Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Displaying Your Tree

In my time as a family history researcher I have seen lots of different ways to display one's family tree. In fact, I have made quite a few myself. Here is one example I made for my niece Sofia:

It is basically a fan chart. Each direct ancestor is recorded on a leaf and those leaves are then arranged in concentric circles. Older generations are higher up the tree. Her father's side is on the left; her mother's side is on the right.

A few weeks after starting my new job I decided I wanted a poster of some sort for my door. I leave my door open during the day and thus, it is pretty much what I stare at all day; well, aside from my computer.

I wanted something different. I went searching on one of my favorite sites; www.etsy.com. Etsy, for those of you who don't know is kind of like an eBay.com for artisans to sell their creations.

I didn't go looking for a family tree but when I came across the etsy shop called My Circle Family, I couldn't resist. I had never seen a family tree structure in a circle before. And I could customize it any way I wanted to, if I wanted to. For those of you who are impatient as soon as I made my purchase I had a chart to fill in. In less than 72 hours I was off printing my tree at the local Staples.

The tree design you purchase from My Circle Family costs between $20 and $60 depending on how much you want to customize it. If you choose one of the predetermined color combinations it's $20. The cost of printing will vary greatly depending on where you choose to have it done, what material you have it printed on, and how large you want the tree to be. I spent way more on the printing than I wanted to but I wanted it big. For $30 I had a 2 foot x 2 foot poster printed at Staples.

And this is how it looks on my office door.:


That's me in the middle. And my great-great-great grandparents around the outer edge. To me it looks like the rings of a tree.
I love it! 
Thanks, Julie at My Circle Family at etsy.


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