Annual Favorites 2020: Celebrating Ethnic Heritage

 We finally have our last installment of our 2020 Annual Favorites!!  And these charts are all celebrating their genealogical heritage while also celebrating their ethnicity!  These were such a joy to create!  As always, we get permission from our customers to share these, and we change the information on the charts to protect their privacy.  Take a look!  They are simply beautiful!

This chart uses flags to share the countries from which each line originated from.  Simple and stunning.

Crests and flags and photos galore!  The background of the chart is a photograph of the Scottish highlands, where this family originated.

Italian ancestry is celebrated in this chart, with a simple flag and country map.  Splendid!

This family's Irish ancestry is represented more subtly with the clovers, creating a beautifully arranged chart that has such hidden value.

Dutch ancestry is represented in this chart in many ways.  I love the watercolor background elements, and the muted tones of the colors.

How much did you LOVE last year's charts??  We can create whatever YOU want for your family history charts!  Send in your information for a free consultation today!

www.familychartmasters.com

Annual Favorites 2020: New Things to Do with Your Family TREES

 We have so many creative customers who are inspired to display their genealogy.  Last year we had so many ideas that included trees, that we had to make them a separate category for our Annual Favorites. Show off your family TREE! 

This design is actually one of our blank chart designs!  But we placed all the information on his tree for him.  Love those misty trees!

We just loved this watercolor tree as the background for this chart!  Such a nice way to display your descendants!

This was a lovely tribute from children to their mom.  What a nice gift!

Don't want to be super obvious with an actual tree?  These subtle leafy branches could do the trick.

This one was a fun one to create!  Pictures, colored box fields, and of course, the tree!

This one is just simple and clean and so lovely.  We loved the simple tree and leaf shapes.

We still have one more installment of our 2020 favorites!  Stay tuned. 

 

Annual Favorites 2020: Understand and Display Your Tree Better With Color Coding

 More beautiful charts!  This time we focused on some of the beautiful color coded charts we helped create last year.  Color coding can really help organize your information and show how family lines are arranged.  Take a look at these!

What a lovely descendancy chart, color coded according to each couple's descendants.

Color coding for each couple!  This one was a fun one to work on.

This one was so lovely!  Color coding divides the ancestors according to their ethnic heritage.  We love all the pictures and the subtle map as the watermarked background.

This chart includes the descendants of four families, with color coding for certain family members.  A clean, beautiful arrangement!

So many people on this chart!!  Color coding helps with the organizing of lines, the longest of which was wrapped to avoid unnecessary white space.

We love the color coding for each generation in this one!

This one was so fun to create!  Each family member includes their ethnicity estimates, to compare their DNA test results.  What a great idea!

This one includes everyone in the file, with color coding and enhanced lines for clarity.  Beautiful!

Can you believe we have even more charts coming??  Next up: new things to do with your family TREES! 

Annual Favorites 2020: Direct Line and Relationship Charts

 Installment Number 2 of our Annual Favorites from last year include Direct Line and Relationship Charts!  These were such a pleasure to create, and wonderful representations of family lines.  As always, we asked permission to share these charts, and changed names for privacy.  Here we go!

Um, I don't know about you, but being related to Pocahontas is basically the coolest.

This one shows the couple's children and both of their direct heritage.  SO many photos and a clean, simple arrangement!

A direct line to George Washington??  Awesome!  I also love the formal fonts used, which fit the theme.

This one is an All-In-One Chart, showing aunts, uncles, cousins, and everyone else in the family!

So many famous ancestors in this one!  Direct lines included with short stories about each person pictured.  This one was pretty incredible.

Stay tuned for our next post of our 2020 Annual Favorites!

Annual Favorites 2020: Big, Beautiful Pictures

 It's that time again!!  Time to show you all the amazing charts we designed for people in the past year.  At the end of each year, we get together and pick our favorite charts (there are a lot this year!).  Then we ask permission from our customers to share them, and change the names on their design (for privacy).  And here they are!  

Our first group of favorites all include big, beautiful pictures!  It's always so fun to have charts with pictures.  It's so nice to put faces with names!

This one has so many pictures!  We loved how it included both descendants and ancestors of the couple.

The client who ordered this chart had a great experience:

"My experience with Family Chart Masters was extremely positive.  Karli Ledkins was outstanding in the assistance she provided.    My wife and I highly recommend Family Chart Masters."  💚

The old photos on this one are my FAVORITE!  Look at those mustaches and hats!  Also love the simplicity and clean lines.

This one is so simple, and so beautiful!  I love the symmetry.

We love how BIG these photos are on this chart!!  Usually we have to make them so small, but we were able to fit some good sized photos on this one. 

I just love the arch of photos above this fan.  Such a lovely arrangement.

And the winner for biggest pictures goes to this one!  With added descriptions, color coding, and the subtle map in the background, this was a fun one to create.

Coming up next: Direct Line and Relationship Charts!

Connecting Over the Distance this Holiday Season

Kim and I were going through some boxes last weekend and found some treasures.  We found some old cassette tapes we had made when we were in college to send home to the family.  He has sent tapes home from Pennsylvania to Wisconsin and I had sent tapes home from study abroad in the Middle East to Utah.  We didn't know each other then so it was fun to listen to our younger selves.  They were treasures that our families kept with our letters and then returned to us when we got home.  We knew they were there but I'd forgotten about them.  What fun to discover them now.  We need to bring them into the digital age and store them with our other family history items.  

Likewise, my family had sent an old VHS tape to me while I was abroad.  I found this tape a few years back and took it to our Thanksgiving celebration.  My little sisters were so cute at that age and we got to see them and show the video to their current husbands.  We ought to dig it out this year and show their kids.  I remember when I received the tape I was so homesick I cried and cried while I watched it.  And I put it away and never watched it again because it made me so sad.  But what a joy to find now.  Pieces of family history that captured the every day and time capsuled it into the future.  

So I have a proposal for you if you are missing the regular holiday get togethers this year.  Make a recording, video or audio, and send it to your family.  Perhaps different parts of the family who are apart can share videos with each other.  Don't just let zoom conferences fade into the past.  Capture something and store it with your other family history items.  It might not seem very important now, but trust me, later it will feel like a cache of riches.  

Perhaps you can use costumes or props.  But it doesn't have to be a special production.  Tour your house.  Show them the projects you've been working on.  Take them through a day in the life.  Talk about past family gatherings.  Talk about what you want to do in the future.  Teach them a new (or old) recipe.  Talk about your family from the past.  Talk about your family now.  Talk about the craziness of 2020.  Someday we'll be on the other side of this strange year and we will have forgotten all the details.  It will be interesting to see what future generations think when they find out what we've been through.  

So put zoom away for a little bit.  Connect over the geographical distance this year, and see if you connect over the years too.  And let me know how it goes.

Holiday 2020 Deadlines

Due to Covid 19, shipping has changed drastically (for everyone). There aren't as many planes flying, and that backs things up. Shipping companies are doing their best to get mail and packages out, but it is taking longer to get our packages to you. We cannot guarantee shipping times like we used to. Last minute gifts will be hard this year.

Which means...

We are announcing our Holiday Deadlines!

We want to have as much time as possible to work with you to create a perfect chart for you and your family. Please submit any holiday orders as soon as possible! The deadline for custom decorative charts is November 15th. If ordered after that, we can only send a preview to share with your family for the holidays.

We wish we could guarantee shipping, but if we have an early holiday deadline, that means we can give you enough time to create the perfect holiday gift for you and yours. So send us your files now!