Display 7 Generations of Your Family Tree 
7 Generations of
My Family Tree

by Godridges of Coventry

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The story so far...

When my wife was pregnant with our son I started thinking about "family" in a way I hadn't considered before. My family became more important to me than ever and I wanted to find out more about them.

This wasn't just to satisfy my own curiosity, but to be able to explain to my son about where he came from and what made him who he is today.

 I was lucky... I knew all of my Grandparents and I'd heard stories about some of my Great Grandparents. But I wanted to find out more, go back further and find out where my family originally came from. Then I wanted a way of showing what I found to the rest of my family and friends.

So I set myself a challenge.

I would find all my direct ancestors reaching back at least seven generations. I would also design a giant wall chart on which I could display my findings. Finally, I would find a way to make back some of the cost of completing this challenge.

Initially I thought this challenge would be a tall order, in fact I was sure I would fail. OK, not the best attitude to start with I know, but I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly my family tree grew... and... in the end... my family and friends were astounded by my results.

Now please don't misunderstand, I'm not saying that this was the best or the most efficient method of tracing a family tree. It's just the way I did it. But, however you find your ancestors I do guarantee you this...

You will NOT find a better way to display your family tree.

Here's what I knew:

But what information should I record about these people? What is important in the life of somebody that can be recorded in just a few lines? I decided on the basics, plain and simple.

I would record their...

• Full Name including Maiden Name where applicable.
• Date and Place of Birth
• Date and Place of Death, unless they were still alive!

If anyone was interested, their age at death could easily be calculated from these dates.

During my search, I found it very interesting to see where my relatives were born and where they died. You could actually see the migration of the family over time. In many cases it was possible to discover why they had moved, as in most cases it turned out that the migration of the family was in the search for work.

So finally, I decided to record the main occupation for each person as well.

I was starting to get a sense of actually knowing something about these people who I'd obviously never met, and in a way, getting to know myself and where I'd come from.

I needed to design my chart... before my notes got out of hand.

I had decided early on that my chart would need to cover 7-Generations - from myself to my Great-great-great-great grandparents. All 64 of them..!

Enough of a challenge I thought. Besides, the online census records only go back to 1841, which should allow me to find most of my G4 grandparents but not my G5 grandparents with any certainity. All right, I admit this was just laziness, but to go back just one more generation to my G5 grandparents would involve finding a further 128 ancestors! ...and that's a lot of legwork.

Having looked around to see what other charts were available, it became clear to me that the only practical and visually pleasing design would be a fan shape.

The traditional stacking design wasted too much space and would require either a huge sheet of paper or extremely tiny writing. But by taking the stacking design and bending the layers around in a fan shape, I could display more information in a much smaller space.

Another of my original ideas, that I wanted to incorporate on the chart, was the use of computer printer labels. This would make it easy for me to print the details directly from a database and then stick them in place on the chart neatly. Very important as I have terrible handwriting!

The most suitably sized labels I could find were Avery mini labels at 38.1mm x 21.2mm, 65 per A4 sheet. Using a size 10 font on my wordprocessor I could comfortably get 5 lines of text. The result was neat and easy to read. Perfect.

I spent a few hours one morning sticking labels on to a blank A1 sheet of paper. My aim was to design the final layout for the chart. I needed 7 layers, equally spaced, allowing for 64 labels in the outer layer.

Once done, I inked in around the labels and added a few finishing touches. Here's the result...

I took my creation down to the printers to see if they could take a copy and print it onto glossy poster paper - They scanned it and digitally printed it onto high quality paper... but...

A happy "accident" occurred.

Something strange happened in the scanning/printing process and the background came out with a eerie green swirly pattern.

The printer apologised and offered to do it again for free, but I rather liked it and got him to save the scanned file to a disc instead.

The process of scanning and printing cost me £30.00 but the end result was stunning.

I got to work on finding my ancestors and completing my chart.

Most of my research was done online using the Ancestry.co.uk website. Starting with a person I knew, I found them and their parents, then went back 10 years, 20 years, through the census records to trace their parents and find their grandparents and great grandparents.

I came to a grinding halt in 1841 as no earlier census records exist. If I want to go back further I will need to get birth certificates or search parish records - Maybe later.

For each new relation I found, I entered their details in my database.

Using the data I was then able to design a simple mail-merge document in my wordprocessor to print the database records to my PC labels. I had 65 labels per sheet, so once I had found 65 relatives, I printed out their details.

I could then start sticking the labels to my chart and watch my family tree grow.

It was time to find my G3 grandparents.

I found most of them and printed them out.

Peel off the label.

Carefully line up the label in the box.

Stick another ancestor in place.

Next one...

So now... finally... it's finished.

I managed to find all but two of my G4 grandparents. Apparently one of my great-great grandparents was born out of wedlock and so her father's details remain unknown. I can only imagine the disgrace of that back in the 1890s.

My finishing touches were to add some photos of the relatives for whom photographs existed and then frame the chart.

It now hangs with pride of place in my dining room and is a fascinating talking point over dinner.

In fact...

During a recent dinner party, one of my friends suggested I should sell the chart on the internet. "I'm sure there are people out there who would love to have one of those. I'd buy one!", he said.

So I did.

I went back to the printer and asked him how much it would cost to get 50 copies made. He said he could do them for £20.00 each which was £10.00 less than I paid for the original. Still, £1000.00 seemed a lot of cash to pay up front. What if I couldn't sell any?

After a bit of negotiation the printer agreed to print 10 charts at £20.00 each. I thought £200.00 was less of a gamble and I could see if they would sell. I could always get more printed if I needed to.

Well... they all sold in ONE WEEK on ebay! Each for the Buy-It-Now price of £27.50 plus £1.50 postage.

I have now negiotiated a substantially better deal with the printer and can offer you a chart - assuming you would like one - for the very reasonable price of just £17.99 plus the postage of course. Just think, that's almost half what I paid for my original chart and most of the hard work has been done for you... All you need to do is find your family!

To order a "My Family Tree" wall chart, please click the PayPal button below for purchase and payment options. You can pay via PayPal account, any major credit card through the PayPal website or personal cheque if your prefer.

Since I finished my personal family tree chart, my wife has caught the bug and has started tracing her own family tree. In fact she has gone back even further than I did - About nine generations at last count - Hundreds of names and dates in a massive database!!

She handed out some extra Christmas presents this year by making personalised family tree charts for her parents and mine... all gratefully received. Some of these ancestors date back to the 1600s, but alas, no hidden fortunes in the family vault... not yet anyway.

A bonus FREE gift for you.

I don't want you to make any mistakes while compiling your family tree. So please click the link to download a FREE 7-Generation chart planner.

I found it invaluable when building my own chart and I'm sure you will too.

Enjoy your genealogy and get yourself a "My Family Tree" wall chart today.

All the best,

P. W. Godridge

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Many thanks for your interest in our product and company. If you have any questions, comments or queries please feel free to email me.

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