P.W.
I don't know what you are going to do but I absolutely LOVE that you are doing it!
So I plan on putting a family tree (painting) on our wall going upstairs. My issue is that I want to start with my childrens great grandparents. Which means I end up having their names on four different sections of the tree....to me it seams redundant. I don't want them to be the focus of the tree... I literally just want the three coming out of the ground and then having everyone in the family (whiich is large...oy!) branching out that way the kids can see pictures of all members of the family on the wall and I want to leave room for expansion of other members of the family. Am I crazy! is their another way I can go about this that makes more sense, obviously I cannot leave their names off of all but one family branch system...help any suggestions appreciated!
if this helps I have four main branches coming out starting with my moms parents, then goes to her siblings, then next branch to the right is my dads parents and then his siblings, then next branch to right is my MIL parents and then their kids, and then my FIL parents and their kids (that is how I end up with my kids showing up in 4 areas)
I should add that I want everyone to be on the same tree, my immediate family and then the inlaws and that we all stem from GOD...I have thought about two seperate tree's coming together but kids wanted to show that even though we are from different families we all came from the same roots!
I don't know what you are going to do but I absolutely LOVE that you are doing it!
What about painting the tree in a corner where one side of the corner wall can have all the people from your side and the other wall will have the pictures of the people from your husband's side of the family? Use your family as the "trunk" and then branch out all the other relationships from there...
Or, if the family "lines" aren't that important, just place the pictures/names artistically arranged on their "half" of the wall. That way it leaves plenty of room for additions/changes and you won't have to worry about re-doing any portion of it :)
If you want a true genealogical family tree, you would not show anyone's siblings, just your direct line (parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, etc.) of ancestors. This doesn't solve the issue of how to show all other family members photo's. I'd do a true family true of yours & husband's ancestors and show other relatives photo's nearby.
Okay, I would make the trunk one of the trees where they fuse into two ex:
http://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view;_ylt=A0PDoS20m...
And then make each trunk the grand/great grand of HIS and YOUR families and go up from there. So, take a model like this ... http://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view;_ylt=A0PDoX8Ym... ... and flip it upside down.