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The Sigmund Freud genogram

This Sigmund Freud genogram draws thirty people across four generations, from his father Jacob’s three marriages to the sons of his daughter Sophie, with a portrait that is free to use for sixteen of them. Every date comes from a named source, and the tables keep the facts the sources agree on apart from the ones they dispute.

Last checked on 9 November 20266 minute read

Download the PDFOpen the full-size chart
A genogram of the Freud family in photo view. Jacob Freud is joined to three wives, Sally, Rebecca and Amalia. Emanuel and Philipp hang from his first marriage, and Sigmund with his seven brothers and sisters from the third. Sigmund and Martha Bernays have six children, and Sophie’s two sons make the fourth generation. Sixteen people carry a portrait and the others carry their initials.
Portrait
A photo that is free to use, credited below.
Initials
No free photo, or the sitter is in doubt.
Double outline
Sigmund, the index person.
Years above
Birth and death.
Cross on a dark disc
Deceased, with the age at death in the small circle.
Coloured bars
An illness or addiction, named in red under the name.
Two wavy lines
Migration to another country.
Dashed couple line
Jacob and Rebecca, whose marriage has no recorded end.
Dotted outline
The household at Berggasse 19, Vienna.
The Freud family in photo view, drawn by the Genogram Builder editor from its Freud template. The PDF prints the key, the credits and the sources under the chart.

Photo credits, 16 of 30 people

  1. Paula Freud. Unknown author, Wellcome Collection, about 1876. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
  2. Anna Bernays. Unknown author, Wellcome Collection, about 1876. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
  3. Rosa Freud. Unknown author, Wellcome Collection, about 1876. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
  4. Marie Freud. Unknown author, Wellcome Collection, about 1876. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
  5. Jacob Freud. Unknown Austrian photographer. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.
  6. Amalia Freud. Unknown author. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.
  7. Sigmund Freud. Max Halberstadt, 1921. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.
  8. Martha Freud. anonymous/unknown, 1882. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.
  9. Minna Bernays. Miscellaneous Items in High Demand, PPOC, Library of Congress, 1882. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.
  10. Adolfine Freud. Miscellaneous Items in High Demand, PPOC, Library of Congress, 1882. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.
  11. Martin Freud. Anonymous Unknown author, 1898. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.
  12. Oliver Freud. Anonymous Unknown author, 1898. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.
  13. Ernst Freud. Anonymous Unknown author, 1898. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.
  14. Max Halberstadt. Max Halberstadt, 1925. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.
  15. Sophie Halberstadt. Unknown author, 1913. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.
  16. Anna Freud. Unknown author, 1957. CC0, Wikimedia Commons.

Four generations run from Jacob Freud to his great-grandsons

Sigmund Freud was born on 6 May 1856 in Freiberg in Moravia, now Příbor, the first child of Jacob Freud, a wool merchant, and his third wife, Amalia Nathansohn. Jacob’s sons from his first marriage were grown men by then, and Emanuel’s son John, a year older than Sigmund, was his playmate until the families left Freiberg in 1859. Two Freud children later married two Bernays children, so the Bernays family stands on the right.

GenerationWho the chart drawsYears
FirstJacob with his three wives, and Berman and Emmeline Bernays1815 to 1930
SecondEmanuel, Philipp, Sigmund and his seven siblings, and Eli, Martha and Minna Bernays1833 to 1955
ThirdJohn, and the six children of Sigmund and Martha1855 to 1982
FourthErnst and Heinz, the sons of Sophie and Max HalberstadtBorn 1914 and 1918
The thirty people by generation, with spouses beside them. Ernst Halberstadt died in 2008, so he carries structure only.

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These dates agree across the sources that were checked

Most dates on the chart are given the same way by every source.

EventDateSource
Jacob and Amalia marry in Vienna29 July 1855Wikipedia and de Mijolla
The family moves to Vienna by way of Leipzig1859 to 1860Wikipedia
Sigmund marries Martha Bernays in Hamburg14 September 1886Wikipedia
The family lives at Berggasse 191891 to 1938Wikipedia
Jacob dies in Vienna23 October 1896De Mijolla
Sigmund dies in London23 September 1939Wikipedia
Dates that the sources agree on.

Jacob’s first two marriages are where the sources disagree

McGoldrick and Gerson, who taught the genogram with this family, warned in 1988 that much of what they wrote was “speculative, since a great deal of information is missing from the historical record”. The table says which version the chart draws.

PointWhat the sources sayWhat the chart draws
Sally Kanner’s datesWikipedia gives 1829 to 1852, which would make her three when her son was born in 1832. McGoldrick and Gerson do not know whether she died or was divorcedNo birth year, and a death in 1852
Emanuel’s and Philipp’s birthsDe Mijolla gives 1833 or 1832 and 1836 or 1834, and Wikipedia 1832 and 18361833 and 1836
Who Rebecca wasKnown only from a register of 1852. De Mijolla allows a clerk’s error, a concealment or the wife of Jacob’s brother JosefA dashed line, and no years for her
Jacob and Amalia’s age gapTwenty years in Wikipedia and in McGoldrick and Gerson, twenty-one in de MijollaBoth dates of birth
Where Marie and Paula diedTreblinka, says the Sigmund Freud Museum in Vienna, and Maly Trostinets, says Wikipedia1942, as the museum gives
An affair with Minna BernaysClaimed by Jung, and argued by Swales and by Maciejewski from a hotel register of 1898A close line only
Disputed points and the version the chart draws.

Eight relationship lines rest on letters and biographies

Photo view hides the relationship lines, which would cross the whole family. The standard chart shows all eight, such as Amalia’s closeness to her “golden Sigi” and Anna Freud’s rivalry with her sister Sophie. Each line cites its source in its notes. Lines and illnesses are recorded only for people who died before 2000.

The Freud family genogram in the standard notation, with the key underneath. Double blue lines join Sigmund to his mother, to Minna, to John, to Heinz and to his daughter Anna. A red zigzag joins Anna to Sophie, a dashed red line joins Anna to her mother Martha, and an arrow runs from Adolfine to Amalia.
The Freud template in the standard notation. Blue lines mark closeness and care, and red lines distance and hostility.Open the full-size diagram

Sixteen of the thirty people carry a portrait that is free to use

Every portrait is in the public domain or under a Creative Commons licence that allows reuse. Martin, Oliver and Ernst are cropped from a family photograph of 1898 whose file names the sitters. Paula, Anna, Rosa and Marie come from a group that the Wellcome Collection dates to about 1876 and the University of Manchester Library to 1878, and the Manchester record names all four in its back row. Emanuel and Alexander keep their initials, because the sources doubt which sitter each one is.

McGoldrick and Gerson read the family one stage at a time

McGoldrick and Gerson drew the Freuds at several dates, from Jacob and Amalia’s marriage in 1855 to Sigmund’s death in 1939, to show how a genogram follows the family life cycle. The Multicultural Family Institute offers McGoldrick’s longer account as a free PDF. To read the chart the same way, open the family in the editor, click Today in the top bar, or Time view under More on a phone, and move the timeline to a year such as 1855. The editor redraws the family as it stood then.

The family history guide explains how to source a chart of your own.

Common questions

Why Rebecca has no dates

Rebecca is known from a register entry of 1852, and no member of the family is recorded as mentioning her. The chart draws her because the register names her as Jacob’s wife, and it leaves her years blank.

Whether the chart can be used in a class

Yes. Download the PDF, which prints the photo credits and the sources under the chart, and keep the credits with every copy. Check a date against the sources before you rely on it.

Sources and methodology

We make Genogram Builder. We used the references below for this guide. Last checked on 9 November 2026.

Draw a family from biographies of your own, one generation at a time, and write the source of each date in the person’s notes. No account is needed to begin.

Open the blank three generation sheet