New app: Fan Chart for your Ancestors

Question

I have created another app to visualize your family tree, this time a more traditional type, the increasingly popular Fan Chart.
Check it out here:
https://apps.wikitree.com/apps/clarke11007/fan.php

You only have to enter your Wiki ID, and it will give you a 5 generation chart to start with. You can increase that up to 10.

I do have plans for additional features, such as save to PDF, but I would like to know what you think, and what you would like it to do.

As always, please report bugs so I can squash them!

Greg

Comments

Please use last name at birth rather than current last name.

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Thanks for that suggestion George, since my test case was my mother's French-Canadian side, who keep their birth names, I was totally "colour-blind" to that issue!  I will look at the data and revise that.

Good catch!

 - Greg

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Thank you.

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For older eyes (like mine), it might help if you could adjust the point at which the text changes from black to white.  Several of the darker colors on more distant generations are harder to make out the name.  Same with some of the various shades of blue on more recent generations are the same way.  Not a bug or complaint!  Just a thought.

Overall, love it!

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Thank you for another great tree visualization app, Greg! The great thing about the API is that it enables us to stand back and let a man like you keep doing your thing when you're on a roll. And you are definitely on a roll.

By the way, internally we use Derived.ShortName when a profile is private (< level 50) and otherwise use Derived.LongName.
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Name_Displays

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Those darker colors in the further generations are the duplicate generations of ancestors.  As you mentioned earlier, the color palette seems to be stretching to find color shades, particularly browns, reds and greens.  Shades which would be easier to read with white text. Thanks!

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Thanks for that Chris!

 - Greg

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I like it - it looks like sticky-notes!

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Love the Fan app!

However, for those of us who want to prepare family genealogies for our families and descendants to admire and "ooh" and "ahh" over, I find it a "problem" that I cannot generate the fan tree for my wife or my siblings (all still living). I am the manager for all of these profiles on WikiTree and had no success, so assumed it is because they are still alive.

Are you considering a work-around for this?

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Hi there James (Clark without an E)

Yes - someone has mentioned that issue - it's because I don't check for login id to the wikitree server, so without that authentication, there is no permission to access some Private or any Unlisted profiles.  

I am going to add that ability, and then you'll be able to wow your family to your heart's delight (which delights mine too!)

Stay tuned - when I do get the next update out, I will add a comment to this post.

 - Greg

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oh yes!    This is much much better, can actually see them all in one shot, and the duplicate ancestries show up nicely too.  It's a keeper for sure!  Now to figure out how to print it.  

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Good morning!

I have created a significant update to the Fan Chart app this morning.  Please check it out and give me feedback.  As always - I'm especially interested in bugs.

Here's what's new:

• New UI, based on WikiTree UI,  but maintaining the icons for quickly adding generations and changing fan angles
• Ability to Login to WikiTree
• Fan Settings: Option to turn on or off the highlighting of the name, to colour in the full wedge, choose to Colourize the repeat ancestors or not
• Colour Settings: Choose to colour the chart by generations, or by grandparents.  Choose to Highlight (in bright yellow) the path of Y-DNA, mtDNA or X-chromosome DNA inheritance
• Palette: A number of options (including none), plus a Customize feature which is not yet implemented (but shows the list of possible colours to choose from).  I need help with defining the Ancestry and MyHeritage colours - I'm slightly "hard of colour" (like hard of hearing, for the eyes ...) so I cannot make the distinctions necessary, but hoping that some of you sharp-eyed users can help me define those more properly.  Send me a message if interested.
• New Fan: Allows you to start from scratch - or - create a blank fan chart template.  Also, links to the current person's spouse and children if you want their fan charts
• History: keeps track of the primary people you've charted in the current charting session. (You get Henry VIII for free)
• Other Views: Quick access to other types of family trees available from WikiTree
• The Pop-Up Ancestor Card (click the icon that looks like a St. James Place monopoly card - or - click on the name of anyone in your Fan Chart) - displays the full details of your ancestor, as well as a quick link to their WikiTree profile, and a mini-icon that will create a new Fan Chart with them as the primary individual. (Still need to tweak the algorithm so that you can click to pin the card so it doesn't change on rollover when you don't want it to)

Those are the changes in a nutshell.  Hope you like them. Again - all feedback is welcome.  Thanks!

 

- Greg

:-)

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I am doing a happy dance right now Greg! I have been hoping to get a Fan Chart for WikiTree for...ever! Thanks so much for all the hard work AND for all the options and the flexibility AND the DNA inheritance highlights!

Mags

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You're most welcome Mags!  Glad you like it!

 - Greg

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Is there any way to make it go past 10 generations?  I have more than 10 on some lines, and repeat ancestors also in earlier generations.  Would be nice to be able to see those too.  Other than that, very very very nice work.   

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Hmmm ... let me explore that.  I had put a cap on 10 for a few reasons, as (for me) this is where things petered out, and also the limit of readability was pretty much reached. Also - with the first version of the Fan Chart app, I could not be any more precise, and even then at the tenth generation, the names in the outer ring weren't always perfectly aligned.

HOWEVER ... since then, I have switched the way the chart is drawn on screen - and - the PDF version gives me even more control without any limits to screen size (though the PDF you get could be huge - but nothing a good print shop can't handle)

SO .... let me take a second look at that Danielle!  

 - Greg

 PS - I don't see 3 "very" in a row  in your comments very often - so I take that as a real compliment!!  Thank you!

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Good morning Danielle,

I have upped the ante so that you can now go as far as 11 Generations with the Fan Chart.  I have also improved the PDF version as well. However, that is the visual limit of this tool.  At the 11th arrondissement, the font size has to be reduced to size 6 ... to get in a 12th generation, it would need to drop to 4 or 3.5 - and at that point it is as undecipherable as some old French priests' handwriting!

Enjoy!

 -Greg

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thank you so much Greg, as I said, I have lots of dups back in those eras, and this is showing them nicely.  Superb work cousin.  

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You're most welcome, cousin!  :-)

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Hi Greg

I've just gone back to this - yet again - and that tells you how great it is! I love the improvements you've made, and yes it show up my brick walls so clearly... but it also shows where good progress has been made. Haven't tried the pdf print yet, but will do. Good work!! Thanks so much. 

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Thanks for that Kathy!  Take care,
 -Greg
:-)

Answer 1

Love it!

It clearly shows the gaps where I need to do more research. Thanks

Answer 2

Wonderful!  Love the graphic representation.  As mentioned above, instantly shows my brick walls.  Thought I found a bug for a minute, but after studying it for a bit, realized that the different colors in the same generation were indicating a case of a duplicate pair of ancestors about seven generations back; a great feature!  If there is a color code guide, I missed it but figured it out.  Very stimulating to my aging eyes! Thank you very much.

Comments

Yes - I colour-code the duplicate ancestors different from the standard colour palette being applied per generation.

In fact, the colour coding in general is something that I would appreciate some suggestions on.  Currently I'm applying a more or less random / arbitrary set of colours per generation, then using the "leftovers" for the duplicate ancestors.

I have seen other fan charts where various sectors (representing grandparent lines or great-grandparent lines) have the same colouring, as you move away from the centre.  I'm thinking that might also be an option people want.  Yes ?  (In the WikiTree google group, I've already had suggestions for having an option to highlight Y-DNA or mtDNA inheritance, so that's also on the table).

As for specific colours .. anyone better at "interior design" who would like to consult?  I'm afraid my sense of fashion is poor ... and my default "palette" choice would best be described as garish.

Thanks!

 -Greg

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OK, Greg, since you asked!  All the colors are cool (i.e. compared to warm colors) (with some minor exceptions when you color-code the repeated names) except the grandparent generation, and to me that is a little jarring, more so because on my computer it shows up as what I call "schoolbus yellow," my least favorite color.  Probably just me!  But how about lavender instead?

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Thanks Julie! I'll make a note of that.

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Giving us the option to choose the colors - or not to use color - would be nice, in my opinion.

Also, I agree with George, that we should at least have the option to use birth surnames rather than married surnames.

edit: minor mystery edit

Answer 3

Great work, Greg.

I don't want to detract from your work, but this is why I wish that these types of new charts were integrated, and a part of WikiTree.

- My parents and grandparents are marked as Private. That's because your app can only see what is publicly available. Whereas if it was integrated, then I could see the data that I have permissions for.

- It would be nice if the UI look and feel were similar to the WikiTree styling.

I don't know if WikiTree would ever be interested in integrating the work that others have done. I know that there might be some complications in doing that.

Beyond that, here is some feedback about the work that you have done on this. Some of this you may already know, so apologies if some of this is obvious.

- I'm not sure if the colored highlights of each person's name is useful. For me the colors detract from the overall chart. The colors sometimes don't provide enough contrast for the black text of the names.

- On generations further out, like at 7 generations, the colored boxes overlap the diagram of the chart. Could the overall angle of the chart be adjusted? Would increasing the angle of the chart help with overlap of data?

- I have always wanted to see a fan chart for my data so this is great! Like what others have said, this makes it easy to spot where I have missing data.

- I would love to see middle names added to the data. I have some repeat names in my family, and the differences are in the middle names, so it would be great to see those.

- Could we also have birth year and death year added with the names? Like with other types of charts, it may be difficult to add that data to generations that are further out, but maybe for the closer generations.

Again, thank you for your work!

Edit: And yes, I would love to have a print to PDF option!

Comments

Thanks Eric!  Great comments, and I'm taking these all constructively as I know they are meant to be.

Ales pointed out that if I used the API to login, then you will be able to see private individuals - so that is something I have to investigate.

Chris has asked about updating the current Dynamic Tree display in another G2G post, and this app (or a version thereof), would probably be a natural that we could investigate - perhaps a link or button could flip you from Dynamic Tree view to Fan Chart.  Before that, this has to be more solid though.

UI is not something I've focused on - except to get things to work. I could definitely pretty it up - and a more WikiTree like approach does make sense.

Colouring / what to show beyond names - those are all options that I'd like to include in settings that could be customized as people want.

Thanks again Eric!

 - Greg

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Fantastic, Greg. Yes, the comments were all made with the intent of being constructive. I have a software engineering background and years in open source projects, so I know that a lot of work went into this, and that you probably already have a list of things that you would like to improve on anyway.

It sounds like you have everything covered, or have it thought out already.

Carry on! :-D

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Nice job, and I agree with Eric's analysis.  The problem he mentions about the colored boxes overlapping the spokes of the chart appears to occur only for three-line names in Generation 7.  It looks like there's enough room there for three lines, so I think it's just a centering issue.

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Agreed, and there are some additional centering issues on further generations.

One of the things I discovered later is the control in the upper left corner that expands the width of the fan. When the fan is wider then some of these centering issues goes away, as each individual cell becomes bigger.

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OK - thanks for that feedback.  If you change the chart type so that the Fan uses the full 360º  (icons in the top left), then you will have the maximum amount of space.  Can't guarantee that there will be no overlap at the 10th generation, but the 7th should be safe enough.

Currently, I have 180º, 240º and 360º options ... not sure if there is a need for others, but in fact in the programming, I have the logic so you could create a Fan Chart with any angle of opening.  

(BONUS TIP for the curious super geek:  edit the URL in the location bar, and add this to the end of it:  
&Ang=10
then hit enter.  This will redraw your Fan Chart with a 20º opening at the bottom (the input angle is the amount of opening on each side of the vertical axis ... so &Ang=90 gives you the semicircle option, and you can figure out the rest ...)

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One more observation I meant to mention!  I got a minor chuckle, Greg, out of your comment about the "increasingly popular" fan chart format.  I had a great uncle who dabbled in genealogy for one branch of my family back in the 1920s and early 1930s (before he died young).  Interestingly, he presented his results graphically in the form of a fan chart, neatly drawn and filled in by hand.  It was apparently a popular format nearly 100 years ago, so it's interesting how some of these ideas lie dormant for a while and are suddenly reborn.

Answer 4

Great Job Greg.

Thanks for sharing!

Answer 5

I think this Is fantastic, marvellous, wonderful, super and awesome. My comments relate to 10 generation for arbuthnot-53.

1.  I don’t understand the colours at all.

2.  LThe entries for generations 9 and 10 in the male male male ... etc.line. The text is the wrong way up.

3.  I don’t agree with please use LNAB rather than current name name. It depends.

Comments

Thanks Sir William!

1.  The colours in the same generation are all the same, a different colour for each generation,  UNLESS an ancestor is one that repeats more than once in your lineage, in which case, they are colour coded uniquely so that you can identify them when they show up two or more times in your Fan Chart.

2. Ah ... I did notice this, and I have to look at the calculation that determines orientation. I think it's a matter of a < sign when it should be a <= (less than AND equal to) in a formula.

3.  I can probably give the naming convention as an option in settings (when I add a settings panel).  Generally, though, I do prefer LNAB in genealogy, especially for women's maiden names, I just hadn't followed that through or found the right variable when coding this originally, so that will likely become the default, but I will see that it can be changed for those that prefer Current Name.

Thanks for your input!

 - Greg

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Having tried to print it on an Epson ET-2600 I find I can print columns1 rows 1-4 but not columns 2-4 rows 1-4

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Hmmm ... I do plan to add a button that will generate a PDF eventually.  That will allow me to place the text and circle pieces more precisely (they don't always stay exactly where I put them on the screen at various resolutions and at the higher generations!)

When the PDF option is available, I think you'll have better luck at printing.

For now though, do you have the option of adjusting the Scale factor before you send the job through to your printer? OR ... perhaps it can print it over multiple pages if needed ?

My plan is to tackle some of the other suggestions, including some of the settings so people can customize what they see - THEN - when the dust has settled somewhat on that, then switch to the PDF creation / translation process.

 - Greg

Answer 6

I love this! :) It's very clear, neat, and a great way to show your family tree.

Answer 7

I think I'd prefer to see the color fill the fan wedge, instead of just a block around the text.

Comments

Thanks for that suggestion Dennis.  I think that will be an option I offer - along with no colour at all - just black text on white background for the minimalist Wikitreers.   My default colour setting is garish though - hence this initial choice.

:-)

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I must be a 'minimalist WikiTreer', then - I was wondering why the colour at all - much better to have text-only.

But otherwise - this is AWESOME!

Answer 8

Awesome - I can clearly see the gaps I need to close now.

Thanks!

Answer 9

This is FANtastic!  (Pun is intended)

I really do love it!

2 very small suggestions

1.  When I went to print it in portrait it is not centered on the page.  It is too far to the viewer's right and I did not see a way to change that as it shows as a 0" margin

2.  I would love the ability to include Birth and Death Years

I agree with the comments about if using color fill the wedge not just a box over the conent

As to what color to use, pink or rose for women and blue for men would be nice.  As that helps with X DNA. I don't think you need a separate color for each generation.  The location does that in the successive rings.

Overall a great job!  Thanks!

Comments

Thanks Laura - LOVE the pun !  (I inflicted puns on my students for years!)

I hadn't thought of using a simple pink/blue colour scheme before - I'll add that to my list to add to the colour palette options when I introduce this feature.

Another vote for Birth - Death years.  Noted.

Printing ... hmmm when I get a PDF version maybe that will be easier?  If you can change orientation, or reduce scale, or maybe even print directly to PDF - maybe one of those options might help in the meantime?

Your suggestion about X DNA - One of the colouring/highlighting options I'm already considering is to highlight the path for Y-DNA and mtDNA.  Doing something similar to highlight X Chromosome inheritance makes perfect sense, especially since it's easier to see visually than to read and understand by simply words on a page.

Thanks for your feedback Laura!  Have a FANtastic day!

 -Greg

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Greg my father in law was a master of puns.  And some were just groaners so I used to tease him about making 2/3 of a pun.... PeeYuuuu He died in 2015 and I miss him everyday.  He was such a nice man.  

Thanks for being so open to suggestions that make the product a bit more FANcy.  (Could not resist).  

By the way according to WikTree's connection we are 30 degrees apart...  from your French line to my Scottish line...what surprises me is that almost all of my French connections seem to come through my Scottish side and not directly through my French side...   Go figure...

Hope you have a phantasmagorical day!  (love that word)

Answer 10

I love this!

I've always known that some people were multiple relatives and now I can see them clearly.  Also what I didn't know is that some people exist in different generations, where a later child who had a later child became a generation one down from the first child.  If that makes sense.  I could see it here.

At first I thought the blanks were missing information, which they are, but it is unknown rather than just unresearched.  I don't think there's a way to capture that.

It would be fun to have an option to only color some of the projects related people like Fille du Roi or Acadians.  I'm sure other parts of the world would have some project related interests.

I probably only need one more generation to capture all my known ancestors, even if we did it only for one of our parents (so as to have enough space).

And yes, I'd like to print it out, at least once.  Since my fathers is pretty complete.  If I had more brick walls, it would be good to print and then check off progress and reprint when more complete.

Comments

Thanks Cindy ... you see ... yet another rabbit hole keeping me away from the Acadian Project this week (sorry!) ... I've got to stop tripping over these holes, popping up everywhere!

Yes - I'm glad you noticed that- I too have duplicate ancestors who popup in different generations.  What is surprising is when the outer rim of your fan chart shows a coloured ancestor (which means they are on your chart more than once) - but you can't find where else they are ... it's because their second appearance is on the next ring further out!  I haven't found anyone yet who jumped TWO generations though.  I'd be curious if that happens.

AND ... of course ... you have to mention a possible feature I hadn't thought about before but is SO tempting to explore and possibly add ... sigh .. (colour coding by project  / birth place / other criteria ...). .... such a cool idea ... and such a deep rabbit hole.  You have to stop derailing me like this with new ideas!!!

Thanks again Cindy!

 -Greg

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That's OK Greg, this is great work.  I didn't have any that jumped two generations, and only a few who skipped one.  I'll look forward to the next iteration :)

With so much of my time spent on Acadians, I was able to see that the vast majority of my fathers family were from Quebec even in those early generations.  One thing I learned by checking the Acadians as they got into the deportation years is that they all got to Quebec.  And I just spent an hour researching one of the deported families as a result of this.

One nice thing about the fan is that the persons box that comes up when you roll over the name but if your mouse has to pass over other names on the fan, those names pop up instead. I could only get to the ones I could access through white space.  Am I doing something wrong.  Doubleclicking didn't help.

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Hmmm ... I did wonder about that in the more crowded fans.  I think I might change the behaviour so that if you CLICK on an ancestor it "nails" the Info pod, so that future rollovers of neighbouring ancestors don't change the subject (so to speak).  If you change your mind, and click on a different ancestor, then that person becomes the focus in the pod.  I can also make it a toggle, so clicking on the original will un-nail it, so you can go back to the current behaviour of switching people as you roll over top of them and investigate your fan.

Wow ... so many great suggestions for the next version!

 - Greg

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You understand exactly.  That could be a good solution.  This has been so  useful to me already.  I do love seeing all the people which you can't do on the family tree functions in regular WT.  Thanks again!

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So glad to hear you say that Cindy!  So often you wonder (as an app developer) if anyone is using your stuff, and it's always scary/exciting when you put it out there, and you get feedback, especially things you never thought about originally!

By the way ... did you notice in the popup, there's a link to go directly to the ancestor's WikiTree page ?  Also,  at the bottom of the pop-up, if you click on the image of the mini-fan, it redraws the Fan Chart with that ancestor as the primary person.

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Yes I knew about the link which is why I want the box to be table in order to get to it.  But I hadn't thought about the little fan at the bottom of the box.  There just tons of rabbit holes here!

Answer 11

Greg, as the kids say, this is 'hella cool'  Your fantastic fan shows that I haven't done enough work on my 5th generation peeps.  

Comments

Yo, Jo!  Thanks a bunch. :-)

Answer 12

Greg, Terrific API work. Thank you.

But, on my not-too-ancient iPhone, iOS12.4.1, the fans overlap the controls at the top of the page. In either portrait or landscape mode, on the default 5 generations. The angular separation controls make no difference.

HTH, Chris

Comments

Ah ... I wasn't brave enough to check it out on my iPhone yet ... and ... yeah, its sub-optimal, to say the least.

Good news is that I'm playing with an alternate way of drawing the arcs, and this seems to place things more precisely on the screen, including staying away from the menu bar ... so ... I'm hopeful that this might solve the iPhone issue, as well as the tenth-generation creep that is occurring.

 - Greg

Answer 13

AWESOME! And so simple even I could figure out how to do it. I found one gap and will work on it this month! Thank you so much.

Answer 14

Great work!  I've hand-drawn such charts for myself in the past, and as you might imagine, they took hours!

From reading the posts above, I see you've already thought about all kinds of options.  Among those discussed, I agree with those who would like the option of simply removing the colors altogether.  Lots of the others sound like a lot of fun.  Thanks for the time you've spent on this.

There has been some discussion about how to print the chart.  For people who want to do it now, here is what I did.  This works for the smaller charts--I did it for six generations:  I zoomed out until the chart was all in one screen, then took a screen print.  Now I can print that if I wish.  The only problem is that the names didn't stay put in their places on the chart (although it is still reasonably clear where they ought to be).

Several people have commented that it is a great tool for seeing where their brick walls are.  Another use one could make of it is to mark which ancestors are DNA-confirmed, or supported by DNA matches.  Those who aren't can be clues to errors in our trees.

Answer 15

I clicked on your link and put in my Wiki ID.  The chart showed up, but nothing else.  Is this normal?  Only the first 2 generations are alive.

Comments

Is it because you have your privacy level set to private?

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Thanks Rodney for answering Tammie.  That would definitely explain it.  Until I add the ability to login to the WikiTree server, Unlisted and red Private profiles will not be visible.

Tammie - if you use the Wiki ID of one of your parents or grandparents, then you should be able to get a fan chart (assuming their privacy level is not set as high).
 

 - Greg

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You did a great job on this Greg. Many thanks

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Thanks guys, will try these ideas.

Answer 16

Here is one of most complete 10 generation ancestral trees (in fan chart form) known to exist for a WikiTree member:

Comments

Looks great Peter - thanks for sharing!

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Some day! ...but likely not soon...ughhh

Answer 17

Hi Greg

I think I have a bug for you.

I click the link to my private grandmother Klimkiewicz-2, she is shown as private in the chart but my mother is also set to private and her details are showing. When I mark my grandmother the link showing is for Private-43 which lands me on Smith-178160.

<!-- Used for easily cloning the properly namespaced rect -->

Answer 18

Fantastic job, thank you for creating the chart.