Family ChartMasters Changes Hands

What a privilege this last 20 years has been.  When we started Family ChartMasters we had no idea the love and sweat and tears that we would invest.  But we especially didn't know how much we would adore the people we would get to spend this period of our lives with.  It has been my joy to help you share your family history, honor your ancestors and inspire the next generations in your family.  Thank you for everything.  What a tremendous ride it has been. 

I'm now going to go work on my own family history.  I'm going to preserve Kim's history.  I'm going to create a new family with a wedding to Dean Olsen in June. And I'm going to absolutely love having the time to be a genealogist myself.  So much love to you all.  I'll see you at a genealogy conference soon.  I'll be there in the audience with you.  

Family ChartMasters Announces New Ownership to Preserve and Display Family History Legacies

4 Apr 2024 - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

[Pleasant Grove, Utah] — Family ChartMasters, the leader in custom genealogy chart design and printing, is excited to announce a new chapter in its history. Crista Cowan, known online as The Barefoot Genealogist, has acquired the company from Janet Hovorka, continuing and expanding the vision of making family history more visible and cherished in homes around the world.

Founded by Janet and Kim Hovorka more than 20 years ago, Family ChartMasters has become synonymous with high-quality, personalized genealogy charts, helping thousands of families create conversation pieces showcasing the family history they have uncovered. Following the passing of co-founder Kim Hovorka in 2021, Janet continued on with their team, but Kim was such an important part of Family Chartmasters that it was difficult to go forward without him. Fortunately, Crista's passion for genealogy and commitment to the company's values and mission have paved the way for a promising future.

Janet expressed her gratitude and optimism, stating, "It's with a heart full of optimism that I pass the torch to Crista. Knowing her dedication to family history and her vision for Family ChartMasters, I am confident she will continue our legacy of preserving family stories with the same love and care we've poured into this company."

Under Crista's leadership, Family ChartMasters will continue to offer a range of family tree printing and design services.  Blank charts, to be manually filled in, are a great way to get started. Set style charts allow digital family tree data to quickly be imported for printing.  Working charts are a favorite for displaying the family tree at the next reunion.  The signature custom designed chart service offers an opportunity to work with a designer to create archival quality heirloom pieces that engage all generations.

Crista Cowan shared her enthusiasm in taking on this new role, "I am deeply honored to continue the legacy that Janet and Kim built. Their work has touched so many lives, including my own. I'm committed to maintaining and enhancing the services we provide. My goal is to see a family tree on the wall of every home, providing a visual representation of the stories that live in us and the bonds that connect us."

For more information about Family ChartMasters and its offerings, please visit FamilyChartmasters.com.

About Family ChartMasters:

Family ChartMasters is the leading provider of custom genealogy charts, with a mission to preserve family memories. Offering a wide range of design and printing services, they have helped create more than 40,000 charts for clients in 64 countries around the world, turning complex family history data into beautiful, meaningful artwork.

Contact:

info@familychartmasters.com

Announcing a Whole New Chart Concept--Set Style Charts

If you follow our newsletter (and you should--just sign up on the front page of our website at familychartmasters.com) or if you follow us on social media (instagram, facebook or twitter) You will have heard about our new product.  We're trying a whole new approach to charts, and it is going to save you money!  That's always good right? 

With our custom charts, you work with one of our designers and we send previews and make sure everything is exactly the way you want it.   With this service, we can create any kind of chart you can dream up and make any corrections you need, but the online approval process isn't instant, and working with a designer can be a little more costly even though we've tried to keep the costs reasonable. You can see some samples of the amazing charts our designers have created in the decorative chart section of our gallery.

With our working charts, we dispense with the online preview and the design work, but we can't offer anything but the basic chart because we won't be showing you the preview so it is kind of hard to imagine what a more decorative chart is going to look like.  So we keep these simple draft copies and they're inexpensive but not decorative at all.  You can see some samples in the working chart section of our gallery.

Well we've finally come up with a middle solution that we know will appeal to lots of our clients. 

We're excited announce a new product line: 

Family ChartMasters Set Style Charts

Check them out at https://familychartmasters.com/set-style

Maybe you:

• Want a beautiful chart but you're still researching and aren't quite ready for a custom chart.
• Like the designs you see here and know that your information is clean so you don't need to see the online preview.
• Want a prettier working chart where you can add information and still show it off to your family.
• Want to purchase copies for all of your family members but don't want to spend alot of money.
• Just need something quick, beautiful and inexpensive but professional looking.
  

With set style charts, since there isn't the online preview process, we're able to offer these charts at much lower prices, but still keep the decorative designer look.  So now you can have a beautiful chart up on your wall, professionally printed with your genealogy information, inexpensively and quickly.  

Take a look at some of these beautiful designs. 

 

6 cute rainbow charts perfect for a child's bedroom or a more trendy setting.

 

 

Four organic tree ring charts where art meets the eye before the genealogy data.

 

  

Our most popular fill in the blank designs--filled in for you

You can just submit any kind of genealogy database file, or the page also includes instructions on how to send us your file from MyHeritage and Ancestry.com.  If you're looking for a chart printed from FamilySearch data, give us a call at 801-872-4278 and we're happy to help you with that over the phone. 

And watch for more designs coming soon.  We're excited to help you with this new option for chart printing--professionally designed charts by the world's leading family chart printing company.  

Check out the charts at https://familychartmasters.com/set-style

Annual Favorites 2022-Cultural and Geographical Homelands

We love helping our users show of their heritage in unique and engaging ways.  And one of the things that most ties people to their heritage is their cultural and geographical heritage.  It is one of the ties that binds us back to our ancestors--that sense of belonging we have

 

Each family has a unique history and spreads throughout the world in a unique way.  The people who came together to create the family you have now may have come from many different places or just a few.  And the descendants of your ancestors may have spread out to many different places or they may have stayed in mostly the same place.

Expressing that geographical heritage through the places your family lived tells a unique story about their history.  If you find a family from Europe in the 20th century, you will have a very different history to tell then another family from say Africa or Asia or Latin America. 

Each heritage has unique circumstances and triumphs and tragedies to tell.  And each family has a rich heritage to be proud of.  Each of us have ancestors who survived against adversity and lived to tell about it.  If you haven't found your hero ancestors yet, you just need to keep looking. 

 

 And one of the things I love about family history the most is that it teaches us that we each have a little bit of the heroic and a little bit of the tragic inside ourselves.  The best kind of genealogy is the stories that are honest, and show the complicated nuances of our history.  There in that--that is something worth knowing and worth taking pride in. 

 

Annual Favorites 2022--Telling the Whole Story

Undoubtedly, our most spectacular charts are the ones that tell more of the story of a family.  These are a great way to share your family history with the people in your family who will never sit down and open a book or look at a computer with you.  And once again, we did some amazing charts last year that tell more of the story of a family.  Take a look at these:

This amazing chart shows the descendants of a Hungarian family.  The text in the top left describes the area they are from as well as the photo in the background.  The map in the top right has the village labeled and the town crest is included as well.  It fuses the branch of the family who immigrated to the US and their cousins who still live in Hungary into one amazing heritage. 

You don't even have to be related to this family to be engaged in the history of these people. With illustrations related to where and when they lived, maps, stories and color coding to show different branches of the family, this chart explains the synagogues, and religious artifacts of their history.  This type of chart would leave anyone asking to hear more about the stories of this family. 

If you want to tell the story of your family, let one of our designers help you.  It's super easy.  Just send the family information you have for a free consultation at http://familychartmasters.com/consult.  Our talented designers have lots of ideas about how to illustrate your past and tell all the details in a simple chart.  Let us help you get your amazing family story out where people can see it in a beautiful engaging way
 

Annual Favorites 2022--Beautiful and Unique Color Coding

One of our favorite things to do to make a chart more understandable and put more information, understanding and life into your family history is to add some color.  There are so many ways we can color code a chart.  And we can use bright colors or muted--whatever strikes your fancy.  Take a look at some of the amazing charts we color coded this year. 

This bright chart was color coded by place of birth.  With the vibrant colors, it engages the viewer to learn more about the history of this family.

 

This beautiful chart is color coded by country, but the countries are subtly explained on the bottom right under the title.  With its soft colors and tree imprint, this family tree is an eye-catching addition to the family's decor. 

The descendants of this amazing couple would have normally charted out to 24 feet wide, but by wrapping their descendants into three layers, we were able to get the chart down to 9 feet wide and 3.5 feet tall.  We color coded each child and their family so that the chart would be more understandable.  A great tribute to a large family and their ancestral beginnings.

This cute grandmother created three beautiful charts for her three beautiful grandchildren.  So engaging.  Now they have something to remind them of all the stories she tells them about their ancestors. 

This chart was exceptional, not only because of its bright colors but also because of its left to right descendancy format.  Color coding by generation makes its unique diamond format even more interesting. 

We loved this chart for its cool tropical colors and the integration of the map and places that the family lived.  With the palm trees in the back, you can almost feel the ocean breezes. 

 

These two charts were a fun new take on a fan chart.  The circles and contemporary font are perfect for a more modern decor.  Do you see how changing up the colors changes the whole look and feel of the chart?  Which one do you like better?

Finally, this chart is a simple left to right color coded by country and labeled by the flags of each country.  A simple, clean representation of the ethnicity of a person. 

You can get your own specially designed chart by sending in your information to us for a free consultation at http://familychartmasters.com/consult.  As you can see, we can create anything you can dream up.  And in any color too!  Let us help you create beautiful, engaging chart for your family and your home.

 

Annual Favorites 2022-Direct Line Charts

 We've been launching our 2022 Annual Favorites on social media, in our gallery and over our newsletter.  I'm going to take some time here and show you why we chose these for our favorites.  To start with, let's look at some of the awesome direct line charts that we were able to help our clients create this year:

 This first chart is stunning with the watercolor tree in the background and the soft muted colors.  It shows a direct line for 10 generations but the beauty of this chart is the short biographical description of each person.  What a treasure this chart is for the family that created it.

 

 We get alot of requests to show royalty lines, but this chart was a special one because it starts on the bottom with all of the living descendants and then goes directly up to that royal line.  With all of the royal photos, it really engages the viewer with how the royal lines came together to form this family.

With 17 generations, this chart is unique in that it goes directly up the patriarchal line of both the mother and father's side of the family.  They both go back to families with crests, so they were integrated into the chart.  A bright colorful design.

You can start your own family masterpiece with us by sending your information in for a free consultation at http://familychartmasters.com/consult.  We'll assign you one of our talented designers who can work with you to create an heirloom masterpiece for your family.  You might even be chosen for next year's annual favorite collection.  We're looking forward to creating the perfect chart for you. 

New front page for our website

Congratulations to Alex, our super programmer for another accomplishment that the rest of us think is magical.  Often his magic is spread behind the scenes, but this time it is out front where you can enjoy it too.  We have a beautiful new front page.  Check it out:

Go to familychartmasters.com to check out the full effect.  I think it shares our message better.  Let us know what you think in the comments below, and be sure to send in your family information for a free consultation so that we can get started on a chart for you!

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!

The Today Show!

One of our charts made an appearance on the NBC Today Show!  The segment featured some Ancestry researchers and a client on a recent ancestral home tour to Sicily.  It is such a neat story about the Balistreri family and the connections that were made from his family history research.  It will make you want to travel to all your ancestral homes!

Check out the clip at:   https://www.today.com/video/dna-kit-discoveries-leading-to-new-travel-trend-1446689859528

The chart we made for their family is shown near minute 3:30.  But you will want to watch the whole thing because it is so lovely to see the family's experience.  And as the reporter says at the end of the clip, "The message is, go out there, and find out about your history before, honestly, it's too late!"

Annual Favorites 2019: New Designs

To finish up with our Annual Favorites list I have two new, interesting layouts.  The first one is a fan built into a tree with a classic, vintage black and white feel.  I love this chart and I think it would fit in nicely with several different kinds of decor.  No matter what your design style, we can come up with something that will add interest to your room.

Unique modern fan style

Truly, anything you can dream up, our designers can create for you.

This second chart is similar to our "branches" style chart but again, with a more updated feel.  Pretty leaves and more greys for 2019.  This one is tricky to do with descendancy information, but in this case it turned out perfectly.  Depending on how your descendancy information plots out, this style may end up being more of a bush than a tree, but we're always happy to give it a try.  And it works really well with ancestors too.  Or even ancestors and descendants combined if we add people into the roots.

New crisp descendant branches tree

These and all of the rest of the Annual Favorites for this year can be found in our gallery, with lots of other charts to give you ideas. Our talented designers can literally make your family chart ideas come to life.  When you are ready to get started, just send your information for a free consultation.  We're looking forward to creating the perfect, artistic representation of your family.  

Annual Favorites 2019: Custom Color Coding

We always have to include some amazing color coded charts in our Annual Collection.  We are the color coding specialists and color makes everything look better--not to mention more understandable.  We can color code anything: place, linage, time-frame, genetics, marriage, generation, health, DNA, research results, pioneer lines, royal lines, immigrants, soldiers, colonial Americans, different wars or branches of service, religious office, divorce, occupation.  You could use any event your ancestors might have participated in such as being a Filles du Roi, Mayflower immigrant, etc.  

You could also use color coding for research help such as whether or not a DNA test has been taken, whether the person is a match, you could include icons for proven and unproven lines, for the number of sources or images you have, for adoptive and genetic lines--you get the idea. We can go far and beyond what the current genealogy chart softwares offer.  

For the Family Reunion

One of the most common types of color coding we do, this chart is coded by the each of the children of the main couple.  Each child and their descendants are a different color, thus it is easy to find everyone at the family reunion.  This chart has only names for a condensed, clean chart of a large family.  Only six pictures illustrate their rich and varied history.

Ethnicity AND Details

One of my favorite types of color coding is by country of origin.  This color coding goes one step further showing each country's outline.  A beautiful display of a diverse heritage. Originally 24 inches wide and 42 inches tall.

All the Immigrants Coming Down to Modern Day

Nine generations of ancestors show on this 24x36 inch fan chart showing dates and places for ancestors.  The chart starts with three siblings.  Colors and flags show each ancestor's country of origin.  

Ancestors, Descendants, Color and Descriptive Icons

This chart again starts with the three children of a couple and then traces the father's lineage.  A simple left to right chart shows of immigrants, military and specific ethnicity notes while colors correspond to a digital and paper filing system with more information.

If you would like to create a chart with distinctive color coding according to something important in your own family history, we can do it.  Just send your ideas and information for a free consultation and one of our designers will take a look, send you feedback and then create a masterpiece just for your family.  

Annual Favorites 2019: Blended Families

So these two charts made it on to our list because the were such a spectacular display for a blended family.  The man in the center had three wives.  The first two wives also had children from other marriages.  So while he wanted all of his children on the chart, one of the charts had the children from the first wife's subsequent marriage--for that side of the family, and the other chart had he second wife's children from a previous marriage--for that side of the family.  He was able to give each part of the family a chart that included their step-siblings.  It was really quite brilliant. 

The first blended family all blended together

When you add the flags, and especially all of the photos--including the group photos.  Both charts were truly spectacular.  He was also able to add his current wife although they don't have any children together.  A beautiful, inclusive family.

The second blended family all blended together

So again, no matter how your family relationships are arranged, we can arrange them correctly on the chart.  It doesn't even have to be perfect in the file you send us.  When you send in your information, the designer we assign to you will send you an initial mock up and then we'll work with you, including other mock ups to move and arrange everyone exactly the way you want to display them.  Want to show the scoundrel of a son-in-law because he fathered your beautiful grandchildren?  Great, we can do that.  Want to take the scoundrel out?  No problem.  We can do that too.  In-laws and outlaws and all the ways a family blends together.  Whatever you want to look at on your wall is what we'll develop for you. 

And there's no obligation until you are happy with it.  Once you approve the design, you can click on the order link we send and place your order.  It truly will be perfect for you.  You can get started by clicking on the "get started" button on the front of our website.  Just wait until you see the perfect chart for your own family.  I promise it will be just as amazing as these two charts.

Annual Favorites 2019: Something Different

I just fall in love with all of the charts we do, but these have a special place in my heart this year.  We've done some really awesome non-traditional charts.  Some are similar to what you've seen here before, but some are of a completely different caliber.  As usual, we're always up for a new challenge.  

AKC pedigree (Isn't he the cutest?)

Apparently I've never said it on the blog before, but I think I've mentioned it a few times in lectures or on social media, I've always wanted to do a dog pedigree.  This year I finally got the chance.  And isn't this just the most adorable dog you've ever seen?  His name is Mr.Mister and he is a purebred Maltese.  Oh my goodness so much adorableness.  And if you look close, the names of his ancestors are just as adorable. We don't usually get to chart out names quite that unique on human charts.

A Royal Scottish line

While we've done direct line charts before, this one was special with the clean crisp layout and the two crests.  A beautiful way to help Dad show off his Scottish pride--directly back to Robert the Bruce.  I'm not sure, but I think this client made it on to the highly favored daughter-in-law list with this one.  We're happy to help you on to that list too.  We've got a well-used direct ladder there.

Piano Teaching Lineage

This was another unique chart for the year showing the piano teaching lineage of this great musician.  His instructors go back to Mozart, Liszt, Beethoven, Czerny, and J.S. Bach.  The chart weaves in and out with instructors who taught multiple people (the ultimate kissing cousins chart if it had been family.)  It was a complicated one but we figured it out.  And the 27x19 canvas hangs proudly in the studio.  The pride is definitely justified on this one.

Inspiring Military Heritage

This chart was a gift from a sister to her brother.  Wow!  Anybody would be lucky to have a sister like that right?  Going straight up the patriarchal line, this family had an amazing military heritage spanning back to the mid 1600s.  We were able to add stories, documents and a timeline along the bottom that explained everything and really brought it all together into one story.  I'm sure the 30x36 canvas was a treasured gift.

So if you want to be the hero in your family, with a traditional format or not, we can help you out.  Feel free to give us a call at 801-872-4278 and we'd be happy to discuss your ideas over the phone.  Or come find us at RootsTech in a couple of weeks (or at any of the conferences on our calendar) where you can see these amazing charts and talk to a designer in person.  We can't wait to get to work on your most fascinating ideas.

Annual Favorites 2019: Amazing All in One Charts

Some of the most impressive charts we do are our "all-in-one" charts.  To my knowledge, we are the only place on the planet where you can send a genealogy file and ask for everyone in the file, and then get back something that actually looks reasonably understandable.  As I've discussed before, there is an option to show everyone in the Family Tree Maker software, and that is really helpful and works well, but the charts usually turn out rather disjointed and quite large.  Our designers can create something much more condensed and logical.  It takes a human touch to create something clear and legible because every family is different.  

These are the charts I really love because they are so impressive. But we usually only choose a few for for our annual favorites because I think the can be a bit overwhelming to the typical genealogist.  The are inspiring though right?  We are doing more and more of these types of charts and we're more than happy to help you get it ALL out where you can see it and inspire your family members.  

Originally 20 feet wide and 3 feet tall.  We've chosen this chart for our backdrop at the upcoming RootsTech conference.

Imagine walking into the family reunion with this beauty.  It shows all four lines of the family tree with cousins, aunts, uncles, ancestors and descendants.  The pictures are beautiful and Karli did a great job with the layout so that it was all very understandable.

This chart shows the extensive family lines in a more reasonable format

This chart was originally 3.5 feet tall and just over 7 feet wide.  If you were to plot it out with one of the genealogy softwares, you would have a much larger chart with tons of white space in order to accommodate the extensive ancestor lines, not to mention that the more modern lines would have been substantially more complicated.  Again, the personalized touch of one of our designers comes to the rescue.  We were able to wrap things around so that the lines were obvious and everyone made it into the smaller size.

EVERYONE in the family

This beautiful chart include eight lines of the family tree that were all color coded so that the chart was clear to understand.  There are many ways we can help you display all of your family, even with cousins who married each other, blended families and an extensive family tree.  No matter who complicated your family relationships are, we are up to the task and have alot of experience making sure everyone is included.  No matter how your family is arranged, we can create a chart for you.  We are the experts at non traditional formats including lineage charts, adoptions, in-law lines, and extended cousins. 

So let our designers give your family tree a try.  You can send your information to us at http://www.familychartmasters.com/consult.  There's no obligation until we go to print because we are confident we can come up with something you love. Just wait until you see your own family.  Our all in one charts are really breathtaking.  

Annual Favorites 2019: Beautiful Photos

So I have to start off our week of the Annual Favorites Collection with the beautiful photo charts we've selected this year.  We love helping you create beautiful charts and nothing is better than having beautiful photos to incorporate.  Often, when clients chart their beautiful photos with us, we're just as enamored with them as you are.  We love getting to know these gorgeous people.  And we're excited to share them with you. Take a look:

Honoring Mother

Celebrate Mom's birthday in style.  Knock her socks off with this chart.  Five children are color coded and all of the children, grand children, and great grandchildren fit into a 20x24 chart. 

Honoring Ancestors

Honor mother's proud heritage with a beautiful chart including a map watermark with her home state.  Even a few perfect pictures make all the difference.

All the descendant family in a reasonable size

Color coding helps the viewer follow this descendancy chart that we designed to stay in a reasonable size even though there are multiple lines and lots of cousins.  Beautiful photos make the family come to life.

Ancestors and Descendants - Ethnicity and Photos

What a wonderful way to celebrate an anniversary.  This chart shows siblings, ancestors, cousins and descendants of the main couple with beautiful photos and maps watermarks showing off the ethnicity of the family.

Honoring Mom and Dad

What a beautiful way to celebrate the family of this adorable couple.  A meaningful, emotional gift to thank Mom and Dad for everything they've done for the family.

Descendancy with a main line of beautiful photos

The main line of photos on this chart focuses the viewer's attention, yet the chart shows off all the cousins and aunts and uncles.  What a beautiful family.  Six generations in only 24x36.

Crisp Clean and Modern with all the details

Beautiful modern fonts and a clean crisp style show off this family's amazing photos.  Icons give detail and pictures make the heritage of this family interesting and accessible.

36x50 The Family Masterpiece on Canvas

The last generation of this chart is stacked on top of each other so as to get to the immigrant origins of this family.  A blended family with amazing roots.  This masterpiece was 36 inches tall and 50 inches wide--beautiful on canvas.

Mom and Dad's ancestors with their siblings.  All the Aunts and Uncles

This chart shows three generations of ancestors with all of the siblings along with the main couple's three children. 

Any of these charts make a beautiful centerpiece to your home, or an amazing meaningful gift.  Send your information in for a free consultation and our designers will work with you, sending previews until it is exactly perfect for your family.  Once you approve your chart, you can place your order and we'll send it right out.  We'll help you really impress and inspire your family.

Watch for new posts on our Annual Favorites collection all week this week.  We have so much more to show you.