Family Tree Maker

Three charts, three jobs

A pedigree chart puts you on the left and your ancestors fanning out to the right, one column per generation. It is the form genealogists use and it holds 15 people on a four-generation chart, 31 on five. A family tree stands the other way up, grandparents across the top and the child at the bottom, joined by brackets, which is the version most schools ask for. A fan chart curves the same information into a semicircle, which is the only shape that fits five or six generations on one sheet of A4.

Fill it in on screen, or by hand

Every position has a name and a dates field in the editor, labelled by relationship so you always know which box you are filling. Type and the preview redraws. Anything you leave blank prints as a ruled line instead, so the same chart works as a fill-in-on-screen keepsake or as a blank form to take to a family gathering with a pen.

The numbering is the standard one

Positions follow the Ahnentafel convention every genealogy form uses: you are 1, your father is 2, your mother is 3, and a person's father is always double their own number. That means the numbers on your printed chart mean the same thing as the numbers on any other pedigree form, and you can turn the numbering off if you would rather not see it.

Themes

Six palettes, each tinting the generations so the chart reads as depth rather than a wall of identical boxes: Heritage in warm parchment tones, Classic navy, Garden, Blossom, Ocean, and Ink. Ink has no fills at all, which is the one to pick if you are photocopying a class set or want children to colour it in.

Where it fits

Family history projects, a school topic on families and generations, a keepsake for a birthday or a reunion, and language classes learning family words. Print blank on the thickest paper your printer takes and it survives being passed round a table.