of the social media and writing that needs to happen around here while I am still trying to balance every aspect of our business, as well as the promotion of my Zap the Grandma Gap book series. Michelle is a happily married mother of four who loves the written word. She recently finished her Associates of Science in English at Utah Valley University and is chipping away at her Bachelors of Science in English with an English Literature emphasis. School is just a part-time gig for her though, as she spends most of her time focusing on her family. In her spare time, she reads and writes (excessively), runs (not as excessively as she wishes her aging bones would let her), and takes a college course here and there (she’s happy with that balance). Some cooking, cleaning, and laundry get done in there somewhere too! Her biggest passion however, aside from her family, happens to be writing. Which is why we’ve asked her to join our team. She’s essentially stepping in as our new “staff writer” and social media manager. 

And that is where the disclosure comes in. I love being a small business owner. And I love having direct contact with all of you. So, with Michelle’s addition, you may be worried I am tossing all of that to the wind. Not so. Michelle’s main purpose is to get my ideas into complete sentences and published on our blogs and other social media sites. We’ll be working as a team, writing and editing together, but the ideas that will be presented from here on out are still mine. So when you see a post, just know that it’s me behind it and Michelle is just stepping in to be the conduit for it to make it to the web. Occasionally, in the future, you may see a piece from her and those will be marked with her name and credited to her. She’s new to the whole blogosphere, so when she does make an appearance, give her some love! In the meantime, it’ll just be status quo but with greater frequency. We’ll spend the next few weeks working out the kinks and hopefully shifting into a higher gear around here. So here is to seeing you all a little more often!

Attend our Special Sessions at NGS

We're having a great time with conferences lately.  We are headed out to the UGA Conference this weekend, but the week after next we are going to be headed to Virginia for the National Genealogy Society Conference.  And I've teamed up with two wonderful ladies to bring  you even more value if you are planning on attending NGS. 

Lisa Louise Cooke and Maureen Taylor are two dynamic and brilliant ladies in the genealogy community.  The three of us are going to set up a theater in the vendor's hall at NGS to be able to bring you some of the best ideas you will find anywhere.  With Lisa's expertise in technology and Maureen's expertise in photos in addition to the newest ideas I've been working on, this is going to be a fantastic place to find quick ideas that will boost your genealogy productivity.  We are each giving several 30 minute sessions.  Check out these great topics:

Attendees will be able to sign up to receive a pdf of all the handouts from the sessions and to enter a drawing for some fabulous prizes from each of us.  I'm so excited to see what new things they have to teach me, and I'm so excited to share my new ideas with you all as well.  We'll see you at the conference. 

Orange County Family History Fair

I had a great time speaking at the Orange County Family History Conference last weekend. I had heard about this conference many times and knew the Family History Center had a great program there in Orange County.  So when they asked if I would come and give the keynote address Saturday morning it was an offer I couldn't refuse.  I was excited to head down and check it out for myself. 

Richard and Kathy McFarlane took such good care of me on the quick trip down there and back.  It was such a joy to get to know them and have time to chat with them over dinner.  They have a beautiful family and such a love for family history.  They have combined their love for their family's history and Kathy's background in Art history to create a beautiful home.  The centerpiece of their home are two magnificent reproductions of two ancestors that are particularly inspirational to them.  They were beautiful paintings that really set the tone in their home and I'm sure inspire their children and grandchildren.  What a great example they are of creating a strong family by sharing that family narrative that strengthens the current relationships.

Of course, when we arrived at the center, I was immediately drawn to the "Family Trees" display at the entrance to the center.  They had some nice representations of families but they had one item that particularly interested me.  I had never seen anything like it before.  It was the cross section of a tree that had been planted when a couple were married.  When the tree was cut down, someone when through and showed in the rings of the tree the family's progression, the marriages, the births and so on.  It was awesome.  It made me wish we had planted a tree when we had gotten married.  What a fantastic representation of the growth of a family.   

Another display showed a tree created by a beautiful 8 year old girl. No wonder they were so proud of her and displayed it in the family history center.  I knew when I saw it that in this center were people who shared my passion for involving youth with their family history.  You could tell this girl had caught the bug.  So going in, I knew that my sessions about how to involve your family would be well used in this conference. 

I gave my "Grandma's Bullet Proof Vest" lecture for the keynote as well as three others.  I think it went really well and Dick said the reviews were good.  I had reworked it quite a bit and added several points at the end about the principles I've learned over these past years in working with my children and writing my Zap The Grandma Gap books.  I think it got them thinking about making family history more of a family activity.  I hope they will.  That lecture clearly explains the benefits family history brings into your modern relationships and the strength it gives youth to know about their family's past.  Hopefully I was able to contribute more of that stability to the families in Orange County.  I sure had fun doing it. 

Giving Back. 5% to for Mother's Day Orders

We've been doing alot of planning and evaluating here at Family ChartMasters and I'm really excited to tell you about a new program we are going to put into place. 

Mother's Day is often a big time for family history projects.  Family History is the perfect gift for Mother's Day because family is what Mothers sacrifice, love and live for.  Our charts have been the perfect gift for mothers and grandmothers all over the world.  And we love to help our clients create beautiful expressions of their love for their families. 

This Mother's day we've concocted a plan to make the holiday even sweeter for all of us.  For every order that comes through our Free Consultation page at www.familychartmasters.com/upload between now and Mother's Day, we are going to donate 5% of the order to the Center for Women and Children in Crisis.  The center provides a safe place for mothers and their children to find food shelter and support when their family situation is detrimental to their well being.  We want to help strengthen and heal families, and we are reaching out to find more ways to do that.  Will you help us?  This offer makes it a great time to get those family reunion chart orders in for the summer too. Let us know what we can do to help you celebrate your family and strengthen others at the same time.  Feel free to give us a call at 801-87CHART with any questions.  We're looking forward to making it a great Mother's Day for everyone.

Of Being Important

This week I was mentioned in an article by Family Tree Magazine as one of the "40 Social Media Mavericks" that new people should get to know.  I don't usually get mentioned in things like that because I don't have time to be on social media full time.  In the family history community there are a lot of hobbyists who are retired, or stay at home moms who become the most prolific, go-to, stay-on-top-of-every-news-item people.  And there are the people for whom genealogy news *is* their business.  Those are usually the Mavericks who get mentioned.  I try to get my message out there over our various social media channels, but I'm also trying to do other things in the genealogy space--run a chart printing company and write books.  And that creates what sometimes feels like a vicious circle.  I've felt really stuck that I can't get the message out about what I am doing effectively and still do the job effectively. I think that is true of alot of small companies.  So thank you to Lisa Louise Cooke as well as Alison Dolan and Diane Haddad, the editor and publisher of Family Tree Magazine.  I really appreciated your acknowledgement of what we do when so many days are hard work and the normal uphill battle life gives us. And I know the other people caught in the wide net you tried to cast were appreciative too.

It made me stop and think about how we are all seeking acceptance in this world.  Even more so now that we are all looking for a few more +1s, comments, or likes.  In some ways I think social media has made us all 13 year olds again, looking for that acceptance from our peers and basing our self worth entirely too much on what other people think of us.  I happened to catch a few minutes of an interview last week--I think I was in the Dr's office, sorry I can't cite where-- and Oprah was being interviewed talking about loneliness and being validated by other people.  She said the most brilliant thing.  She said of all the interviews she's done over the years--politicians, movie stars etc, almost everyone would lean over after the interview and say "Was that ok?  Did I do ok?"  I found that to be astounding.  EVERYONE is looking for validation in this world.  And EVERYONE deserves to be validated.

I saw a wonderful TED talk this week about how to make those connections.  It has made me think. You need to watch it.

There are lots of lists.  Like everyone else, I worry about what lectures of mine are accepted, what events I'm invited to, who mentions me in an article, and how many people are on my social networks and who opens my newsletters and how many people come to my websites.  If you are a hot shot in all those areas now, just wait, you won't be in the future. Life moves that way.

AND THAT'S WHAT MAKES FAMILY and FAMILY HISTORY SO IMPORTANT.
Those are where the most important and long lasting connections are.  Everyone deserves to be validated but the world doesn't have the time or focus to validate anyone for very long.  But, if you don't have a grandmother or a mother who thought you were wonderful, I hope you have a spouse or a child, a sister, a brother, a niece, a nephew, or a grandchild.  Those are the connections that last.  That is where the long lasting acceptance is--probably because they are stuck with you and most people work to make those relationships good over the long haul.  In college I remember hearing about a parable (again--no chapter and verse--this is the blog post of missing footnotes).  It was about a dragon slayer who went to work every day to slay dragons out in the world, but came home to their family every night.  The family bound up the dragon slayer's wounds and healed them for the next day's battle.  Those family relationships, those treasured family stories that give us self esteem, those are the places we find those healing balms.  I think those are the real places that we should be worried about who we are and what people think about us.

On Twitter this week I mentioned that I've been working on ferreting out the fears that hold me back.  Like everyone, I fear not being accepted, and I also fear social networking taking up all my time.  I am so so thankful for this recognition.  It has made my load much lighter.  But I'm also going to make sure I spend enough time with my family today.  I love you all.  I LOVE this genealogy community.  It has been a blessing in my life to have so many wonderful friends here.  But my real worth lies at home.  And so does yours.

I've recovered from RootsTech--finally.

2014 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved

Reprinted from my post on the Visit Salt Lake Blog:

It has taken me three weeks to recover.  What a party.  If you missed it, you'll want to catch the video archive and mark your calendars for next year.  RootsTech has become the biggest family history conference in the world.

2014 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved

Over the past 10 years, I have traveled with my company, Family ChartMasters, to conferences across North America and Europe.  To date, the largest family history conference has been Who Do You Think You Are Live in London, England.  But this year, with the online streaming attendees, and record registrations, Salt Lake City was the host for what has become the largest Family History event in the world.   RootsTech was held at the Salt Palace and was sponsored by FamilySearch.  Attendees traveled from 49 states (if you are in South Dakota you need to come next year) and 32 countries.

2014 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved

Speakers presented workshops on a wide range of family history topics including social networking and archiving photos, DNA and storytelling and etc, and etc,.  The presentations included a wide range of beginner to more advanced topics.  Computer labs gave attendees hands on experience with the latest technologies.  And the keynote presentations each morning came from a wide range of popular presenters.  My favorite lecture was the keynote Friday with Judy Russell.  She is a crowd-pleasing genealogy speaker who talked about how quickly family history information is lost and how important it is to effectively pass it down.  Follow the link to listen to her inspiring presentation. 

2014 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved

On top of the great classes, the vendor's hall was the biggest I've ever seen--and so much fun.  With a demo theater, free giveaways and lots of hands on exhibits, you could spend the whole day in the vendors hall and learn enough to keep you busy throughout the next year.  Experts from genealogy companies around the world were on hand to solve your family history problems and help you learn more about your ancestors.

RootsTech continues to grow and improve each year and I'm sure next year will be even better.  Mark your calendars for February 12-14th 2015 and plan to join us and have lots of fun learning about who you are and where you came from.  You'll be able to register this fall at rootstech.org.  I'll see you there.

Thanks to Paul Nauta at FamilySearch for the great pictures.  I was so busy I only got a few.  It was such a whirlwind I was only able to post to facebook a little.  It was so fun to see everyone and we never get enough time to talk during the short three days.  But it is so much excitement packed into such a short amount of time I don't know that I could do it for much longer.  For more info on my lecture and my son's lecture see my post over on my Zap The Grandma Gap Blog. We had a great time.

RootsTech Preparations

So the biggest conference we've ever experienced in North America is coming next week and we are SO excited.  The registrations for RootsTech are looking really good and we are getting prepared.  We've been working on a new booth and special offers and freebies.  My 15 year old son is speaking and my lecture and demos are all ready.  Can't wait.

Here's a sneak peek at some of the charts we've been putting together to show off our expertise in printing.

The Teenager Chart

A Family Masterpiece

A Fan for Blended Families

Extra stories and information

There is no longer standing company that has more experience and expertise in displaying your family history than we do.  No matter what you are dreaming up, we are the only company that can create any style of chart and print it for you at an amazing price.  Send your ideas in for a free consultation and we'll look forward to seeing you at the conference.

Upcoming lectures and events

We're geared up with the new booth and ready to go. Here's what we have so far.  Looking forward to seeing you there: 

• Rootstech February 6-8th. "Zap the Grandma Gap: Leave a Heritage Workshop." “Abracadabra: Design Your Own Family History Chart Demo,” “Presto Chango: Turn Your Family History Into A Coloring Book Demo,” “Get To Know Your Geezers (for Youth)” with my son Matthew Hovorka 
• Eastern Idaho Family History Conference March 15th. “Creating a Culture of Family History in Your Family and Your Home.” “Where to Start When Your Genealogy is all “Done” and “Playground Rules for Genealogy on the Internet.” 
• Orange County Family History Fair April 19th Keynote: “Grandma’s Bullet Proof Vest: Why Your Children Need You To Do Family History,” “Mom & Pop Culture: Creating a Culture of Family History in Your Family & in the Home,” “Grandpa’s on My iPad: Sharing Your Family History Using Social Networking,” “Where to Start When Your Family History Is All ‘Done’”
• Southern California Genealogy Society Jamboree June 6th to 8th “Back to Basic Research Practices in the Age of Internet Genealogy,” Panel Moderator for “Rebranding Genealogy and Engaging the Next Generation,” “Abracadabra: Interactive Family History Charts With Prezi.”

Attending as a vendor but not speaking (doing some more writing so I haven't submitted as many proposals this year)

• Utah Genealogical Association Spring Conference April 25th and 26th
• National Genealogical Society Conference May 6th to 11th
• Brigham Young University Family History Conference July 29th to Aug 1st.

Others in our company will also be attending

• Genealogy Now Expo March 14th and 15th.

Some Thoughts on Advanced Methodology

It has been a whirlwind January.  So much fun.  I got to take a week and go to the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy.  So many good friends there and so much to enjoy.  And then the very next day we took off to California for a week with my whole family to celebrate my parent's return from a 2 1/2 year mission abroad.  So much partying.  So much fun.  Thank you to Kim and Lara and Erin and everybody for letting me go. 

While I was at SLIG, I had the opportunity to attend Dr. Thomas Jones' Advanced Methodology Class.  This is such a well respected class, it fills every year within 5 minutes of when registration opens.  I had heard great things about this class, but I was more influenced by my previous interactions with Dr. Jones and some of the research stories that had been floating around SLIG.  Dr. Jones was always completely kind and respectful to me as UGA president in dealing with contracts and planning and such.  And as we developed the Advanced Practicum course, I loved hearing about the stories of how he and others had traced people who had moved, and remarried and changed their names throughout their lives by reading the nuances in the records.  I was looking forward to learning how to dance around the brick walls that other people have and how it was more about what you see in the records than what records you find.

I was not disappointed.  Alot of family history puzzles are solved not by your knowledge of the sources but rather the methodology of your research.  When I became involved in genealogy, I was frustrated with how often people took everything at face value, without an exhaustive search and without drilling down to original sources.  I'm totally a footnote nerd.  And I found my people here. 

I am proud to say my Master's degree in Library and Information Science held up well.  I was pleased

with that because I had heard horror stories about how demanding the class was and how hard the homework was.  I can't really say I learned too much, but it was really fun to hear about the stories of well researched problems.  Stories like how tracing an immigrant family's neighbors and the birthplaces of their children helped show exactly when this group of families had immigrated from Ireland, through Quebec and into New York and Indiana together and helped find the place of birth for the immigrant.  Or how lining up the tax, church, property, and vital information about a person can show that one person is really two people because of inconsistencies.  So so cool.  SLIG was the perfect mix of staying out too late with your friends, and then being surprised to be wide awake in a class about Federal Land records after lunch the next day.  I ate up every moment of class.

Like I posted on facebook, I found I was a bi-polar genealogist.  I LOVE the exacting details in Dr Thomas Jones advanced methodology class at SLIG. But I also love making it easy and attracting beginners to the joy of family history.

The biggest revelation that I had came at the very end of class.  Tom suggested that we need to make time to do our own research as part of our work.  He said that university professors have their own pet research projects--that's where they gain the materials for publishing and for their teaching.  I come from a long line of university professors so that resonated with me.  I had decided this year to work on more of my own family history instead of only working on everyone else's.  And I've been able to do alot of my own work of my own while I've been experimenting with my kids and writing my Zap The Grandma Gap books.  But other than that it always seemed a little self indulgent to work on my own research.  Now I can see that that is crucial to my development as a genealogy professional and as a speaker so that I don't stagnate.  If I had gotten nothing else out of the class, it would have been worth it for that one reason.  I now feel like I have permission to work on my own research as part of my professional development.  I'm so excited about that.

I highly recommend the class.  If you can get in.  Registration for next year starts June 7th at SLIG.UGAGENALOGY.ORG 

YOU CAN NEVER TRUST A SOURCE IN ISOLATION  --  Thomas Jones

One Of My Favorite Family Christmas Traditions

One of my favorite traditional family foods for Christmas is English Trifle.  My family always has Trifle on Christmas Eve.  It honors our British ancestors.  It was also my Grandpa Dana's favorite.  My sister Amy isn't going to be able to be home for Christmas this year (she'll be reuniting with her husband who has been deployed for the last 6 months Yea!) so when we got together last week I made Trifle for dessert in her honor.

I actually made it a little bigger and created it in a punch bowl this year since we have so many teenage boys in the family.  Trifle bowls make them look beautiful too though.  We've made other Trifle recipies at times, but our traditional one is still my favorite. I thought I'd share it with you here:

Carpenter Trifle

10 ounces frozen raspberries
3 ounce raspberry jello
Dissolve in 1 1/2 cup boiling water and let jell in the fridge.

10 ounces frozen strawberries
3 ounce strawberry jello
Dissolve in 1/12 cup boiling water and let jell in the fridge.

2 3 ounce packages tapioca
Make according to package and cool.

2 to 4 cups vanilla ice cream
2 sliced bananas
1/2 large angel food cake broken into bite sized pieces
1/2 cup broken pecans
whipping cream

Layer jello, angel food, jello, icecream, bananas, more jello, tapioca, jello on top.  Serve topped with whipping cream and sprinkle with pecans. 

On my first Christmas away from home I was invited to celebrate with some friends who served a very similar Trifle for desert.  It was a Christmas miracle to me that year--like a love note from home.  Even though I wasn't home, Christmas was OK because I still felt connected and secure. 

Did you hear my interview on Genealogy Gems podcast?

I had a great chat the other day with my good friend Lisa Louise Cooke about our shared passion for helping your family understand their past.  You can check it out on her podcast at
GenealogyGems.com.  Go to PODCASTS > GENEALOGY GEMS PODCAST and click episode 162.

Lisa does such great work with her podcasts.  After you listen to our interview, I'm sure you'll want to check out the others.  Thanks Lisa for including me!

Family ChartMasters Holiday Gift Guide

From our Newsletter.  Something for everyone on your list:

Family history gifts can be some of the most meaningful things you can give your family at this time of year.  Family History is something only you share together.  It strengthens self-esteem, creates resilience and gives your family members a sense of perspective and control over their lives.  Here are some  ideas for everyone in the family: 

For Grandparents and Parents:

Help your parents and grandparents leave a heritage to their descendants and strengthen their relationships with them. 

A Family ChartMasters Custom Chart will:

• Honor your heritage.
• Honor their sacrifices.
• Show them how important they are to you.

Give a gift of a custom chart.  Start with a free consultation and we'll take care of all the particulars. 

The Zap The Grandma Gap Book and Power Up Workbook will:

• Help them pass on their legacy.
• Strengthen their relationships with their children and grandchildren.
• Give them 100s of ideas for passing on the family legacy and values.

Order now at zapthegrandmagap.com

For Children, Grandchildren, Nieces and Nephews:

Strengthen your family relationships and help them forge a stronger self esteem.

My Ancestor Activity Books

• Fun puzzles, activities and stories to learn about their culture
• Resources on how to learn more about your ancestors

Order now at zapthegrandmagap.com

 

Fill in The Blank Charts

• A fun activity for the whole family
• Keep the family history out in front of the family
• Fill in more information as you find it. 

Order now at familychartmasters.com

For the Genealogist:

Creating Custom decorative charts or simple working charts is easy with Family ChartMasters' help. 

Family ChartMasters Gift Certificates

• In $25 or $50 denominations. 
• Good for any Family ChartMasters charts.
• Print instantly from the Family ChartMasters website. 

It is our hope that learning about your family's past together can be a fun and exciting adventure and you will have a happy healthy holiday season.