One of our charts made an appearance on the NBC Today Show! The segment featured some Ancestry researchers and a client on a recent ancestral home tour to Sicily. It is such a neat story about the Balistreri family and the connections that were made from his family history research. It will make you want to travel to all your ancestral homes!
The chart we made for their family is shown near minute 3:30. But you will want to watch the whole thing because it is so lovely to see the family's experience. And as the reporter says at the end of the clip, "The message is, go out there, and find out about your history before, honestly, it's too late!"
Hey everyone, we've got a great sale for you for November. We're giving you 50% off any of our DNA charts until the end of the month. You can choose Canvas, Professional Paper, or instant PDF download--as little as $10 to show off your ethnicity.
They come in three styles and you can create a chart with or without a photo. Immediately preview your chart online before printing. The new Ancestry.com estimates are updated and you can print with MyHeritage estimates as well.
Basic
Modern
Traditional
Do you know someone who has had a DNA test taken recently? This is the perfect gift to help them show off their exciting new discoveries. And we're giving you 50% off the gift certificates too. They make a super easy, and really meaningful gift. The gift certificate arrives in your email with all of the instructions on how to redeem and receive your chart.
Gift Certificate
Just go to familychartmasters.com/dna and enter the code "NOVDNA50" for great savings and a super easy way to display your heritage.
When you order, the gift certificate will be sent immediately to your email address and you can print and gift it right away. They are designed to fold into thirds and fit inside an envelope, but you can roll them and put a ribbon around them, or just give them as they are.
We have $25 and $50 gift certificates for custom charts (above) and also DNA chart certificates good for each type of paper/pdf. They are easy to redeem and last for one year.
Sometimes we have clients who want to give a genealogy chart, but it is challenging to know what the recipient would like in design, size etc. And sometimes it is hard to get the genealogy information you need but still retain an element of surprise. Voila--we've designed these certificates just for those occasions. You can share a meaningful gift, and still be able to accommodate the recipients desires.
And best of all, the DNA gift certificates and the regular chart certificates are 25% off this week only. Order Here for Regular Charts and Order Here for DNA Charts. Just in time for giving. No code necessary--the system fills it in for you automatically. It is the perfect time to pick up a discount if you know you will be printing charts yourself in the coming year. Or it is a thoughtful instant gift for a loved one. Either way, we'll look forward to printing you the perfect chart to display your family history.
Submit
your own design for printing. We take files you have created with
RootsMagic, Family Tree Maker, Legacy, TMG, Ancestral Quest, design
programs, PDFs and more. You can choose from seven different paper
qualities ranging from draft to archival for printing. Just send your
file through our free consultation page, and use the code
"HOLIDAYSAVINGS" during checkout.
It only takes 5 minutes to create your own personalized
20x24 Family History DNA chart. A great gift for someone who has taken a
DNA test for you. Just enter your ethnicity estimates, choose from
the three beautiful styles, upload an optional picture, and then order
your chart. Just use the code "HAPPYHOLIDAYS" during checkout.
We're working hard to make sure you have everything you need to
share your family history and inspire your family this holiday season.
Please email
or give us a call at 801-872-4278 if you have any questions. We love
helping you honor your heritage and share it with those you love.
New Genealogy Chart Created for Showing Off DNA Test Results
A beautiful new way to display the results
of a genetic family history test has been created for the millions of
people who are getting to know their ancestors through DNA testing. Family ChartMasters,
the genealogy chart printing leader for over 15 years, has designed a
new DNA ethnicity chart to help family history enthusiasts show off
their genetic heritage.
"We
hope that this new chart will help people who have become curious about
their genealogy through DNA testing become even more excited about
searching out their ancestors," says owner Janet Hovorka. "At Family ChartMasters we believe that family history can save the world. The
more people know about their background, the more they are inspired
with civility, gratitude and compassion for other people because they
find out we are all more alike than different. We want to help people make that easy to remember every day."
The new DNA chart comes in three styles, Basic, Modern and Antique, to fit different décor styles. In less than five minutes a person can enter the ethnicity estimates from their DNA test (currently aligned with Ancestry's DNA regions), and upload an optional photo. After viewing a preview, an order can be placed to print the chart on archival Professional Paper or Artist's Grade Canvas. Following Family ChartMasters' proven track record of superior service, the beautiful print will arrive rolled in a tube and ready to frame. PDF downloads are also available for immediate delivery to an email inbox. Pricing starts at $19.95.
Genealogists will find thischart to be an easy and meaningful gift for a family member who has helped them with their research by taking a DNA test or for family members who are interested in their ethnic makeup. "We love helping family historians share their findings,"
says Hovorka. "Just like all of our other genealogy charts, this new DNA chart will help families bond over their common roots and appreciate their heritage."
As usual the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy was a phenomenal success and I enjoyed myself immensely. This year was even more fantastic though because Kim and I were able to take the whole week off and simply sit in class. For the last five years I've been involved with UGA and the SLIG committee in helping put on the institute, but this year I was able to just relax and be a student--enjoy it with my husband--and learn tons. Thanks so much to our employees who kept Family ChartMasters humming and to the SLIG team for making the conference such a success.
Kim and I took Blaine Bettinger's Beginning DNA for Genealogy course. If you haven't ever attended an institute, it is really something special. We were able to take 20 courses just about DNA and it's use in genealogy. Even though I knew quite a bit about DNA's use in genealogy, and we've had all of our parent's generation tested who were willing, along with all of Kim's brothers and our son, I'm really sure now that I have filled in all the holes, and have a really good understanding of the foundation of DNA research. Not only that, I have a partner now who can work with me to solve genealogy problems and extend our research. We studied YDNA, mtDNA, and atDNA and learned about all of the companies who do the testing, their pricing and databases, the third party tools that will help you interpret the data, the ways you can apply it to genealogy and the ethical considerations to be aware of. We heard case studies about how it has been used to solve complex problems, and best of all, we were able to discuss the issues with many of the leaders in the genealogy industry as we spent the week with them. I learned so much, over lunch, in the hallways and with dear friends. So so awesome. Blaine is a phenomenal teacher. I really appreciate him as a well-educated instructor and as a good friend.
As usual, I didn't think to take any pictures until the last day, and I'm shy about asking to take pictures with people anyway. Here's Kim and I extracting strawberry DNA during the last class. So fun to take the class together.
One of the highlights of the week was getting to meet Jessica Taylor of Legacy Tree Genealogists. It was great to be able to talk to someone who is running a genealogy company and dealing with many of the same issues that we are. Really competent genealogy business people are hard to come by so it is a real treasure when you find a new one. I so appreciate all of our genealogy business friends that I can bounce ideas off and learn from and I'm so excited to find a new one.
And to top it all off, I was completely surprised Friday night when they gave me the UGA Award of Merit for my service to the association. I had so many people come up to me and thank me and tell me I had really done great things. I was overwhelmed. And then, when I posted this picture to Facebook, the outpouring was unbelievable. I had so many comments and likes, I've got to be careful not to get a big head. Tessa Keough made my day when she commented, "
you are so positive and enthusiastic. Your company provides a great
product and you do lots of volunteer activities - people notice and see
you do things for the right reasons, furthering genealogy and family
history. You show that you can be "in it" for others and also be
successful, all with graciousness. Congratulations - well deserved." Wow. And all of this was ten times better because Kim was able to be there with me. It was so fun to introduce him to all my SLIG friends and have him to hang out with us. Thanks so much to our awesome people at Family ChartMasters for letting us go. Life is just really really good.
I don't know where to start! What a fabulous conference we just had. I'm so full of gratitude, to our clients, our friends, to this wonderful community that I get to work with and to the organizers at FamilySearch and FGS. I just said to myself over and over "This is what a genealogy conference should be like." Yea! Finally! Here are my favorite parts in no particular order:
My Family Was There. Both my aunt and uncle on my Dad's side came to the conference with their spouses, as well as my parents, my children and of course Kim. That is what it is all about isn't it? It was so fantastic to have my family there with me at a family history conference. One of the major highlights for me was all of the DNA kits we purchased. Between all of us, let's just say we took home a good portion of the 15,000 kits Ancestry sold. Yes, I'm on the cusp of a DNA overdose. I can't wait. Likewise, so many other genealogists were able to bring their family too. It was fun to meet Mothers and Fathers and kids of other genealogists. That's what it should be like.
Endorsements. The very first day, we had a very popular
genealogy figure come tell us she was ready to endorse us. She has been
careful to be fair and slow to endorse particular companies so that
made my day. I respect her opinion and we are pleased to have gained
her trust. We also had several other well-respected and well
established organizations come to us about partnerships and help with
printing and design. We take the trust we have with genealogy companies
and other genealogy entities very seriously so we were thrilled with
all of the new endorsements we gained last week. We can't wait to
solidify them and tell you about them soon.
Our FANTASTIC Family ChartMasters Team. We thought we were incredibly overstaffed but we were entirely understaffed. Our new employees, Christine Fazulyanov, and Michelle Phillips were incredible troopers and worked so hard. Erin Roudabush and Lara Orchard who have been with us for years were amazing as always. And Susan McGhie, our new sales help was great--she knew all about our processes because we recently did a fantastic chart for her--she even found some new cousins by showing it off. We even pressed Mom and Dad into service and they were a great support again. Everyone worked non-stop and we were able to help lots of people with charts and with Zap ideas for their youth. Just what we came to do. We haven't seen anything but growth over the last several years so we
are confident we are delivering a good product. We always want to hear
what you think about how we can do better. Let us know. We really want
to help you create amazing charts.
Busy, Busy Busy! From what I heard, the numbers were at 22,000. Finally, the rest of the world is
catching on to how wonderful family history is. A hearty thank you to FamilySearch for being able to spend the money to be able to grow this audience. We are so pleased to have a conference that is starting to look like Comic Con. Family History is that cool. I'm so thrilled that the rest of the world is finally figuring that out. The constant crowds of people were awesome.
Friends In Real Life. So this part was great and also not so great. We honestly have a family in the genealogy world. I really care about these friends I see at conferences and online. We've become close. So I love to see them in real life and catch up with what is going on in their lives. So many hugs. This time, several of my friends had been through huge challenges that you wouldn't share in social networking. It was heartbreaking to hear about these challenges, but I'm so glad to know the whole truth. I'm hoping I can find some small ways to help. I really appreciate that they felt they could be honest with me and hope the hugs helped a little.
My Neighbors Were There. One of my great joys was having many of my neighbors, and other friends who live in Salt Lake City show up. It was so wonderful to see people that I don't usually see at a genealogy conference being curious. I'm so excited that RootsTech has been able to reach that far. I hope the next step is to take it on the road to other parts of the country.
The RootsTech Program. I didn't catch much of it but the parts I caught were phenomenal. If the rest of the conference was as wonderful as the sessions I was in the whole thing was amazing. Great content. My favorite part was the new song and video from David Archuleta for FamilySearch and Ancestry's big move into Mexico. The video still hasn't been released here but one of the attendees posted David's second performance of the song on YouTube. Love It!
Can't wait until Studio C releases the video they played Friday night too. Great stuff. Fun to introduce my Genealogy friends to Studio C too. As if the 17,000 excited people in the room weren't enough to be happy about.
The Kids. There has been a little bit of online banter about whether or not all the kids who descended on RootsTech Saturday were actually all that interested. They may not be interested yet, but if we can make RootsTech fun, offer swag and some bags of candy, a little Studio C, hopefully they'll come along. Count me in to do everything I can to help make this their first step. Hopefully they'll progress towards the strong identities, resilience and self esteem they'll find as they learn more about family history. Again, this is absolutely what a family history conference should be like. We need this next generation desperately. It should be a family endeavor. If, as a genealogy vendor you felt like this wasn't your market, you need to make it your market. New market is good. Let's grow! RootsTech has delivered this next generation to us and we all need to do everything we can to make sure they love family history. I'm all in.
The one thing I wasn't thrilled about was my lectures. Even though I was really well prepared, after days of go go go, I don't think I was at the top of my game. I really appreciate the people who came up afterward and said they
liked what I had to say. They taped the "6 Steps to Choreograph Your
Research Across The Internet" but I'm not sure when it will be
available. If you want to see the lecture, a better option would
probably be to sign up for the SCGS webinar on this coming Wednesday where I am giving it again. I will have had more sleep so I think there won't be as many "ums" Either way though, I hope the lectures helped some people organize their research more.
Another drawback was that there just wasn't enough time to really talk to our friends and partners enough. We did more of our great Outside the Box sessions with Lisa Louise Cooke, Maureen Taylor, and Family Tree Magazine. (Another Highlight)
But I hardly got to see them--we were all going 10 different directions. Thanks to Family Tree Magazine for the great dinner we had, and for everyone who we got to eat with at other times during the conference. It was so good to have time to chat. That is always a favorite part of any genealogy conference.
All in all, I think our Ancestors are pleased. The genealogy community is stronger and our family relationships are tighter. All is good in the world.
James Taylor (center) and his parents. Photo provided by and used with express permission of PBS Communications.
Not too long ago we were contacted by Josh Taylor and the producers of the PBS show Genealogy Roadshow asking us if we would print a chart for a young man being featured on their show. As the show discussed, this young man's name James Herschel Taylor and he is as sweet as they come. Of course, we were thrilled to help in any way we could.
James Taylor is the son of Berhonda and James Taylor and he has had a keen interest in his personal genealogy, as well as ancient history. James has Asperger's Syndome, a form of Autism. He's a brilliant kid whose interest in his heritage and the world history surrounding his background is inspiring. Everyone at Genealogy Roadshow fell in love with him and his family and I have to say, we did too. We have experience with Asperger's in our family and so this story touched very close to home for us.
James is featured on the St. Louis Central Library episode of Genealogy Roadshow (aired January 19th, 2015) and can be found here the show's website (linked through on pbs.org). His story starts around the 33:17 minute mark and ends around the 42:43 mark. You can see our chart though from 41:52 to about 42:14. The show did a DNA profile on James and asked us to include his DNA map on the chart, to show were his ancestry in located. Now, where else can you find a chart like that? Of course, Josh knew exactly where to go for what he was looking for. We were able to pull together the chart very quickly and get it right out to the producers of the show for them to present to James and his parents. It was a great experience and of course we all got teary watching he and his family get so emotional about having their ancestry on display for them.
We all enjoyed the experience of creating this chart that meant so much to James and his family. It was clear that it was important to them to not only have new information about their family, provided by Josh and the producers of the show, but also a tangible reminder of that history. It's just a great example of one of the reasons why we do this. There is distinct power and stability in being able to see those who have come before you. Berhonda, James's mother, said at one point when looking at her ancestry, "You long for someone, and you wish you could meet them." We have that innate pull and desire to know our ancestors in each of us and charts are such an amazing way to "meet" them and reinforce that connection each day. This was just another of many highlights for us at Family ChartMasters. I was so happy Josh came to me to design a chart for James and I look forward to working with Genealogy Roadshow again in the future. We hope James and his family treasures their chart, in their home, for years to come.
DNA testing. It's the current buzz term in the genealogy world right now. For good and for bad. So let's discuss it today, shall we? Why not, everyone else is! Today's post is spurred on by a pretty vigorous online discussion that is happening at the moment and I think there are some important points that aren't getting enough attention in the process.
The original story, that you can see in original form here and is also referenced here by Dick Eastman, is of a biologist who, after teaching a college course on the genome, thought it might be fun/informative/interesting/helpful to take a DNA test in order to discover his susceptibility to certain familial cancers. The fun part, he thought, came in by buying tests for his parents too. Because honestly, if you are him, why not? In his defense and in complete sympathy for him, what else could he possibly expect the outcome of a saliva swab to be? Apparently a bouncing baby boy was not on his list of standard deviations. Obviously. So this poor man and his family were thrust into the gaping jaws of a personal family soap opera all because of an opt-in button for finding close relatives. It's ended quite tragically for his family, and I recognize that in every possible way, but I don't think that this story, or the very many others like it, should cause us to dismiss DNA testing out of hand, without really examining the root of the conflict the "insta-family" button is creating for some folks.
First and foremost, the scripture that keeps coming to mind when I hear this story and so many like it, is actually found in the New Testament in Luke 12:3. It says: "Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops." The takeaway from that? We can't hide what we've done. Eventually everything comes to light. And now, with these DNA tests, which George Doe (above) discovered and points out, we are dealing with highly advanced paternity tests. Now, George's story, as tragic as it is, is also very vague on certain details. How old was the half-brother and did his age indicate that he was born before or after the creation of the author's family? Did George's father even know (chances are no because the author seems to indicate his dad was just as shocked as he was at the discovery) that this lost child even existed. There are so many variables to this story that we just don't know. His father even thought that the test he had taken was defective -- a very common reaction many people are having when unexpected results come back. And at first, my reaction was that he had to have had some idea that there was a possibility of it when he sent off his cheek swab but now... maybe not so much. We just don't know how everything went down. Or when it went down. So to say that DNA tests are bad or that the "opt-in" button on the results is bad is pretty extreme. I am a believer in owning our actions. One hundred percent, all the time, every day. You do it, own it. Especially when it comes to light, as Luke has so clearly told us it will, own it. So to blame the opt-in button is a bitter pill for me to swallow. I agree with George that it is easy for people to not understand the ramification of clicking that button but part of me still thinks that you've got to go in with eyes wide open knowing that maybe something might come back that you aren't expecting.
There are two sides to this coin though. The other side of the narrative is referenced beautifully by Kerry Scott in her blog post here. I seriously wanted to give her a virtual high-five after reading this. Discovering unknown half-siblings, or that your parents (one or both) aren't your parents, while stunning and possibly devastating, may not be something that needs to be judged as harshly as some people are wont to do. It may not be what we think it is. This is especially in the case of long ago generations where life and social expectations were so very different from today. I loved her comment about a "statute of limitations" for our family judgement. Good food for thought, isn't it? People did the best they could do with the knowledge they had and the environment in which they lived. Sometimes what looks like a shocker family revelation may have been a sincere horror for a woman in our family line. So that's something to chew on as well.
DNA testing has huge benefits. It just recently positively identified the remains of Richard III in England, as well as positively identifying Jack the Ripper. It has gotten innocent people off of death row and it has helped find matches for all sorts of medical miracles. So, I guess my opinion on DNA testing is we shouldn't throw the baby out with the bath water (go ahead and insert your tongue firmly into your cheek as you read that too). Like I say all the time, every family has some scoundrels and some heroes. Even the scoundrels have heroic qualities and vice versa for our heroes. The beauty of family history is coming to know who you are and dealing with the good and the bad and healing from all of it. Things come to light, even things we think we can hide. Eventually, everyone will know everything. And maybe that creates some uncomfortable (and even presently damaging) situations for some people. But for now, we don't know what we don't know until we know it. And to blame all of that on some test is a bit on the extreme side. Those things existed before the tests are ever taken. And even then, whose to say we'll really know even then. But my big takeaway is this, when we research our family history (via records or DNA) we're going to find stuff we may not want. It may seem like the world is ending in that moment, but eventually, it could be the most healing thing in someone's life. So I tend to feel, overall, that we should all walk into this with the clear expectation that discovering the unexpected is not a bad thing. It's an opportunity.
