Ancestor Fan Charts

An ancestral fan chart can be designed in either a full circular display or a semi-circular display depending upon the number of generations and the amount birth, marriage, and death information that you want included on your chart.  The starting individual is in the center, and each successive ring contains the parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, great-great-grandparents, and so on until the outer ring of the chart is reached. Fan charts compact the layout the most and can be used to show up to about 8-9 generations of ancestors.  Once you go past 8-9 generations of ancestors, you will want to consider a vertical ancestor chart instead of an ancestral fan chart.  Photos don't work well in fan charts and should be avoided.  If you're designing your own chart, your genealogy software program may lay out your information differently than the examples shown below; however, since we can print from most any genealogy software program, the actual design is not an issue for us. To view other examples of family tree charts, return to our examples page.
 

This is an example of an ancestor fan chart which begins at the bottom center and then branches out in an arc above to show each generation of direct ancestors.  Using 12 point bold for the names and 10 point regular for the birth, marriage, and death facts, this chart which includes 8 generations would measure about 3 feet tall by 6 feet wide.

Here is an enlarged portion of the ancestor fan chart which shows the popular option of outlining males in the traditional color blue and females in pink.

Another interesting and colorful design for an ancestral fan chart is to color the rings for each change of generation as shown below.  This type of ancestor fan chart includes only names along with the birth-death years.  As a result, it is more compact since it doesn't include as much information.  This 7 generation chart would be about 2-3 feet wide.

Here is an enlarged portion of the ancestor fan chart.

This same type of colorful design for an ancestral fan chart which shows just names birth-death years can also be laid out in a full circle as shown below.  As a result, it is more compact since it doesn't include as much information.  This 7 generation ancestor fan chart would print on a 3 foot square sheet of paper.

Here is an enlarged portion of the full circle ancestral fan chart.

In addition to the other types of family tree charts shown on our examples page which you just came from, there are also many other examples of printed family tree charts on almost every page on our site, so please take the time to browse around for awhile. There are even a few examples of charts with a photographic background on our page about enhancing your chart. We've also included several tips to keep in mind on our page titled submitting your order that you might find helpful as you go about designing your chart.

Copyright
Ancestry Graphics & Printing
All rights reserved