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Comparison

A genogram and a family tree

A family tree records who was born to whom. A genogram records the same people and adds what a family tree has no place for, which is the quality of the relationships between them and the health that runs through the generations. This page sets the two side by side and shows how a tree that already exists becomes a genogram.

Last checked on 20 October 20266 minute read

A genogram

A chart of a family system in a standard notation that records unions, children, health and the quality of relationships across three or more generations.

Runs
Paper, genogram editors, including this one
From
One person, out to three generations

A family tree

A chart of descent that records who was born to whom, with names and dates, usually from the oldest known ancestor down.

Runs
Paper, genealogy programs, GEDCOM files
From
One ancestor, down the generations

At a glance

A genogramA family tree
PurposeTo understand a family as a system around one person.To record descent and ancestry.
CentreThe index person, marked with a double line.An ancestor at the top or a descendant at the bottom.
NotationMcGoldrick, Gerson and Petry, with a key on the chart.None fixed. Names in boxes, joined by lines.
RelationshipsDescent, every kind of union, and emotional ties.Descent and marriage.
HealthConditions, causes of death and patterns across generations.Rarely, and in notes if at all.
Who draws itTherapists, social workers, nurses, doctors and students.Genealogists and families.

Who each one suits

A genogram is the right diagram when

The question is about a living person and the family around them. A therapist mapping a client, a social worker assessing a household, a nurse recording a family history of heart disease, or a student writing up a case all need the emotional lines, the conditions and the household groups, and all need a reader to understand the chart without being told what the lines mean. Three generations around the person are usually enough.

A family tree is the right diagram when

The question is about ancestry. Who the great-grandparents were, where they came from and when they died are questions of descent, and a family tree answers them for as many generations as the records allow. A tree with two hundred people would be unreadable as a genogram, and the emotional lines would be unknowable for most of them.

A family tree records descent, and a genogram records a system

A family tree begins with an ancestor and follows the generations down, or begins with one person and follows the parents up. Each person is a name with dates, each marriage is a line, and each child hangs beneath the couple. The chart answers questions of ancestry, and a genealogist may spend years adding to it from registers and certificates. The tree makes no claim about how any of these people got on with one another, and most of the time it cannot, because the records do not say.

A genogram begins with one person, the index, marked with a double line, and draws the family around them for three generations or so. It uses a fixed notation, that of McGoldrick, Gerson and Petry, in which a square is a man, a circle is a woman, a cross through a symbol is a death, a horizontal line is a union and a vertical line is a child. To that it adds the lines that show whether two people are close, fused, distant, hostile or cut off, the shading and colours that show conditions, and the dashed boundary that shows who lives in one household. The purpose is not to record ancestry but to see a pattern, such as a depression that appears in three generations or a conflict that has been handed from mother to daughter.

601784–1844Ernest IDuke ofSaxe-Coburgand Gotha311800–1831Louise ofSaxe-Gotha-AltenburgCancer531767–1820Edward (Duke of Kent)751786–1861Victoria ofSaxe-Coburg-Saalfeld421819–1861Albert of Saxe-Coburgand Gotha821819–1901VictoriaHaemophilia B carrierQueen of theUnited Kingdom571831–1888Frederick IIIGerman Emperor611840–1901VictoriaPrincess Royal,German Empress691841–1910Albert EdwardKing of the UnitedKingdom811844–1925Alexandra of Denmark551837–1892Louis IV of HesseGrand Duke of Hesse351843–1878AliceHaemophilia B carrier561844–1900AlfredDuke ofSaxe-Coburgand Gotha671853–1920Maria Alexandrovna861831–1917Christian ofSchleswig-Holstein771846–1923Helena691845–1914John Campbell (Duke ofArgyll)911848–1939Louise921850–1942ArthurDuke ofConnaught571860–1917Louise Margaret ofPrussia311853–1884LeopoldHaemophilia BDuke of Albany611861–1922Helena ofWaldeck-Pyrmont381858–1896Henry of Battenberg871857–1944BeatriceHaemophilia B carrier671862–1929Henry of Prussia871866–1953Irene of HesseHaemophilia B carrier31870–1873Friedrich of HesseHaemophilia B501868–1918Nicholas IIEmperor ofRussia461872–1918Alix of HesseHaemophilia B carrier551886–1941Alfonso XIIIKing of Spain821887–1969Victoria EugenieHaemophilia B carrierQueen of Spain561889–1945Waldemar of PrussiaHaemophilia B41900–1904Heinrich of PrussiaHaemophilia B141904–1918Alexei NikolaevichHaemophilia BTsarevich311907–1938Alfonso (Prince ofAsturias)Haemophilia B201914–1934GonzaloHaemophilia BInfante ofSpain
Queen Victoria · the royal diseaseA family that is usually drawn as a tree, drawn here as a genogram. The condition that passed through the generations is coloured and named in the key.

The genogram adds the lines that a family tree has no place for

The emotional lines are what most people notice first. A family tree joins a couple with a single line and says nothing more. A genogram can say that the couple is married, cohabiting, separated or divorced, and with a second line between the two symbols it can say that they are close, fused, distant or hostile, or that one is cut off from the other. The same lines run between a parent and a child, between siblings and between any two people on the chart.

Health is the second addition. A genogram shades or colours a symbol for a condition, names the condition in the key, records the cause of death beside the cross, and so lets a reader follow a condition down the generations by eye. A family tree might note a cause of death in a comment, but the notation has no place for it. The third addition is the household, a dashed boundary around the people who live together, which matters to a social worker in a way it never matters to a genealogist.

681958–Ruth421984–Leah

Close

681958–Ruth421984–Leah

Fused

681958–Ruth421984–Leah

Distant

681958–Ruth421984–Leah

Hostile

681958–Ruth421984–Leah

Cutoff

Five of the emotional lines of the standard notation, drawn by the editor from its notation reference. None of them exists in a family tree.

Both record people and dates, so a tree is a good start for a genogram

The two diagrams share their skeleton. Both record people with names and dates, both join parents to children, and both join couples. A family tree that already exists therefore contains most of the structure of a genogram, and the work of making one from the other is the work of adding what the tree leaves out rather than redrawing what it has.

Genealogy programs write their trees as GEDCOM files, a standard that carries individuals, families, events and dates and is read by nearly every program in the field. Genogram Builder reads GEDCOM, so the names, the dates, the unions and the parent lines of a tree arrive as people and connections rather than as a picture. Emotional lines, conditions and households are not part of GEDCOM, and they are added here afterwards, by hand or from a few sentences of notes.

A GEDCOM file turns a family tree into a genogram in a few steps

Export the tree from the genealogy program as a GEDCOM file, open the editor here, choose Export and then Import a family file, and select the file. Genogram Builder reads the individuals, families, dates and notes, shows how many people and connections it found, and lists anything it could not read before anything is placed. You then choose the index person, and the chart is arranged by generation around them with no line crossing a name.

A file of up to 50 people opens without an account, a free account keeps the limit at 50 people in each genogram, and Pro removes it. A tree with far more people than that is best trimmed in the genealogy program first to the three or four generations that matter, because a genogram of three hundred people is not a genogram anyone can read.

  1. Export GEDCOM

    In the genealogy program, export the tree, or the branch that matters, as a GEDCOM file.

  2. Open the editor

    Choose Export, then Import a family file, and select the file.

  3. Read what was found

    People, unions, parents and dates are listed, with anything the file did not carry.

  4. Add the ties and the health

    Draw the emotional lines, conditions and households by hand, or describe them in a note and let the draft place them.

Turning a family tree into a genogram in Genogram Builder. The same path reads GenoPro, Gramps, Mermaid and spreadsheet files.

Feature by feature

Each row states what the two products offer in their own terms. Checked on 20 October 2026 against the notation reference on this site.

FeatureA genogramA family tree
People and dates
Names and datesIncluded. Birth, death and age inside or beside the symbol.Included. Birth, death and often marriage dates.
GenerationsIn part. Usually three around the index person.Included. As many as the records allow.
An index personIncluded. Marked with a double line.Not included. None. The tree starts from an ancestor or a descendant.
Gender and identityIncluded. Square, circle, the transgender symbols and a marker for sexual orientation.In part. Sometimes by colour or by a name only.
Relationships
Parent and childIncluded. Biological, adopted, foster, step and donor lines.Included. A line of descent, sometimes marked adopted.
UnionsIncluded. Married, cohabiting, engaged, separated, divorced, widowed and more.In part. Marriage, and sometimes a divorce.
Emotional tiesIncluded. Close, fused, distant, hostile, cut off and the rest of the standard set.Not included. None.
HouseholdsIncluded. A dashed boundary around the people who live together.Not included. None.
Health and context
ConditionsIncluded. Shaded or coloured symbols, named in the key.Not included. None in the notation. Sometimes a note.
Cause of deathIncluded. Beside the cross through the symbol.In part. Sometimes in a note.
Institutions and supportsIncluded. Schools, hospitals, agencies and support groups joined to a person.Not included. None.
Notation and files
Standard notationIncluded. McGoldrick, Gerson and Petry, 59 symbols and connections.Not included. None fixed.
A key on the chartIncluded. On every chart drawn here.Not included. Rarely needed.
File formatIn part. A JSON backup here. GEDCOM, GenoPro and Gramps files are read in.Included. GEDCOM, read and written by nearly every genealogy program.
IncludedOn a paid planIn partNot includedNot stated

Sources: Genogram symbols and relationship lines, the documentation.

Before you decide

Whether a genogram can hold a whole family tree

It can hold the people, since a free account allows 100 in each genogram and Pro has no limit, but it should not. A genogram is read for pattern, and a chart of several hundred people has no pattern a reader can see. Bring in the three or four generations around the person who matters and leave the rest in the tree.

Whether a family tree can be made from a genogram

Not as a GEDCOM file from here. Genogram Builder exports PNG, PDF, SVG and a JSON backup, and the JSON carries the people, dates and unions, but genealogy programs do not read it. A genogram drawn here can be printed or placed in a family history as an image.

Which one a school or university assignment wants

A family tree assignment asks for ancestry, and a drawing of names and dates answers it. A genogram assignment in nursing, social work or counselling asks for the notation, the emotional lines, the health and the household, and usually for a key. If the brief mentions McGoldrick, three generations or relationships, it is asking for a genogram.

What this page leaves out

It describes the two diagrams as they are commonly drawn and the notation as this site draws it. It does not describe the conventions of any particular genealogy program, and it does not cover pedigree charts in genetics, which use a notation of their own.

Draw a genogram in the browser now, or import a GEDCOM file from your family tree and add the ties here. No account is needed to begin.

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