How to use this tool
- Click any card to select that person, then edit their name, birth and death years, sex, notes and photo in the side panel.
- Grow the chart in whichever direction you need: ↑ Parents adds a couple above, ↔ Sibling hangs one off those parents, ↓ Add child starts the generation below.
- Under Partnerships, add a new partner as many times as you need. Each partnership is listed separately with its own children and its own type — married, unmarried partners, or divorced.
- To marry two people already on the chart, select one, pick the other under Marry someone already on the tree, and link them. The connector is drawn dashed and routed under the cards so a cousin marriage or a link between branches reads clearly.
- Use the relationship finder below the chart to name how any two people are related — second cousin once removed, great-nephew, and so on.
- Export with PNG, PDF (the chart only, not the page) or GEDCOM for genealogy software. Save backup writes a JSON file with your photos in it.
How to read your tree
The chart follows the conventions used in printed pedigree charts, so anyone in your family can read it without explanation:
- A horizontal line with a heart between two cards is a marriage. An outline heart ♡ marks unmarried partners and a cross ✕ marks a divorce or separation.
- A dashed connector routed beneath the cards is a partnership between two people who are not side by side — a cousin marriage, or two people from different branches of the same chart. Every other line is solid, so these are easy to pick out.
- A person with more than one partnership sits between or beside their partners, and each partnership carries its own sibling bar, so half-siblings hang from the right couple.
- A vertical drop into a horizontal sibling bar means every card hanging from that bar is a child of the couple above it, listed oldest to youngest as you add them.
- The ring colour around each photo reflects the sex you set — blue, pink or grey for unspecified — matching the square/circle distinction used on paper charts.
- Dates read as b. 1948 for a living person and 1948 – 2019 once you add a death year, the standard genealogical shorthand.
Why this one is different
Most browser tree makers assume a family is a tree: one partner per person, every child on a single line of descent. Real families are not shaped like that, so this one is a graph. A person can hold any number of partnerships, each with its own children, and generations are solved by relaxation rather than walked down from a root — so a marriage looping between two branches does not break the layout.
A family tree that puts children where they belong
Most quick tree tools hang children off a single parent, which looks wrong the moment there are two. This maker draws each child centred beneath the couple, with a clean connector down from both mum and dad — the way a family tree is meant to read.
Everything happens in your browser. Nothing is uploaded, so your photos and names stay on your device.
How to build your tree
Start from whoever you know best rather than from the top: add their parents, then their parents’ parents, and the chart re-levels itself each time. Siblings, partners and children can be added in any order. Cards are never dragged — positions are recalculated on every edit so children stay centred under the partnership they belong to however wide the chart grows. Your work is kept in this browser as you type, and Save backup gives you a file you can move to another machine.
Worked example
The example tree on this page is the case that most tools cannot draw. Robert and Margaret Hale have two children, David and Sarah. Here is how it grows into a cousin marriage:
2. Select that child → Marry someone already on the tree → choose Liam Hale
3. 🔗 Link as partners
→ the tool reports Linked — they were first cousin
Liam descends from David and the new card descends from Sarah, so they share Robert and Margaret as grandparents: two steps up from each, which is a first cousin. The chart keeps them in the same generation and joins them, and the summary line above the canvas gains 1 cross-branch link. Now select David Hale and press ＋ Add a new partner twice: David holds three partnerships at once, his first partner stays beside him, and the third is drawn as a dashed connector routed below the cards because there is no room left alongside.
Frequently asked questions
Can one person have more than one partner?＋
Yes, as many as you need. Each partnership is listed separately in the side panel with its own children and its own type, so a remarriage, a divorce and the half-siblings that come with them all sit on the chart at once. The person is drawn between or beside their partners and each partnership keeps its own sibling bar.
How do I connect two people who are already on the tree?＋
Select one of them, then use "Marry someone already on the tree" in the side panel and pick the other. This is how you record a cousin marriage, a step-family, or two grandchildren descended from different children marrying each other. The connector is drawn dashed and routed beneath the cards, and the tool tells you what the two were related as before you linked them.
Where do children appear?＋
Directly below and centred between both parents. If a person has no partner recorded, their children centre under that single parent instead.
Are my photos private?＋
Yes. Photos are read locally in your browser and never uploaded to a server.
How do I save my tree?＋
It is kept in this browser as you type, so closing the tab does not lose it. Save backup writes a JSON file including your photos that you can reopen here or move to another computer, Copy share link gives a URL that rebuilds the chart without the photos, and GEDCOM exports it for Ancestry, Gramps, RootsMagic and other genealogy software.
Why does the PDF only contain the tree?＋
Because that is the useful thing to print. The PDF button draws the chart to its own page rather than printing the web page around it, so you do not get the site header, the article or the footer wrapped around your family.
What is a second cousin, and what does once removed mean?＋
Second cousins share a great-grandparent. Removed refers to a difference in generation, so your first cousin's child is your first cousin once removed.
How far back can I realistically build a tree?＋
In the UK, civil registration from 1837 and the decennial censuses make the 19th century straightforward for most families. Before that you are into parish registers, where records thin out quickly.
How many ancestors do I have at each generation?＋
The count doubles each generation: 2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great-grandparents. Ten generations back is over a thousand people, though in practice shared ancestors reduce the real number.
How should I record uncertain dates?＋
Use the conventional abbreviations: about for an estimate, before and after for bounds. Recording an uncertainty honestly is more useful later than committing to a guess.
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Assumptions & limitations
This is a chart drawer, not a genealogy database. Worth knowing before you invest an evening in it:
- Your tree is kept in this browser, not in an account. Clearing site data, or opening the tool on another device, starts you fresh — take a Save backup file for anything you care about.
- A share link carries the structure, names and dates but not the photos, which are far too large for a URL. Very large trees will not fit in a link at all and the tool says so rather than handing you a broken one.
- GEDCOM export is one-way and covers names, sex, birth and death dates, notes, families and children. There is no GEDCOM import, and events beyond birth, death and marriage are not modelled.
- Each child is attached to one partnership, so an adoption alongside a birth family shows only the family you attached them to.
- Dates are free text years, not validated calendar dates — the tool will not flag a child born before a parent.
- The relationship finder works on the chart in front of it. It names blood and marriage links that are drawn; it cannot infer a link you have not entered.
- PNG and PDF are rendered at full size regardless of the zoom on screen, so nothing is cut off; the on-screen zoom only affects what you are looking at.