{"id":1685,"date":"2022-08-10T19:53:32","date_gmt":"2022-08-10T19:53:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.harvard.edu\/lamont\/?p=1685"},"modified":"2022-08-03T20:01:31","modified_gmt":"2022-08-03T20:01:31","slug":"using-fillable-genealogy-pdfs-to-pass-down-family-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/lamont\/2022\/08\/10\/using-fillable-genealogy-pdfs-to-pass-down-family-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Using fillable genealogy PDFs to pass down family history"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We got a great question from a prospective customer about the best way to get back into genealogy &#8230;\u00a0and organize records for the next generation. She wrote:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>&#8220;I am getting back into researching my family and need your advice on where to begin with the forms you sell. It&#8217;s been 20 plus years since I&#8217;ve been serious about this and I want to do it correctly so that my children and grands can benefit from my work. This pile of stuff needs cleaning up!&#8221;<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>She went on to say that she likes the idea of our fillable genealogy PDFs, but also likes paper. Here&#8217;s our advice:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>For those who prefer typing but like paper, we recommend using our fillable PDFs and then printing out the results to share with family (preferably on high-quality, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.loc.gov\/preservation\/care\/deterioratebrochure.html\">acid-free<\/a> paper, not cheap printer paper).<\/li>\n<li>The EasyGenie\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/easygenie.org\/products\/new-six-generation-large-print-fillable-pdf-download-17-x-22-inches?variant=32508906504252\">6-generation fillable PDF<\/a>\u00a0is great because people can print it out on 8.5&#215;11 paper at home, or pass the PDF to a printer for printing on larger 11&#215;17 paper, for a poster effect.<\/li>\n<li>We also have smaller 4-generation charts and family group sheet bundled in our\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/easygenie.org\/products\/pdf-download-large-print-genealogy-forms-kit-pedigree-fan-family-group-worksheets?variant=31789786071100\">large print PDF set<\/a>. These two charts are also fillable (note: we always recommend using the free Adobe PDF Reader for EasyGenie fillable PDFs).<\/li>\n<li>To go back further than 6 generations, we recommend connecting the charts using the numbered spaces and &#8220;notes&#8221; field on the larger sheet.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Here&#8217;s a sample of fillable PDF. Note that the blue fields do not show up when printing.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/easygenie.org\/collections\/pdfs\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1687\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.harvard.edu\/lamont\/files\/2022\/08\/McEwan-6-gen-tree-fillable-PDF.jpg\" alt=\"Fillable genealogy PDF sample\" width=\"800\" height=\"549\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/lamont\/files\/2022\/08\/McEwan-6-gen-tree-fillable-PDF.jpg 800w, https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/lamont\/files\/2022\/08\/McEwan-6-gen-tree-fillable-PDF-300x206.jpg 300w, https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/lamont\/files\/2022\/08\/McEwan-6-gen-tree-fillable-PDF-768x527.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Genealogy binders: What goes inside?<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/easygenie.org\/collections\/storage\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1686\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.harvard.edu\/lamont\/files\/2022\/08\/binder-diagonal-down.png\" alt=\"genealogy binder\" width=\"400\" height=\"283\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/lamont\/files\/2022\/08\/binder-diagonal-down.png 400w, https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/lamont\/files\/2022\/08\/binder-diagonal-down-300x212.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a>Another piece of advice:\u00a0make binders to give relatives.<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>With the fillable PDFs, it&#8217;s easy because customers can make as many copies as they need for personal use. Here are some tips related to making genealogy binders for relatives:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Common approaches for binders include: one binder for each family branch, or a summary set in a single binder for each grandchild.<\/li>\n<li>Include the fillable PDFs, copies of vital records and family letters, and old photos of ancestors.<\/li>\n<li>EasyGenie sells\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/easygenie.org\/collections\/storage\">basic archival storage kits and expansion sets<\/a>\u00a0which include everything you need to get started, including small binders, document sleeves, photo holders, and gel pens for annotating the backs of photos or copies of important documents.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The prospective customer had another requirement:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>&#8220;Some of my distant family had as many as four spouses with children, and I want to include all of the information.&#8221;<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This gets tricky.\u00a0We do have a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/easygenie.org\/products\/pdf-download-blended-family-genealogy-forms-kit-2-forms-with-multiple-spouses?variant=39314971459644\">special PDF set for families with multiple spouses<\/a>. The pedigree chart has space for one additional spouse of each ancestor, and the family group sheet can handle up to three spouses for a single ancestor. But adding any more is impossible owing to limitations of the canvas &#8211; there isn&#8217;t enough room to have extra spaces for four spouses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We got a great question from a prospective customer about the best way to get back into genealogy &#8230;\u00a0and organize records for the next generation. She wrote: &#8220;I am getting back into researching my family and need your advice on where to begin with the forms you sell. It&#8217;s been 20 plus years since I&#8217;ve [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3864,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[85172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-genealogy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/lamont\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/lamont\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/lamont\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/lamont\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3864"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/lamont\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1685"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/lamont\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1688,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/lamont\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1685\/revisions\/1688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/lamont\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/lamont\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/lamont\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}