Charting Follow Up - Lesson Learned

Yesterday I posted this blog post:

Time for a Chart

There were some details that I overlooked, that I would like to discuss, in case you are interested in creating a Chart by a 3rd Party Vendor.

In this case, I am using Family Chartmasters

Two suggestions:

• Read the details of what you are buying

• Read the Chart Screen with the Chart Size.

Here is a piece of an email I received this morning:

The chart you sent is 62 inches wide by 16 inches tall.  Normally we would print that on 62 inches of 24 inch paper. 

But what you paid for was 42 inches wide and 12 inches tall.  

Oops. The size of my Chart is wrong.

Here is the screen capture from the Family Chart Master's website:
 

I had selected 42" wide, but my chart was 62" wide. So, It's important to be aware of the size of the Chart you create and the size of the Chart you are purchasing.

The wonderful folks at Family Chart Masters were willing to make an adjustment, but I wanted to see what it would look like, as I had liked what it look like, which is where my focus was.

Going to the Publish Workspace, Charts again. Since I saved this, I was able to open the Saved Chart. It opened and I selected the Advanced Option and made the adjustments with the sliders on the Top and Left.

My chart is now 61.14 by 23.94 and should fill the Chart just find.

One issue that may be an issue, is the Placement of the Title. It's in the Center of the 2nd of 6 pages, although the setting in FTM2012 says "Center". It will be interesting as to where the Title will appear on the Chart.

Lesson Learned: Verify the Chart Size against the Size of the Chart you are having printed by a 3rd Party.
________________________________________________________________  

Copyright © 2012 by H R Worthington

Lesson Learned with Good Citations

As you may know, I am cleaning up my Sources and Citations. Moving the "Free Form" Source information into the Template Feature, and the prompts when entering data into the Citation Detail Screen.

When you have a screen full of Citations, in from a specific Source, some times patterns don't show up when working on a specific Source.

I was just cleaning up the 1850 Census for Baltimore County, Maryland. Had gathered these Census Records over time, but failed to notice a specific pattern. When I finished the 3rd entry for this Source (1850, Maryland, Baltimore County) I saw something that I hadn't seen before.

Three Citations, each from District 1, on page 374-A, but look at the Dwelling and Family Numbers. The folks are on the SAME Page, and were neighbors. When I had looked at these census records the first time, I guess I didn't look at the full page, or to use the F.A.N. (Friends, Acquaintance, and Neighbor) method of research. But, I may not have known about that "back then".

Lesson learned: A properly written Citation, may help with your research. Had I done proper Citations earlier, I might have seen this connection earlier. I wonder how many more I will find.

This was an "unknown" feature, for me, of Family Tree Maker.


________________________________________________________________

 Copyright © 2012 by H R Worthington