I love beautiful, informative charts. I love them even more when they are free! That lovely fan chart up there was created for free at TreeSeek.com, using information from FamilySearch.org.
In the center of that chart is Adeline Perrault, my 4th great grandmother straight up my maternal line. I wanted to look at my tree based on only her ancestry to see where my holes are and make some decisions about where I may choose to research next.
Now, if you are thinking to yourself that you don’t use FamilySearch so creating that lovely chart is not an option for you, guess what? TreeSeek has you covered. You can create a chart from a gedcom file. If you don’t use a genealogy software program, but you do use an online tree service such as the one found at Ancestry.com, you can download a gedcom file of your tree to use on TreeSeek.
Let’s take a quick tour of TreeSeek and the chart options you have. When you go to TreeSeek.com you will see a landing page like this:
Notice that in the center gray box you have two options: “Login now to create your chart” and “New! We now support creating charts with a GEDCOM file. Try now.” The login option will take you to a FamilySearch sign-in page.
Before we log-in, I want to point out that if you scroll down you will see some of the chart options available:
After clicking the log-in option I am taken to a FamilySearch sign-in page. If you are not a FamilySearch user, you will need to upload a gedcom file, your chart choices will be limited, but that beautiful 9 generation fan chart is available to you.
After logging in I am given some quick options. Under “Starting Person”, there is a drop-down menu that currently has my name, Amberly Beck, showing. The other options I have automatically are: my husband, children, and parents. I can also choose anyone I like based on their 7 character PID number in FamilySearch. I simply type that PID number into the empty box to the right of my name. After selecting the start person, I choose my chart.
Here is the complete list of chart types to choose from:
I can name my chart if I like and select whether I want to include the siblings of the start person on the chart. Once I have made my selections, I click the green “Create Chart” button.
Next, I will see this message as the chart is being created.
Once the chart is complete it appears in a window like this:
I can click the green “Download Chart” button to download this chart as a pdf. Once I have the file, I can save it as a jpeg if I like.
If you are not a FamilySearch user, you will click on the “New! We now support creating charts with a GEDCOM file. Try now.” button.
That will take you to this page:
You will click the white “Choose File” button and then select your gedcom file from your computer. After your file has uploaded, you will see this:
In the dropdown menu you will see a list of people in your gedcom file. They are organized generationally starting with you. I chose my great grandfather and a 9 Gen Fan, and then clicked “Create Chart”.
Again, my chart shows up and I have the option to download the pdf file of the chart.
Here are a few other cool charts I was able to make. These options are only available to FamilySearch users at present.
Mixed first names in a name cloud from FamilyTree on FamilySearch, using me as the starting person. This means this comes from my portion of the tree on FamilySearch. Remember, no one has their own tree on FamilySearch.
Female first names in a name cloud.
Male first names in a name cloud.
Surnames in a name cloud.
I think this chart is my favorite of all. It uses the profile photos I have selected for each person on FamilySearch. My parents are in the center with my brother and I beneath. I removed the names of anyone who is living, but those are also on the chart. I want to go in and update each person with the best photo of I have and create this chart again and frame it. It’s such a lovely visual for my children to really get to know our family tree. I also need to either remove my brother or add my other siblings. 😉
One last note, these charts print up beautifully in very large sizes. They can be printed at any copy store. If you live near BYU, the BYU Family History Library has a wonderful fan chart printing service available for anyone to use. You can print a full color 24×18 poster print for $3.50 or a full color 24×36 poster print for $7.00. They are printed on a high quality, thick paper.
Have you used TreeSeek to create any charts? Do you have another favorite service for creating charts?
Happy Wednesday, I hope you make a fantastic genealogy discovery today!