The ten old Forsytes
The Forsyte family tree with pictures on this page begins with a builder. Galsworthy calls him “Superior Dosset” Forsyte and says that he had ten children because his money earned ten per cent.6 Those ten children are the old Forsytes, and between them they had twenty-one children of their own.6
Aunt Ann is the eldest and never married. With her sisters Juley and Hester she keeps house for Timothy, the youngest brother, and the family gathers there to trade its news.2 On a Forsyte family tree with pictures the two brothers who matter most to the plot are old Jolyon and James, who head the two branches drawn on this chart.2
A Forsyte family tree with pictures cannot show the whole clan of the old Forsytes on one screen, so the chart keeps Ann, old Jolyon, Timothy and James, and the table of names below lists the rest.
Old Jolyon, young Jolyon and their children
The Man of Property opens at a party in old Jolyon’s house for the engagement of his granddaughter June to the architect Philip Bosinney.2 June is the daughter of his son, young Jolyon, who left his first wife and ran away with a foreign governess.2
The governess became young Jolyon’s second wife, and the family thought her emphatically not a Forsyte.3 Their children are Jolly and Holly. Jolly goes to the war in South Africa in In Chancery and dies there of enteric fever.7
Old Jolyon dies at the end of Indian Summer of a Forsyte, under the oak tree at Robin Hill, the house that Bosinney built.5
James, Soames and Winifred
James and his wife Emily have a son and three daughters on the Forsyte family tree. Their son is Soames, a solicitor, and the novel opens his story when he engages Bosinney to build a country house.23 Their daughter Winifred married Montague Dartie, and James says that he made Dartie bring every penny into the marriage settlement.2 Their son Val Dartie grows up to marry Holly.8
After his divorce Soames marries Annette, the daughter of Madame Lamotte, who keeps a restaurant in Soho.67 Their only child is Fleur, and her love for her cousin Jon is the subject of To Let.9
Irene between Soames and young Jolyon
Irene was born Irene Heron, the daughter of a professor, and married Soames before the Saga begins.3 She falls in love with Bosinney, the man engaged to June, and Bosinney is run over in the fog at the end of The Man of Property.4
In In Chancery Soames divorces her, and she marries young Jolyon, his cousin.7 Their son Jon grows up at Robin Hill.8 On this Forsyte family tree with pictures Irene therefore has a marriage line to each branch, and her son and Soames’s daughter are second cousins who fall in love without knowing why their parents forbid it.910
Jolyon dies in To Let, and Fleur marries Michael Mont, the heir to a baronetcy, while Jon goes to British Columbia.910
Where the pictures of this Forsyte family tree with pictures come from
People who look for a Forsyte family tree with pictures usually find photographs of actors from the television series. This page uses none. No drawing of the characters made before 1930 is on Wikimedia Commons, so the pictures here are of the book itself, a photograph of Galsworthy and the pages of the edition of 1922 that first joined the three novels under one title.
In his preface to that edition Galsworthy names the old Forsytes who stand at the top of the chart, Aunts Ann, Juley and Hester, Timothy, Swithin, old Jolyon and James.1
The Forsyte family tree with pictures, book by book
Each card gives the changes to the Forsyte family tree with pictures at the end of a book of the Saga. The cards name deaths and marriages, so read each one after its book.
The Man of Property
The house at Robin Hill
Spoiler note. Bosinney dies.
- June is engaged to Bosinney, who builds Soames a house.
- Irene loves Bosinney, and he is killed in the fog.
Indian Summer
Old Jolyon’s last summer
Spoiler note. Old Jolyon dies.
- Old Jolyon befriends Irene at Robin Hill.
- He dies under the oak tree in the garden.
Sources5
In Chancery
Two divorces and a war
Spoiler note. Jolly dies.
- Soames divorces Irene and marries Annette, and Fleur is born.
- Irene marries young Jolyon, and Jolly dies of enteric fever in South Africa.
Awakening
Jon at Robin Hill
Spoiler note. A child grows up.
- Jon, the son of Jolyon and Irene, grows up at Robin Hill.
- Holly is married to Val Dartie.
Sources8
To Let
Fleur and Jon
Spoiler note. The ending is told in full.
- Timothy dies, and Fleur and Jon fall in love.
- Young Jolyon dies, Jon gives Fleur up, and she marries Michael Mont.
How to read this Forsyte family tree with pictures
A square is a man and a circle is a woman. A line between a couple with a line down to the children is a marriage, and a slashed line marks the divorce of Soames and Irene from In Chancery.
The coloured rings show the branch each person belongs to. Irene wears the ring of James’s branch while she is married to Soames and the ring of old Jolyon’s branch once she marries young Jolyon. The red arrow from Soames to Irene is the possession that gives the first book its title.
To build a Forsyte family tree with pictures of your own, open the chart in the editor from this page or start from the story charts. The symbols are set out in the genogram symbols.
Questions about the Forsyte family tree
How are Fleur and Jon related
They are second cousins. Fleur is the granddaughter of James and Jon the grandson of old Jolyon, and both grandfathers are sons of Superior Dosset Forsyte.69
Whom does Irene marry in the Forsyte family tree
She marries Soames first and, after the divorce, his cousin young Jolyon.7
Where can I find a Forsyte family tree with pictures
This page draws the family as a chart you can open and edit, with a photograph of Galsworthy and pages of the edition of 1922 in place of stills from the television series.
People and sources
A page of its own lists all 20 characters on the chart, each with a short note and the sources for it, and the ten numbered sources this article cites. It also gives the credits of the pictures and this page as a reference in the APA, MLA, Chicago and Harvard styles, ready to copy.