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How Do I Draw a Family Tree Diagram

How to Make a Family Tree Chart

Reading time: near vii min

Posted past: Lucid Content Team

In 1977, the American Dissemination Company (ABC) gambled that a 12-hour miniseries based on Alex Haley'southward acknowledged novel, "Roots," would exist of interest to the general American audience. In an unprecedented motion, ABC scheduled the series to be broadcasted over eight sequent nights.

The adventure paid off equally roughly half of the Americans alive in 1977 watched at least part of the series.

The "Roots" miniseries was a cultural phenomenon that influenced millions of viewers to research their own roots. While writing the book, Haley did a lot of genealogy research at the National Archive, and later the series aired, letters to the National Archive tripled and applications to use the facilities increased by 40%.

If you are interested in your own family history, a good place to start is to create a family unit tree.

family tree chart
Family unit Tree Chart (Click on image to change online)

A family tree is a visual representation of a person'southward lineage, tracing relationships to common ancestors. Visually similar to an org chart, this diagram is normally presented in a tree structure starting with one individual equally the root. From the root, lines representing branches terminate in boxes representing leaves. Each leaf represents individual family members with information such as birth, marriage, and death dates.

A family unit tree diagram or genealogy chart makes it like shooting fish in a barrel to record the people, places, and events that make up your family history so share it with others. Acquire how to draw a family unit tree (or get started faster with a few examples of family unit trees).

Why create a family unit tree?

If you are even a petty bit interested in your ancestry and if you would like to gain some insight into who y'all are and where you came from, you may desire to create a genealogy nautical chart.

At that place are many reasons to make your ain family trees:

  • It gives yous a connection to your heritage.
  • Information technology can help you trace genetics and family health concerns.
  • It is a practiced do for learning your family unit history in relation to historical events.
  • It is a expert way to pique your children's interest so they will want to larn about ancestors and preserve family stories.
  • Information technology can be fun!

How to draw a family tree chart

A family tree tin be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be.

A elementary genealogy chart may include you, your parents, your grandparents, and your smashing-grandparents. A complicated family tree nautical chart may include you, your parents, your siblings, aunts and uncles, cousins, and and so on.

How far yous become and who yous include is upwardly to you lot.

Getting started

Earlier you jump in and start drawing your family unit tree, you may want to do a little planning. For example, y'all might ask yourself:

  • How far practise y'all want to get back?
  • Is there somebody in your family unit who already has this information to give you a starting point?
  • What type of information do you desire to include on each foliage (births, marriages, deaths)?
  • Do y'all want to add pictures of your ancestors to each leaf? Where can you find these pictures?

You besides may want to make up one's mind in which direction you volition draw the tree. In nature, trees grow from the footing to the sky, merely on paper or the computer screen, family trees tin can develop from the bottom up, the top down, or horizontally. It could exist a good idea to look at some examples of family trees to help you lot determine how your tree will exist drawn.

There is not a single family unit tree definition that dictates what has to be included or what the family tree should expect similar. Simply note that if yous simply desire to nautical chart relationships without excavation as well deeply, you may want to draw a simple kinship diagram instead. Kinship diagrams utilise basic symbols, lines, and letters to represent relationships to help y'all visualize your lineage.

kinship diagram template
Kinship Diagram Template (Click on image to modify online)

1. Gather information about your family

Write downward what y'all know, inquire family unit members to fill up in the gaps, and detect pictures and documents. Visit libraries and online genealogy sources to search for demography records, news stories, land deeds, and other documents that tin verify your ancestry.

Recollect that you can only go dorsum so far because of the limited availability of reliable records. You may have heard of some people maxim that they take traced their lineage all the style to Adam and Eve. But in reality, it is very difficult to observe accurate records older than a few hundred years because many records take been destroyed in fires, floods, acts of war, and uncomplicated negligence. Some areas of the world were better at keeping and preserving records than others, so how far y'all can go back will depend on where your family came from. Most family tree outlines trace ancestry back 3 or four generations because of the limited information.

2. Draft a family tree outline

Compile all of the information yous accept and create an outline. Outset drawing from yourself to your ancestors, or start with the oldest antecedent yous know near and trace forward to y'all.

You can draw your family tree freehand using pen and newspaper or create a family tree online using Lucidchart and our family tree diagram maker. Through this visual workspace, you can select a family tree template online and change it with a few simple clicks.

family tree basic genealogy
Family Tree - Bones Genealogy (Click on image to modify online)
genealogy chart
Genealogy Chart Example (Click on image to change online)
family tree bowtie genealogy
Family Tree - Bowtie Genealogy (Click on image to change online)

3. Add information to each leafage

Each family fellow member volition be represented past a shape connected by lines to correspond relationships. Typically a box or rectangle is used to represent your relatives, but you can use any shape that you want to use. Each shape is a leaf on the tree. The shape y'all decide to apply as leaves should be consistent and sized to include the information that you lot program to put on your family tree nautical chart.

Place pictures, important event dates, and any other information you desire to include in your foliage. As you put together this information, nosotros would recommend a few additional guidelines:

Go far simple

If you want your family unit tree diagram to be useful to other members of your family unit, keep it simple so the information can be easily scanned and digested. Endeavour to take each level of the tree represent a unmarried generation so it is easy to trace relationships.

Don't air your family unit's dirty laundry

Who is going to be looking at this family unit tree diagram? There may exist some family unit secrets that are not known to all living family unit members, so endeavour to exist sensitive most adding information that may not be likewise welcome to some of your relatives.

four. Distribute your family tree diagram

This is the fun part—once you have finished your genealogy chart or family unit tree diagram, share it with your family members and requite them a hazard to reflect on their genealogy or larn new family stories. Yous can likewise invite them to provide additional information.

If you lot have created your family tree diagram online with Lucidchart, click "Share" to give family members access to collaborate on the visual with you or consign your family tree to a number of file formats.

Notice your family history with Lucidchart

Use Lucidchart to hands brand a free family tree chart. No thing what time zone your family members reside in, everybody with the permission to share and edit the document can open up information technology, add notes, and modify or make corrections at the aforementioned time. It'south a good way to bring your family closer without being in the same physical location.

Sign upwardly for a costless business relationship then yous can start tracking your family history visually.

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Source: https://www.lucidchart.com/blog/how-to-make-a-family-tree-chart

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