Help Page for Robin's Family Tree Reports

I'm definitely not a "real" genealogist, and I've just never gotten used to the standard reports available in commercial genealogy software. I developed my own software way back in the early 1980's, before commercial genealogy packages were available. I have converted to Ancestry.com and Ancestry.com's Family Tree Maker™ software for data entry, but I still prefer my style of reports, and I do my reporting from a database that I load with data extracted from Family Tree Maker.

Caveats:

1. Though I think that my family tree reports will appeal to genealogy novices, they are, admittedly, unfamiliar to novices and experienced genealogists alike.
2. I much prefer seeing "the big picture" rather than putting the big picture together from a lot of detail, and my web pages and printouts reflect that bias.
3. Printing of formatted data in web pages is not nearly as flexible as I wish it were. (For example, if something is wider than the printed page, it gets cut off, and that's that.)

I produce four kinds of family trees pages for the Web, all of which are represented on this Web site. They are all truly Web pages, in that many, though not all, of the people on a page are represented by hyperlinks that go to other reports focusing on that person. Each of these formats are described in a little more detail below.

1. Descendant Trees
   Descendency Charts are a "standard" form of genealogical report, though their format varies from program to program. My Descendant Trees are essentially just an continuous outline (with lines drawn to emphasize the outline indendation). I believe that my Descendant Trees come pretty close to the norm, BUT, for large trees, I much prefer a format I developed several years ago, which I call...
2. Horizontal Family Trees (see more detailed explanation)
   My horizontal family tree format makes it much easier to recognize relationships than the typical descendency charts printed by genealogy programs. However, this format isn't really well suited for HTML because it requires more width than Web browsers can print. These reports work best when printed in landscape format - preferably with 14-inch (or wider) paper.
3. Family Group Trees (see more detailed explanation)
   My Family Group Trees are my substitute for standard Family Group Sheets. They are just Descendancy Charts representing 2, 3, or 4 (sometimes more) generations. Generally, the number of generations is chosen so that the report prints on one page.
4. Ancestor Trees (see more detailed explanation)
   I don't use standard "Pedigree Charts", but have my own format that includes all of my ancestors in a single report, whereas Pedigree Charts break up the family into 5-generation chunks. I can also include aunts & uncles in my Ancestor Trees. report.

I've tried to implement a scheme that lets you take advantage of both the hard-to-print and the readily-printable formats:

• The Horizontal Trees and Ancestor Trees give the big picture, and the Family Group Trees focus on one nuclear family.
• You can start by looking at the big horizontal trees, and follow the hyperlinks to the Family Group Trees for individual people in the tree.
• You can can also follow the hyperlinks in Family Group Trees to look at other Family Group Trees.

A note for advanced Web surfers: If you browse around among the family group sheets and then follow a hyperlink back to a family tree, you'll find yourself at the top of the tree. If you want to keep your place in the family tree, you might want to use two browser windows.

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Robin's Ancestor Trees

And, I can't promise that this HTML report will print reasonably on your printer. One of the terrible things HTML is that no Web browser I know of can print wide Web pages. Your browser has a font size and a page layout (landscape or portrait), and that's all you get. Yes, there are ways to use your browser to download more flexible programs and files (e.g. Adobe Acrobat and PDF files), but I'm not there yet.

So my recommendations are that you

• Fiddle with your browser font sizes so that you can see more of the chart at once.
• Use landscape format
• OR, you can e-mail me, call me, or mail me a letter, and I'll send you a printout of the portion of the tree appropriate to you. (e.g. for Hutcheson & Kuykendall cousins, that probably means my Grandmother Edith Hutcheson Richmond's ancestors, not all of mine.)

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Robin's Horizontal Family Tree Format

I have reproduced them for the Web, but you may find that you want to fiddle with your browser font sizes so that you can see more of the chart at once. I've tried to make them as narrow as I can, given the limitations of the format, but some of them are too wide even for legal-size landscape format. I occasionally get by with using 11x17 paper on printers at work.

If you want some of these print-outs and can't get them to print, feel free to email me and I'll send you a printout, or a file you can print.

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Robin's "Family Group Trees"

Unlike my ancestor trees and horizontal family trees, my Family Group Trees are readily printable through a Web browser. Most fit on one page, depending on your browser's font size settings.

All in all, they are the easiest of the family reports to work with; they just can't give you the big picture. If, for instance, you are looking at a Family Group Tree and want to figure out how a person is related to you, or how to navigate back to your own Family Group Tree, the Family Group Trees don't give you much help. You'll need the larger ancestor trees and horizontal family trees for that.

Since there are so many people in a family tree, and so many potential Family Group Trees, I haven't actually produced Family Group Trees for each and every nuclear family. For instance, I don't have children, so a family group sheet for me would be pretty pointless. And even my sisters, who have three kids each, don't get their own Family Group Tree, because it turns out that my parents' Family Group Tree can accommodate their children and grandchildren nicely in one page. So I tried to keep the total number of Family Group Trees to a minimum, while making sure that each person in the family tree shows up in at least one Family Group Tree, and that there are no major gaps that make navigation via hyperlinks difficult.

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Printing Family Trees

1. Fiddle with your browser font sizes so that you can see more of the tree at once.
2. Change your print settings to landscape paper, and print on legal size paper if you can.
3. (I've used 1 and 2 along with 11x17 paper to get good printouts, but I realize that most printers can't handle 11x17 paper)
4. Print Family Group Trees rather than Horizontal Family Trees. Most of the Family Group Trees print just great on 8 1/2 x 11 paper (though a few benefit from reducing the font a bit)

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Changing Font Sizes in Web Browsers

Fortunately, the web browsers have handy controls that let you switch font sizes easily. To zoom in or out on a page, use control-plus and control-minus, or the View pull-down menu (if your browser has one).

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