Charts and forms are a great way to organize your research. What I have found over the years is that the more basic ones have been a huge help for me. I just start by making a chart by hand, filling in the data I am working on. In this case, I am trying to track Quigleys who lived near John and Margaret Quigley Plunkett (my family line).

I then take this information from my scratch chart and create a cleaner one on the computer, just using Microsoft Word. Here is just one page of the chart I made. I can now easily add or correct information and keep it easy to read. You can see that I added a “Focus” to this chart. I did not want to forget why I was working on this chart should I go back to it in the years to come.

I don’t have templates for each type of chart I may want to use. What I do have it is a basic outline using tables I create in Microsoft Word. I give it a title (Census Details); state which family line I am researching (Plunkett and Quigley); add a focus (Plunkett’s and Quigley’s who lived near the Plunkett’s); then determine how many columns and rows I need to add (4 columns and, in full, 8 rows); and then I fill in the squares with the information I have on my scratch chart.

If you are not one who wants to create your own charts and forms, there are many to choose from online. You just need to take a look at what is out there by searching and either downloading the ones you like, or make your own based on what you find.

Finally, you can use AI to help you create a chart that you would like. As with anything you do when using AI, the more information you use in the prompt, the better the chart. Using the ChatGPT free version, I asked it to “Please make a chart to track census data for a family in the US and NYS census.” When ChatGPT finished, it asked me if I would like it to make it into an Excel spreadsheet or a fillable PDF.

This link will take you to the first page of four pages of links to charts and forms:

https://www.cyndislist.com/free-stuff/printable-charts-and-forms/?page=1
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All of these below are actual charts and forms that are free to download:

https://www.archives.gov/research/genealogy/charts-forms

https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Genealogy_Research_Forms

https://www.ngsgenealogy.org/free-resources/charts/

https://www.mymcpl.org/genealogy/research/family-history-forms

https://familytreemagazine.com/freeforms/

https://www.cs.williams.edu/~bailey/genealogy/

https://stlgs.org/resources/on-this-site/free-research-forms-2