Here's a Family Search FamilyTree Fan Chart showing the ancestry of my grandfather Thomas Leon Shackford (1892-1959). I created this fan chart in FamilySearch Family Tree by adding my ancestors then clicking on the FanChart feature. The chart shows that I've done a great job at tracing Thomas' ancestry back to William Shackford (1641-1720) (the line of blue line of names across the bottom left of the screen). It also shows a lot of gaps in the lineages of the women who married into the SHACKFORD families (the blank blocks in the yellow, read and green areas). Female ancestors are very difficult to research but are my next challenge.
Please note that a fan chart with my name in the center is mostly filled in but because that chart contains living people, I posted the fan chart for my grandfather even though it shows a lot of blanks.
If you want to create your own Fan Chart go to www.familysearch.org, create an account, add yourself and your ancestors to the tree. Your living ancestors are not visible to others but because most of the SHACKFORD descendants of William have been added to the tree, you should be able to merge your tree with these ancestors and then build a FanChart. Every SHACKFORD won't connect back to William because there are still some parts of the SHACKFORD ancestry that have dead ends.
Give FamilySearch FamilyTree a try and let us know if you find connections to your SHACKFORD ancestors. I'd love to know if you were able to create your own Fan Chart. If you have issues or concerns with the SHACKFORD genealogy you see in FamilySearch Family Tree, let me know and I'll be glad to help clean or update that part of the tree.
Note: If you do give FamilySearch a try, I recommend turning on the WATCH feature for each person in your tree (just click the word WATCH in the person screen). If you WATCH a person, FamilySearch will send you a weekly e-mail notifying you if anyone made changes to that person. You can then write to them and may find some found other SHACKFORD cousins who may share some family history.
Copywrite 2013 Joanne Shackford Parkes