Free Genogram Maker

People: a square is a male, a circle a female and a diamond non-binary or other; a triangle is a pregnancy and a small filled dot a miscarriage. An X through the symbol means the person has died. A double outline marks the identified person — the client, patient or student the genogram is about. Ages go inside the symbols, and birth and death years above them.

Couples: a line drops from each partner and joins below them. Solid means married, dashed means living together, one slash means separated and two slashes mean divorced. The dates of the marriage, separation or divorce sit on the line.

Children: each child hangs from the couple's line, oldest on the left. A dashed child line means adopted, a dotted one foster. Twins branch from a single point; identical twins add a bar between the branches.

Relationships: close is two parallel lines, fused three, distant a dotted line, conflict a zigzag, hostile a heavy zigzag, cutoff a line with a break and abuse a zigzag with an arrowhead. Conditions fill the symbol with a colour or, in black and white, a pattern — and the key on the genogram lists every symbol that appears.

Start with the identified person, then work outward: their parents, their siblings in birth order, their partner and children. A standard genogram covers three generations, so add both sets of grandparents and the parents' siblings. In this maker each of those is one click on the person you are adding to.

Next, add the facts that make a genogram more than a family tree: marriage, separation and divorce dates on the couple lines; deaths with the year and the age at death; adoptions, fostering and twins. Ask about each person's health and mark the conditions that matter for the case.

Last, draw the emotional relationships — who is close, who is in conflict, who has cut contact. Keep the key visible and give the genogram a title that says whose family it is and when it was drawn.

Three generations: the standard assignment — both sets of grandparents, the parents and their siblings, and the identified person with their brothers and sisters, including relatives who have died.

Blended family: a divorce and a remarriage, half-siblings from each union, a partner the parent now lives with and an adopted child — the structures a family tree struggles to show.

Medical history: heart disease, diabetes, depression and substance use traced across three generations, with the key listing each condition. Relationships: an emotional genogram with close, fused, distant, conflicted and cut-off relationships drawn between family members.

Each example opens in the maker, so you can replace the names and details with your own family instead of starting from nothing.

A family tree records descent: who is whose child, generation after generation. A genogram records the same lines of descent and adds the character of the family — the divorces and remarriages, the illnesses that recur, the relationships that are close or broken.

That is why genograms are the tool of choice in social work, family therapy, nursing and genetic counselling, while family trees belong to genealogy. If you only need names and dates, the family tree maker is simpler; if the story is in how the family works, make a genogram.