Family Tree Maker
People
Add up to 50 people. Names and years stay in this tab.
Create a clear family chart for up to 50 people without sending names or dates to a genealogy service. Add partners and biological, adoptive, step, foster, guardian or unspecified parent links, then choose a vertical or horizontal layout. The browser checks duplicate links and parent cycles before drawing the tree. Download a scalable SVG, a high-resolution PNG or a project JSON file. Living people are shown while you edit, but their names and birth years are redacted from downloads unless you deliberately include them.
How to make a family tree chart
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1
Add each person
Enter a display name, optional birth and death years, and whether the person is living.
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2
Connect relationships
Add unordered partner links or select a parent, child and the specific parent relationship type.
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3
Arrange the chart
Choose top-to-bottom or left-to-right orientation, spacing, background and whether to show years.
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4
Review and export
Check the visual and text summary, then download SVG, PNG or a reusable project JSON file.
What this family tree represents
A family tree is a diagram of people and declared relationships. This maker treats a partner link as an unordered connection and a parent link as a directed parent → child connection. Parent links can be marked biological, adoptive, step, foster, guardian or unspecified. Those distinctions matter in blended and chosen families, so the chart does not silently treat every parent link as biological.
The layout places people into generations using the parent links. A person with no recorded parent starts at the first available level, and each child appears below or beside the deepest linked parent. Disconnected branches are allowed: they remain in the same project even when the information needed to join them is not yet known.
| Entry | Example | How the chart uses it |
|---|---|---|
| Display name | William Erasmus Darwin | Printed in the person card |
| Birth and death years | 1839–1914 | Shown when “Show years” is enabled |
| Partner | Charles Darwin ↔ Emma Darwin | Drawn as an unordered dashed link |
| Parent | Emma Darwin → William Darwin | Used to determine generation and direction |
Checks that protect the structure
The maker rejects a link from a person to themselves, repeated partner pairs in either order, repeated parent links, and relationships to missing people. It also rejects a parent cycle. For example, if A is an ancestor of B, adding B as a parent of A would make the ancestry loop back on itself and cannot produce a valid generation order. Multiple parents, multiple partners, single-parent branches and separate branches are all supported.
A warning appears when two entries have the same normalized name and birth year, but the entries are not merged. Real families can contain people with identical names, and a charting tool should not guess that they are the same person.
Privacy, evidence and project files
Names and chart data are processed in the browser. During this tab’s page session, the project is kept in sessionStorage; MDN notes that this storage is scoped to the tab and normally cleared when the tab or window closes. It is temporary convenience storage, not encrypted storage. Download the versioned project JSON if you want to continue later, and store that file somewhere appropriate for personal information.
Living names and birth years are omitted from SVG, PNG and project JSON downloads by default. Only enable the living-details switch when the people concerned expect that information to be shared. The tool does not search historical records, cite sources, verify ancestry, analyze DNA or provide collaboration. It also does not read or write GEDCOM files. The Library of Congress recommends recording where family-history facts came from; keep those citations separately because this focused chart stores no sources or notes.
Further reading: the Library of Congress guide to family-history charts and source records, FamilySearch guidance on relationship types, and MDN documentation for session storage.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. Each directed parent-to-child link can be identified as biological, adoptive, step, foster, guardian or unspecified. A person may have multiple parent links and multiple partners.
The link may duplicate an existing relationship, point from a person to themselves, use a missing person, or create a parent cycle. The error message explains which structural check failed.
No. Version 1 imports and exports only its own strict JSON project format. It does not claim GEDCOM compatibility and will reject files that do not match the supported schema.
No. It draws the people and relationships you enter. It does not search archives, verify claims, cite records, analyze DNA or calculate kinship labels. Record your evidence and uncertainties in a suitable research system.
By default, SVG, PNG and project JSON downloads replace each living name with “Living person” and omit the birth year. You can include those details only after acknowledging a privacy warning.
No family data is bound to Livewire or placed in the URL. It stays in browser memory and this tab’s temporary session storage, which is not encrypted and may disappear when the tab closes. Download project JSON if you need a reusable copy.
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