Today I finished a genealogy task I’ve been working on for ages: computer drawn fan charts of all my direct ancestors. I wanted charts that were easy to update, would fit on an A4 page so I could print them at home, and can stick discretely on the wall as a visual guide to where I’ve got and where I need to do some research next. They’re not perfect but they’re meant to be working documents, not works of art.
Having had a career in advertising I’m proficient at desktop publishing, and having a Mac means access to fantastic software, so I’m not suggesting everyone does this! But if you want to have a go, you could download a template (there are plenty of them online), import it as a picture, then add your own text boxes. Or you could write the names in by hand on a tracing paper overlay over a printed blank chart. (In the past I’ve tried writing on printed blank charts but all it takes is one mistake to make a mess of it!)
I’ve done screen shots so you can see them, though they may not reproduce too well here. But at least you’ll get the idea. I did two of them, starting from my two sets of grandparents.
Strachan and McCrae Fan Chart
Fraser and Green Fan Chart
Now I’ve finally got something that gives me an overall visual I can see where the gaps are, and do some interesting analysis.
OOh, these are nice!
Great idea. It can really help to make new mental connections when you look at your data in a visual way. So far I’ve scribbled charts on paper and in doing so I realized I knew more than I thought I did. I’ll try a fan chart!
Welcome to my blog. I agree, having a visual reminder of where you are is really helpful. It took me several false starts before finding a format that worked, but fan charts turned out to be the answer.