The first issue that you have to be concerned with when making your own framed custom family tree charts is your paper choice.  You may or may not be aware that there are a plethora of choices out there that you encounter when you want to print a large family tree PDF.  It can be a difficult choice and you have to know what you want before you print it out.  The wrong paper can be a costly error that you want to avoid.

Think of it this way.  When you’re building a house, you need a good strong foundation made from the correct materials so your house is stable and doesn’t collapse or deteriorate. The paper is the foundation of your family tree chart so you must choose your paper carefully.  You don’t want to go to all the trouble of making a custom framed family tree chart only to have it yellow or fade or crack before you’ve had a chance to enjoy it.  For paper selection, your main issue is to select a quality paper that is completely acid-free.  Let me explain:

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YouTube has become another one of those traditional sources of information for me.  I never cease to be amazed by the good historical film footage available and easily identified.

If you were not already aware, I am a big fan of gathering, providing, and attempting to understand historical context of genealogical events and activities.  I believe, very strongly, that context helps place family decisions in a more realistic light. And videos, when done well provide visual, audio and even textual context.  They are simply wonderful.

In order to provide a personal anecdote (story) I would share the following:

My mother grew up in Nazi Germany.  Her family home, farm and possessions were lost to Poland as part of the Allied Ethnic Cleansing of Eastern Europe following the victory over Germany. Because my grandmother was sent to a Soviet Gulag, my grandfather was forced into Russian servitude, my uncle was in British captivity and my mother was in the American Zone… I never received or saw images of their loss, expulsion, or imprisonments.  I can assure you each event was important but all I ever had was small verbal acknowledgments of the facts and few tellings of the stories along with no images.

As a result, I have been searching and gathering images and stories of the time.  American, German and all western history tends to gloss over the time frame, circumstances and events- but not YouTube.  I have found a wealth of videos. Naturally, many are disturbing.  However, many are very informative.  I have a much better idea of the time, place and circumstances of my families post-WW2 life and events.  I have been able to build a context that otherwise I would never have attained.

Here are a few examples:

• http://www.many-roads.com/2010/11/30/der-zerstoerung-elbings-das-ende-1945/
• http://www.many-roads.com/2009/12/05/hansestadt-elbing-videos/

As I said at the outset… YouTube is a wonderful traditional source of genealogical information.  You never know what you might find there!

copyright 2010 Mark F. Rabideau – ManyRoads

I’m absolutely thrilled about the feedback that I’ve received on my new oversized family tree charts that were added to the website a few weeks ago.  As exciting as some of the feedback is, I have also received some e-mails from people that are confused about how to take a PDF from my website and turn it into a work of art, a family tree chart that can exist on your wall fully framed.

For those of you looking for direction with regards to how to go from a PDF download to framed family heirloom, I’ll outline everything you need to know and give you some pointers and suggestions along the way. There are a number of factors that we have to consider before we get to the final product, so this will be a series of posts that will explore how you can make one of the family tree charts on my website a reality as a framed family tree chart within your home.

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