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Family tree guides

Practical guides to making, researching, printing and sharing a family tree. Each one is written for beginners, checked against the editor it describes, and illustrated with real screenshots and exports of a fictional family.

  1. 1. Start here

    How to make a family tree

    The order of work that avoids the usual mistakes: what to collect first, adding parents and grandparents, second marriages, adoption, uncertain dates, and keeping a backup.

  2. 2. Research

    How to find your ancestors

    Where to look once you run out of names you know: questions for older relatives, papers at home, birth, marriage, death and census records, archives and DNA tests.

  3. 3. Students, parents and teachers

    Family tree for a school project

    Simple layouts, what to include, ideas for every age, and how to make a family tree project work for adopted, step and single-parent families.

  4. 4. Printing

    How to print a family tree

    Choosing a chart, picking a paper size that keeps names readable, tiling a large tree across pages, and printer settings that matter.

  5. 5. Files

    GEDCOM file guide

    What a GEDCOM file is, versions 5.5.1 and 7.0, what moves between genealogy programs, and how to remove living people before sharing.

Suggested reading order

If you are starting from nothing, read how to make a family tree first and add the people you already know. When you reach the edge of what the family remembers, move on to how to find your ancestors. Print and share once the tree is in good shape.

Looking for a quick answer?

Questions about buttons and settings are answered task by task in Help. For ready-made layouts, see the printable templates and the family tree examples.

Frequently asked questions

Where should a beginner start?

Read how to make a family tree first. It covers what to collect, the order to add relatives and how to keep a backup. Then use how to find your ancestors when you run out of names you know.

Are these guides written for a particular country?

The steps work anywhere. The research guide describes record types found in most countries, such as civil registration, census and religious records, and points out where they differ.

Do I need special software to follow the guides?

No. The guides use our free family tree maker, which runs in the browser, but the research and printing advice works with any program or with paper.

Can teachers use these guides?

Yes. The school project guide has ideas by age, inclusive wording for every kind of family and a printable family tree for kids.

Ready to start?

Open the free family tree maker, add yourself, and follow along with the guides as you go.

Start my tree Try an example