Here’s a step-by-step guide to creating your very own Family History Calendar on MyCanvas using your Ancestry data. You may view this video tutorial or reference written instructions below.
Head to the Family History Wall Calendar, and hit “Continue” to begin creating your calendar.
If you have an Ancestry account, you’ll want to click the “Login with Ancestry” button and enter your credentials. If you don’t have an ancestry account and want to make a calendar from scratch, create an account for the MyCanvas site and log in.
After logging in, you can start making your calendar!
First, select the month you’d like your calendar to begin. This is a 12-month calendar. Please be warned, you cannot change this starting month after you start designing your calendar.
Then select the day of the week you wish to start your calendar. You may choose from Sunday or Monday. Then select “Preview Your Creation” to begin editing.
ADDING EVENTS TO YOUR CALENDAR
The most unique and exclusive feature of this calendar is that it is 100% customizable with your Ancestry.com data points. You can add birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, and more!
To use Family History data, make sure you’re in the “Family Tree” tab of the event uploader. Select your family tree, then select your starting person. You may choose the number of generations you’d like to include, and you may also select from Ancestors or Descendants. Then hit the “Get People” button.
It will take a second for your data to load, but once it does, you’ll see a list of events populated on the page. You may select individual events to add to your calendar by checking the box next to the event. Or, if you want to add everything, you may choose “Select All”. Once you’ve got the data you’d like to display on your calendar, choose “Add Selected Events”
You’ll see all the data that will be added to your calendar on the right-hand side.
To add holidays, select the “Holidays” tab at the top of the event uploader, and choose the country and type of holidays you’d like to use. You may select individual events to add to your calendar by checking the box next to the event. Or if you want to add everything, you may choose “Select All”. Once you’ve got the data you’d like to display on your calendar selected, choose “Add Selected Events” Now you can see the holidays are listed next to the family history events.
If you’d like to add an event from scratch, select the “New Event” tab. Simply type a description in the box and choose the date you’d like to add the event to use the calendar. Then hit the “Add Event” button. New events will be added to the list of events in red.
If you have any previous creations from the current MyCanvas site or the Classic MyCanvas site, you may also access those for adding additional events. Just be sure you’re logged into the same Ancestry account used to make those creations or you won’t be able to access them. Please note - events such as birthdays and anniversaries will need to be updated to reflect the current year. Events can be updated in edit mode after you've added them to your calendar.
Once you’ve added all the events, double-check the right side and look through all of your events. You may click the “X” next to any event to remove it. Once you’ve double-checked everything, select the blue “Update My Calendar” button in the upper right-hand corner to add the events to your calendar.
EDITING THE COVER PAGE & OTHER PAGES WITH PHOTOS
Before you begin editing, we recommend naming your project. Type in a project name in the top box. This will allow your specific project to Save and Autosave, so if you have multiple calendar projects, you’ll know which one you’re working on.
To edit a Calendar page, select it from the overall view by clicking on it. To add a photo, select the placeholder you’d like to use. It will be outlined in a blue box. To add photos from your Ancestry files, click the Ancestry tab on the left-hand side. You’ll see all the photos you have in your Ancestry account. Click on the photo you’d like to use and it will automatically go into the placeholder.
If you’d like to upload a new photo from your device, select the photos tab on the left-hand side. Choose the upload photo button and then add a photo from your computer. It will populate into a photo gallery. So just click on the photo you’d like to use and it will automatically go into the placeholder you previously selected.
To resize your photo, make sure it is selected with a blue box around it. Then, position your cursor over the top of one of the white squares until it turns into a double-sided arrow. Hold down the left-click button on your mouse and drag in or out to increase or decrease the size of the photo.
To crop your photo, make sure it is selected with a blue box around it. Then, select the “Crop” button from the top white toolbar. You’ll see a crop tool appear around the photograph and the rest of the project will be temporarily greyed out. Position your cursor over the top of one of the white boxes until it turns into a double-sided arrow. Hold down the left-click button on your mouse and drag in or out to crop the photo.
You may also move the photo by clicking on the photo and dragging it within the crop box.
Select “Done” from the top white toolbar to save your edits.
To reposition a photo, select the photo by clicking on it, and while holding down the left-click button on your mouse, simply drag the photo to move or reposition it.
Check out our photo editing video to learn more tips and tricks for editing photos.
To remove or change the grey border around your photo, select the photo and click the border button in the top white toolbar. You may increase or decrease thickness or change the color. To completely remove it, change the thickness to zero.
To add text to your cover page, select the text button in the left-hand toolbar, and choose which style you would like. The box will populate in the middle of the page but you can easily move it by clicking and dragging the text box. Then, double click to see a flashing cursor and type what you would like to add. While the text is selected, you can use the top white toolbar to adjust font style, size, color, and alignment.
Check out our text editing video for more in-depth tutorials about editing text in a family history project.
To add embellishments, click the embellish tab on the left-hand side and click on the embellishment you’d like to add. The embellishment will auto-populate at a large size, but you can reposition, resize and crop to fit on the page.
Check out our embellishment video for more in-depth tutorials.
To change the background of your page, simply click the background tab in the left-hand toolbar, and then click on the background you’d like to use instead. It will automatically populate the background in the correct size. If at any point you would like to go back to the default design, it is the first background in the category.
Once you’ve completed editing the cover, you can either click the arrows in the upper left corner to move to the next page, or you can select done in the upper right-hand corner, which will take you to the full calendar layout. You can select your next page from that view by clicking to open.
EDITING THE CALENDAR GRID
As you can see, the dates that were added in the first step of the calendar creation process are automatically populated in the calendar grid. We suggest that you double-check all of your dates for correctness. You may zoom in or out at any time using the buttons in the bottom left corner of the editor. This helps to better read your calendar grid.
The easiest way to add another event to your calendar is by duplicating a previous calendar event. Select an event on the grid so it is highlighted with a blue box around it. Then choose the duplicate button in the top white toolbar. You will see a duplicated event appear in the middle of your page. Simply click and drag to the day you’d like it, then double click to edit the text.
You may also edit any existing text elements by selecting them, and using the style tools in the top white toolbar to change the font style, size, color, and alignment.
To delete an event from your calendar, simply click on the item you’d like to delete, and press the trash can icon in the upper white toolbar, or press the delete key on your keyboard.
To add a photo or embellishment to your calendar grid, you may do so by following the steps we previously covered in this lesson. Just click on the photo or embellishment you’d like to add, and once it’s populated on the page, you may reposition, resize and relocate as needed.
Once you’ve completed editing the grid page, you can either click the arrows in the upper left corner to move to the next page, or you can select done in the upper right corner, which will take you to the full calendar layout.
WRAPPING UP
Once you’ve completed your project, select the add to cart button in the top right corner. We will send the project as you’ve created it, so please be sure you’ve checked for typos, correctness, and layout. Once you’ve double-checked, select the checkbox to agree that you have examined your project and you’re happy with it as-is. Then select “Add to Cart” to move forward.
If you’d like multiple copies, select the plus sign under Quantity while in the shopping cart. Proceed to checkout and provide payment and shipping information to complete your order.