Sunday, March 14, 2010

Geneartogy - A Review

Recently I was given the opportunity to review a very unique product from the good folks over at Geneartogy.


This company specializes in printing family trees on canvas.

So, I traveled on over to their website, http://www.geneartogy.com/ . It’s a nice looking web site, and I found the ease of navigation exceptional.

Here you can actually use a template and put your project together without ever committing to a contract for the product. I found that really nice, as who wants to buy a “pig in a poke”, as my grandpa used to say!

You will get a very clear, and precise, idea of what your finished project will look like. I found that so much nicer than so many charting companies that have you to send them a pdf file of your family tree, they insert the info, and you have no idea of what you are going to get until it arrives. And then you may, or many not, be satisfied with the finished project. With Geneartogy, you can keep working with the project until you see exactly what you want before you even decide to buy!

And just what do they offer?

Beautiful custom designed family trees [there are a variety of templates available – currently the website shows thirteen from which to choose!], on museum quality canvas. These projects range all the way from a small [12 x 15], to an extra large [30 x 36]. You can purchase your canvas unstretched, ready to frame, or custom framed and ready to hang.

The canvas’ are in beautiful, vibrant colors that can be customized to go with your family’s décor.

Once you have chosen the template for your particular project, you will then want to choose the photographs for your project. Yes, photographs! Unlike so many other companies, Geneartogy projects allow you to add photos of your ancestors to your unique family tree, thus enabling you to get an idea of what your ancestors looked like when viewing the tree! Or, if you don’t have photographs, they also have a wonderful silhouette that can be utilized instead of a photograph or portrait.

Beautiful wood frames are also available for your finished project, that can be coordinated with your home décor as well.

And so, I set out to begin my own project. I chose my family tree’s name: Henry-Beane Family Tree [that’s my husband’s and my ancestry]. It was as simple as “fill-in-the-blank” for filling out the information for our ancestors. You see, with Geneartogy, that’s the beauty of your project. YOU are in complete control of the project from start to finish!
After I had all of our family tree filled in [that’s FOUR GENERATIONS!], it was time to start adding the photographs. Unfortunately, my husband’s family is limited in photos and portraits, so we had to use a lot silhouettes for his side of the tree. I had photographs for my side of the family. But some were just nearly impossible to size correctly [pixel-wise] for the project! And that’s where the people at Geneartogy really shine! For a small fee they will step in and do all of the photo resizing and cropping that you need done! They can even add filters [sepia, etc.] to make your photos look beautiful with the template you have chosen for your project.

Once you have completely finished setting up your project, you can even go to their preview page and see exactly what your project will look like. You can even share it with family, if you aren’t certain you have all of the info correct, or if you want to place multiple orders, etc.

If you aren’t ready to purchase, your project can be saved on Geneartogy’s website, and you can retrieve it later.

From start to finish, it was a breeze to complete. And the assistance I received in getting my photos perfect for the project was exceptional! When my project arrived, it was packaged in a safe and secure manner. It arrived in fabulous condition!

Below you can see me with my beautiful canvas! This has become an heirloom for our children! We are displaying it proudly on our mantel at present, in our living room, so that everyone who enters our home can see our pride in our family tree!

I highly recommend Geneartogy’s service to anyone who wants to create a treasure of lasting beauty for their home, or as gift for other family members. These museum quality canvases would make excellent anniversary gifts, or to commemorate the birth of a grandchild!



Here you can see the beautiful sepia toned filters that were used on our plain, ordinary photographs to make them sit beautifully with the canvas we chose. You can also see how lovely the silhouettes are for those photos you don’t have for ancestors.

It’s simply, without a doubt, stunning!


**DISCLOSURE: Geneartogy supplied me with a free project, valued at $148 to review their site and product. However, all thoughts and experiences in this review are my own. – Cyndi Beane Henry – 3/14/10

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