Over the weekend, a friend sent me a text that said this:
Hi Amberly! An elderly gentleman at the Care Center has asked me to get a copy of his genealogy! I’ve printed out some fan charts but they don’t have much information. Do you know of a simple way to print out a little more detail?….I’m in over my head!
That’s a pretty vague request from said gentleman. I logged into FamilySearch to refresh my memory about the various printing options found in the tree.
Here is a sample of my Great Grandmother’s person page in the tree on FamilySearch:
On the bottom right you can see a box for “Print” options. Here is the entire “Print” menu found on a person page:
I don’t typically print any charts from FamilySearch. But my friend’s question got me thinking about her options. Here was my response to her:
Hmmm… it depends on what he wants. You could go in and find a few stories to print. You can also print family group sheets or a picture pedigree from any person in the tree. I’ll send you a few screenshots.
If it were me, and I had gotten this vague request, I think I would ask a few questions of the gentleman to try to assess what he is interested in. But based on the limited info we have to work with, I would print a few fan charts, a few stories, and the beautiful, free portrait pedigree that FamilySearch generates with the click of a button.
From my Grandpa’s person page, I clicked on “Portrait Pedigree” in the “Print Menu” and was instantly given this beautiful Portrait Pedigree:
My Grandpa is the subject of the chart but my parents show as his descendants. I edited out their personal information. You will notice the black line under my Dad’s baby picture. This is a helpful reminder of which of the descendants are children of the subject. In this case only my Mom and Dad show up, but if there were multiple children showing, that line would add a lot of clarity.
If you are linked into the Family Tree* found on FamilySearch.org, give the Portrait Pedigree a try, see what charts are there for you.
Happy Monday! I hope you make a fabulous genealogy discovery today!
*Please note that no one “has a tree” on FamilySearch.org. The Family Tree found on FamilySearch is a collaborative tree. The goal of that tree is to have only one instance of each person who has ever lived on the earth. Family Tree users are encouraged to work together to make the tree as accurate and complete as possible with good sources and reason statements. If you are not interested in participating in this complicated work, don’t feel bad about that, but also, please don’t get upset by the mistakes that are found there or fall into the mistake of believing that someone “put your tree on FamilySearch”. You have LOTS of distant cousins who share large portions of your tree. No one “put your tree on FamilySearch”. 😉