Genealogy Chat

I work in a factory that has an engineering department. I have asked if they print out a tree on their plotter( which they have said yes to ). The paper that the plotter uses is about two by four feet ( don't know the correct size of it ). Hopefully that will be big enough as it's for an Auntie. So if you have a CAD department at work try them to see if can print it on a BIG piece of paper. Spud

Hi Colette If you google genealogy printers you will find a great site which will print your family tree for you at what I consider to be a very reasonable price. I intend using them when I have gathered as much information as I can - and I've been gathering information for nearly 20 years !!! Best wishes Margaret

I do several family trees on Word typing in all the family members starting at the oldest at the top drawing the lines on with the drawing facility doing it on font size 8 and in Colour. I have my immediate line in RED BOLD and underlined. Who ever the person married to is in a different colour and I have their offspring in the same colour as the wife so you can quickly see whos who. When I get too many I cut and paste them to another page and put on the original page go to such and such a page for their family. It works really well as i can print sheets off to give to people and I always take them to the records office with me so if I come across some thing I can easily see if it fits inwith what i have. I also have them in on a family tree programme as well.

I've got FTM2005 and when I print off my all in one tree it takes 18 pages and that is with the font size so small you can barely read it. It is stuck on my office wall so I can easily refer to it though so its very handy.

Sarah, That sounds brilliant, methinks it's time for an upgrade, lol. Heather

I use FTM and can print off an 'all in one tree' which shows absoluately anyone and everyone. Only problem is that it prints on sheets of A4 paper and you end up with god knows how many pages to stick together with tape. Then of course you find another line on your tree and the one you've printed out ends up covered in notes Sarah

Hi Colette I have an old version of the Family Tree Maker and can print several variations of my tree on A4 paper and then have to stick the bits together. There is an ancestor tree which shows all the parents and grandparents OR a descendants tree where you choose a person and it will show all the children and grandchildren etc OR there's an hourglass tree where you choose a person and it shows their descendants and their parents and grandparents. None of them show all the g-g-grandparents with all their descendants at the same time, I don't know if the newer versions can do that. Heather

Thanks for all your ideas, think i will get a roll of lining paper haaaaaaaaaaaaaa. Just done a small tree from http:/genealogy(.)about(.)com its a nice little tree you can fill in then print off, that was bad enough but managed to fill in all the boxes with dates born and dates died. Thourght i would do another one starting from my Grt Grandad going backwards jesssssssssssssss did not realise i have a few blanks for dates died etc for his grandparents etc. Think i am off to ask for national burial index look upsssssssss here we go again. Its funny really not untill you go to write a tree do you realise you have a few blank spots which when researching these people you think oh i'll find that later and never did because you went off in another direction ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh theres too many peopleeeeeeeeeee. Colette xxxxxxxx sorry i started

I'd also like some ideas. My Partner wants me to produce something to go on the dining room wall. He wants me at the top with my ancestors below. He also wants the aunts and uncles included. (My Dad was one of seven, my Mum one of five) I don't think he has any idea how big this tree will be once I start going further back. I can see his reasoning. When I say 'so and so is my third cousin' he needs a diagram to figure which branch this person is on (out of the possible eight) I've so far come up with the idea of index cards and bluetack but if anyone else can think of with a better solution . I don't need to go more than four generations (including me) as anything further back than that would need every wall in the house!

I haven't 'wrote' a family tree all I do is stick to 1 side of the family ie male side of paternal line included in this are the siblings and their partners,if I wish to follow any of these then I would start another 'branch',you can get a proffessional to do it for you if your'e so inclined of course this I believe is fairly pricy, ultimately its youre tree so you do what suits you if people are interested they will ask. good luck dennis

I went to a family reunion for one of my branches a couple of years ago. The tree for the branch goes back to the late 1600's. The organiser had submitted her computer data to a company who then produced a massive tree of all the records supplied. I think, despite the fact that there were around 9 generations covered, the tree only measured about two feet from top to bottom. But from left to right it must have been around 25-30 feet in length!!! Hope you have a large wall! Or, as you said, you might need to do several different ones? Maybe a tree going back from each of your four grandparents? Have fun! Sarah

I have been doing family research for 5 years and i have still not written out a family tree, as we all have so many branches if i did write one out it would be massive. I would like to do one and put it in a frame on the wall sort of something to show for all the hard work i have done so i am wondering would it be best to do one for each family name then i could add all the siblings and their marriages etc. otherwise on a normal standard tree you lose all the siblings and their families. Anyone have any thourghts i have 6 files cramped with info and nothing to show for what i have achieved, i think family get lost when you show them a file even though its fascinating all the stuff ie pictures of graves old houses bmds etc is not the same as saying here you go heres our family tree. Col xxxxxxxxxx