How do I print a fan chart showing the countries/states my ancestors come from?

MABeldin

How do I print a fan chart showing the countries/states my ancestors come from?

I am watching "FamilySearch Round Table Chat" from RootsTech 2020 and one of the Elders just pulled out a paper printout of his family fan chart showing countries of origin. How did he do this? He just showed the country fan chart again and said, "And that's why this one [the country fan chart]; it's available, you push the button and it comes off." Well, I've tried and tried to print the fan chart with countries and each time I click print, I get the pastel colored chart that shows the paternal and maternal lines, not the country lines. Ugh! This is only part of what I want. I would like my "country" chart to print each country such as England and Scotland not United Kingdom and each state to show which state our ancestors come from not that they come from the United States. Since I can't have that, I would like a black and white copy of my granddaughters' fan chart so they can color it in. I will also get some black and white maps of the USA and UK so they can color coordinate those too. But I can't seem to get a nice clean, plain printout of the chart. Have I missed some steps somewhere or does anyone have suggestions on how to accomplish this. If I can get a plain chart downloaded, I'll take it to a print shop to have it printed on 11x17" paper but first I have to be able to download a plain, unshaded, chart.

Chris Schmink

I don't know where you're going to print it, but I just tried it without any problem at all. Go to your tree on FamilySearch, and over at the top left where it defaults to "Landscape," click that and a drop down menu will appear. Click "Fan Chart." Once that appears, click "Birth Country." Then at the top right of the fan chart you'll see "Options" just above the color key for "Birth Country." It will pull up a PDF document, and at least when I try to print it, it comes up as fitting in an 11x17" (landscape orientation), which cuts off parts of the chart (just fitting an 8½ x 11 size image in the middle of the 11x17" paper). I just had it shrink to fit, and I've got a nice, full 8½ x 11" fan chart. Vary your print quality and type of paper so you can go get it enlarged nicely wherever you have that done. Hope that works for you. (I only see an option for birth countries, not states, by the way, though I haven't used this option before and therefore I'm not familiar with it if it's there.)

-- Chris

MABeldin

Hi Chirs,

 Thanks for the instructions but apparently different computers are working differently.

 

I followed your instructions step by step:

 

1) I accessed my tree, change the view to Fan Chart, then clicked on Birth Country.

 

2) I clicked on Options and my options are Invert Colors or Print

 

3) I clicked on Print and the chart that shows up is the pastel colored chart divided by father’s paternal and maternal lines and mother’s paternal and maternal lines.

 

4) If I click print, it prints on 8.5"x11" paper.

 

Even if I download it to open in my pdf program (Foxit), it is on a normal piece of paper.

 

Guess I will call the Help line to see if they can help or ask at my local FH center which is where I work on Fridays so hopefully someone there can help me cuz I sure can’t figure out how to do this!

 

Margie

Chris Schmink

I'm getting what you described, but my lines are also by country, with the colors pertaining to the country in the key on the upper right. The print size may be different depending on printers and computers, but it's still by country within family lineage. Sorry, I don't know what else to suggest. That's actually what I assumed Elder Bowen (?) pulled out from under the table in his part of the presentation.

-- Chris

MABeldin

Yes, lines are by country. I have put in a request that they be by smaller geographic divisions so they better reflect our ancestry esp. cuz I want to use the fan chart for my grandkids and they will see and understand better if we say states and smaller divisions like England and Scotland. Funny, the chart Sweden but not Scandinavia probably because that is a cultural thing and not a political division. Anyway, I'll call Help to see why I can't print the country view.

 

Thanks for your help, margie

Shelba Rich

Maybe try a different browser. If I use Safari for several things it doesn't always work. If I change to Chrome it does. Hope this helps.

Arlene Bernice Curley Stigum

@Shelba Rich​  Good morning. To make sure I understand, are you saying that FamilySearch has different drop down menus wether you use Safari or Chrome?

Chris Schmink

Browsers themselves can't change a web page, but some browsers are supported better than others by different companies (as well as the Church). It's a matter of programming, and every time a new version of a browser comes out, everyone with a web site potentially has to make changes in their own programming to make sure their pages show up properly in each of the browsers they choose to support. For security reasons, I do not even have Chrome on my computers, but have repeatedly heard that it typically exhibits fewer problems on the Church web sites than others. Personally, I use Firefox (far more secure), but it occasionally doesn't work properly on some sites from time to time.

 

Regardless, Internet Explorer is not recommended. It is no longer supported by Micro$oft, and should not be considered secure. Unfortunately, I had a FamilySearch support person recommend that browser to me about a week ago when I was having a display issue with Firefox. I finally resolved it with a change in Firefox's options. Note: anyone using Firefox and having problems downloading PDF documents can fix that easily by going into Firefox and changing which program it uses to display PDF documents (I just switched it to Adobe Reader and the problem was resolved). It's an internal setting that users can change themselves.

 

Chrome may be the least problematic of them all, but I'd suggest reading up on it from a personal security standpoint first - it's a Google product, and they love every bit of "our" personal data.... (I've re-set all of our computers in our FHC to open FamilySearch with Firefox.)

Huntley Andy ‘77

Hey Friends,

BYU Labs just introduced a new format called the Heritage Pie Charts specifically at BYU Family History Technology Lab.

www.fhtl.byu.lab.

Scroll down to Visualize section...it pops up.

Sorry I can't get it to link for you.

Also I've successfully taken a copy of mine to Staples and they either use your electronic or paper version and reduce it. They will also laminate it.

MABeldin

Thanks for the info on Firefox and Chrome. I, too, have had problems with Firefox and FS so have switched to Chrome just to resolve that problem. However, my browser of choice is also Firefox. I did not know about the security but there are just some features on Firefox that I prefer. And I have Win10 so don't even have IE on my computer and I don't really like Edge either. Plus I try to avoid Micro$oft products whenever possible. Wish I had bought an Apple years ago, but I've been using PCs too long now to change. Thanks again for your suggestions. I finally figured out that I could print a fairly nice chart using TreeSeek. You have to sign in to see the B&W 7-generation chart. I had not signed in so I could not see that option.

MABeldin

Thanks, I found a pie chart that showed the places where my granddaughter's ancestors were born but it doesn't list the ancestors' names which I would like the girls to see.

 

At RootsTech, the Elders over FamilySearch actually showed a paper copy of a fan chart showing the countries where they came from but I have not yet found a way to print that chart.

Shelba Rich

No, they have the same drop down menus but for some reason some to them just don't work in Safari.

 

Brett .

@Huntleyandy Huntleyandy​ 

.

Andy

.

Is this the 'Link" that you were talking about ...

.

https://pedigree-pie.fhtl.byu.edu/

.

.

Or, was that something different again?

.

Brett

.

MABeldin

Oh, I had forgotten about this site. Thanks for reminding me. This chart is much better than the one on FamilySearch in that it at least shows the true heritage of my ancestors. Instead of showing United Kingdom, it shows Scotland and England. Unfortunately, it shows Canada and not Quebec, United States instead of each state and it does not show any names which I was hoping to see. But this would be a good chart to start with to show my grandkids where our family lines come from.

 

Thanks for reminding me of this site.

Margie

Chris Schmink

@MABeldin - Forget about states and provinces! 😉 How about the ability to easily drill down to even city and village of origin information, right from the main FamilySearch home screen?! Don't forget about the new "Activities" menu bar item at the very top of FamilySearch. In that drop-down menu is "Where Am I From?" There, you can view a world map where you can expand and see ALL of your ancestors out to 8 generations, drilling town to a view at even the city or village level - by name. And in each individual instance you will be shown your direct relationship to that ancestor! It's one of the marvelous things now available in one easy place on FamilySearch through that "Activities" menu item. You can look at each person individually, with their location of origin, and get all kinds of details about them, including quick linking to any photos, documents, stories, and even ordinance information - just through this one FamilySearch main menu resource.

-- Chris

Kdaymayday

Pedigree pie is a great little tool. It will give you an idea if your research is on track with your dna test. So if both 25% Scottish your research is Looking good. If it shows dna 10% and grandmas pie (common name) shows 25% then you made a wrong turn or assumption in your research, forgot to accept and/or rule out the migratory patterns of people from Europe to Scotland, or maybe you were adopted . To get what you are wanting in FS , temporarily take out the words UK in the birth section leaving North Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, and Isle of Man, but Southern Ireland make sure you distinguish it as Republic of Ireland, not part of the UK. Now you can really see the distinguishing colors map your heritage properly. If everything is listed as UK you don’t know what you are.

MABeldin

Thanks, Chris, I have been playing with the Where Am I From? and found it fun but there's a big problem: it does not recognize foreign characters. I clicked on a relative called Marie Éléonor Fontaine; Where Am I From displays it as "Marie l onor Fontaine". That will be a bit bewidering to my grandkids. I have sent this problem to, I hope, the right people for them to fix it and since almost half of my ancestors are French, most of them will display illegibly.

 

I think for my grandkids, getting to country and state is enough. That is something they will recognize and I plan to give them a USA map to color in the states where there ancestors are from then we can discuss where in the state and the reasons they were in the states they were in. The same with Canada map and Europe/UK map since we do not have heritage all over the world, it should be fun to color.

MABeldin

Thanks. I did try deleting the United Kingdom but standardizing just put it back. So then I had to choose a place further back in history in the standardized list which then will throw off the algorithm trying to find records for us.

 

I'd also like to see each state listed instead of USA but again, the standardized place is then messed up. I guess I can go in and change everything then go back and change it back after printing the charts.

 

The Church is encouraging us to help our younger members learn about their ancestors but there needs to be a simpler way. I have written to FS to point this out but haven't heard anything back.

 

Oh well, I'll see what I can do to get the chart to print the way I want.

 

I guess if worse comes to worse, I can just print it out in B&W and color it myself. Fortunately, we are not from that many different places that it will take too much time to color.

 

I actually was going to have the girls color the chart and then color maps to match the charts. I just don't want the activity to be too long and tedious.

 

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll go back and try again.

Kdaymayday

You are trying very hard. We can see that. It would not be hard for IT to include a dropdown option with just city and country and no continent. I will make the suggestion to amend the drop down menu If you and others could watch for my suggestion and “2nd the motion” etc., the more the better, chance of getting the genius pool to vote on the project at https://www.getsatisfaction.com./familysearch

give me till the end of the day. Thx

 

Ted and Karen Meyer,

Multi-Stake Temple And Family History Consultants,

Arizona Scottsdale Coordinating Council

 

 

Ted and Karen Meyer

 

Arlene Bernice Curley Stigum

Hi @Shelba Rich​  That is due to the coding of the operating system. I switched to Duck Duck Go because I want my privacy back. Google is tracking too much information, it was feeling a little creepy.

Kdaymayday

I posed a possible solution to the Info technology genius pool who vote on projects to make changes for the better. I would really appreciate the support on this. If you could go to this site and view my pitch then click reply and tell them how a change like this would benefit you, the people you teach and the younger generation needing motivation of their ancestral lineage to spur them to greatness in researching. https://getsatisfaction.com/familysearch/topics/new-drop-down-menu-option-in-helper-resource-is-needed-to-clarify-research-done-vs-dna-results

MABeldin

Thanks! I followed your instructions.

MABeldin

Thanks but I am not sure what Duck Duck Go has to do with it. I looked for it online and it is nothing more than an extension telling me if a site is safe or not. Obviously, I am missing something.

Arlene Bernice Curley Stigum

Hi @Margie Beldin​  I was responding to the limitations of Safari, mentioned by @Shelba Rich​  as a browser for FamilySearch and went beyond to express my concern for the data that google which owns Chrome tracks and maintains on everyone using their browser. I find google’s/chrome’s workings invasive and creepy. Duck Duck Go does not track, collect, compile, maintain or sell my information.

Chris Schmink

@Arlene B. C. Stigum​  I happen to agree strongly with you about Chrome (a web browser from Google) and personal security, but DuckDuckGo is not a browser - it's a search engine just like the Google search engine, or Bing, or many others. It has nothing to do with browsers or how a particular web site will work with your browser, whether Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Opera, Microsoft Edge, or others. But if you want probably the most secure search engine that gives you plenty of extra privacy goodies, I strongly recommend startpage.com which even Edward Snowden recommended for security. There are few people in the world that know more about on line security than him, and it's now essential for his very life - whether you love him or hate him.

MABeldin

Thanks, Arlene B. C. Stigum, I don't use Safari or Chrome; I generally use Firefox and since I do not do online banking, I am not too worried. I also do not allow sites to keep my credit card info at least I click the box that shows that the card is not saved. It probably could be saved but I do what I can. I did download the extension so I see it working as I am searching but again, I try to avoid Google and Microsoft products because of their invasive natures.

MABeldin

Thanks for the info. I always learn something when I pose a question, even things I did not ask about. It's nice to have people offer information on other aspects of our life.

Shelba Rich

Thanks Arlene B.C.Stigum. I haven't heard of Duck Duck Go. I will check it out.

Arlene Bernice Curley Stigum

Hi @Shelba Rich​ did you read @Chris Schmink​ ’s comment on startpage? The sixth comment above. Duck Duck Go and startpage are both search engines. I just downloaded the app for startpage to check it out.

Kdaymayday

I hope you will all read what I wrote. We could really use your help yo get the system fixed to show the countries and not the continent.

Arlene Bernice Curley Stigum

Good morning @Kdaymayday Kdaymayday​ I will share my thoughts on your request from last night (below in this thread). It seems that whether or not your request will/can be accomplished is partly a function of how they categorize the data of country and state. If their program reads a state/country as a continent, then there is no easy way to redirect that information and would require some work. If their program reads each state/country as a state/country, they would need to find where it gets categorized as a continent. In my opinion, skip the drop down menu as that only adds complication, unless you are suggesting that the drop down menu to show a listing of the states/country and to not have it appear on the Pedigree Pie. If you want to see the states/countries on the Pedigree Pie, then what is the purpose of the drop down menu? Some things for you to ponder to make sure that if they do this, that you are getting that which you asked. You may want to revise your request to what you wish to see on the Pedigree Pie and not leave it open for interpretation.