Genealogy Chat

Can anybody help me please? My Uncle will be 70 at the end of April and a surprise party is being organised. I was wondering how I could ´present´his half of my tree as a gift. Would like to include the in-laws, cousins etc as it is on GR. Do I simply print it off, remove the ancestors that have nothing to do with him and perhaps take it to a copyshop and ask what they can do? Has anybody any ideas . Would be most grateful for any tips Thanks a lot Karen

I dont know if the GR one prints very well. I tried early on and it doesnt look too impressive. Perhaps they have improved it. Is there anything on the home page about it? I now have FT2005 and it may be worth you considering a more professional set up - apart from anything else, if this site crashes, it would probably mean losing some of your info. I suppose what you could do is print off the family tree charts they are offering on the home page and then if you have nice writing (!) you could use those special caligraphy pen sets you get so that it looks good when you enter the names you want for him.

hello going of the subjuct a little bit i new someone who wanted to buy her elderly dad a present and wat she ended up doing was find the family crest and ended up making it in a cross stitch and put it in a frame it looked nice when it was finished

I printed off a descendants tree from FT2005 for my dad on his 90th birthday last October - he was thrilled with it. Spent/spends hours looking at it.

The trouble with me is I cant imagine ever having decided I have a definitive totally acurate tree to print like that!

Thankyou all, I had been considering whether to buy Family Tree 2005. Does anybody know what the difference is between the Deluxe and Collectors editions. What is on the CD´s? Perhaps I could then print off something myself for my Uncle. Is it possible to add cousins, In-laws etc on FT2005? Karen

Another problem is that I live in Germany and can´t just `pop down´to local offices etc for help!!

You can buy FT2005 on the net. Not sue what the extras are or whether its worth buying them. Ive just got the standard one. You can print off whoever you like, in many different forms and have a genealogy report and a very handy little program that lists everyones relationship to anyone else.

Family Tree Maker has a tree-view that would be ideal for this - you first select the individual concerned (your uncle in this case), then select an "Hourglass Tree". This shows all that person's descendants as well as their ancestors. You can even display photos etc if you've uploaded them, and you can customise the number of generations to show etc.

Problem with a lot of tree charts is the size and how much you want to put on them - how many generations. Most people only have a home printer, which is limited to A4 size paper. However, you can purchase/download charts that go onto A3 size paper/card and i there are places around that will print that size for a small cost - or maybe you know someone who has access to one? Then you would just need to load the chart onto a floppy disc or CD and take it along? Or the easy way is to get it already done and printed up? I just googled "family tree chart" and there are lots of options. On a personal note - i find a lot of the charts availabe difficult to read - not just because the text/writing gets so small, but also because of the layout/design. There is a very simple tree thats free to download and quite nice looking to - if it was framed. Use a nice font but not too fancy or it becomes difficult to read - bit like census forms. lol It only has 4 generations but you could do 2? One for his mum and one for dad? Someone else suggested cross-stitch? Looking at that tree chart, i reckon thatt could easily be done with cross-stitch - and lettering and lines are so quick and easy to do. lol i will shut up now. lol

Karen I have the de luxe addition of family tree, it is very good and I don't think it would be worth the money for the collectors edition. Ann Glos

I have Family Tree Maker 2005 Collectors Edition although have not started to use it yet (Xmas pressie!) I chose this version for various reasons but mainly because you get a years free Ancestre and a longer free trial for Ancestry UK. Go have a look on Amazon, I found the reviews there the most help to make a decision which was best for me. - Karen

There's a link on your homepage near to the bottom of the middle column to a family tree and blank chart printing company www(.)genealogyprinters(.)com Carol

Greeting's Karen..... I had the same idea last year for a 90 year old Aunt..... I decided to make it myself so..... On a sheet of A3 .... Planned out on tracing paper where to put the Family boxes going back to 1600's on both sides. ..... When satisfied transfered it to the A3 paper Then hand wrote the boxes out and then stuck this down on card..... Then made a Mount around this in a dark Red. Downloaded the Coat of Arms for each Family... And stuck these around the mount.... Then put it all into a Frame...... Went down a treat...... MIKE.

Thankyou all for your help, suggestions and tips. Sorry i´m so late replying, did a late shift, went ice-skating and then for a beer! Will let you know how it turns out Thanks again Karen

Pat on the back for all of you, what wonderful people you are! It´s the first time i´ve asked for help. Somehow I don´t think it´ll be the last!! Vielen herzlichen dank! Karen

Not using any fancy family tree software, I use a simple plain excel spreadsheet listing members going down the page as opposed to going across. It is quite effective having the advantage that it can be viewed quite easily on any PC with excel, and you can get a lot of information on one page. The problem is of course, that you cannot download the info from a ged file for eg. However, with a good choice of fonts, a bit of imagination etc, you could produce a reasonable looking tree for any occasion. If anybody wants to see an example, let me know, but I will need your e-mail address in order to send it. Martin Martin