A good family tree chart communicates well – with your future self and with others. The effectiveness of this communication can be improved by making good decisions as you create your chart.
I used to work for the Society of Australian Genealogists as their archives officer and I still volunteer in the archives, processing donations of family histories. A key part of that process is making the donated family histories accessible to researchers. Unfortunately, the quality of most family tree charts makes that really difficult to achieve, because the creator paid little attention to what they might mean to future readers. So I have written this article to share my insights with you.
Creating a chart
You can create a family tree chart in many different ways. Here are the main ones:
- Hand-drawn on paper
- Fill in a template on paper or as a fillable computer file
- Generated from family history software
- Generated from family history charting software or generic charting software
- Online trees
- Generic programs such as Excel, Word and PowerPoint
- Design software such as Canva.
None of these are inherently better than the others in terms of the quality of the chart, although charts created by hand are rarely good family tree charts.
Charting software and family history software do tend to generate good family tree charts, because the software has basic standards built in. It also prompts you to include useful information. This helps produce a neat and consistently formatted chart.
The way that a chart is created may impact on the survivability of a chart. Pencil-drawn charts on thin paper, for example, do not survive well and this affects legibility.
Things to consider for a good family tree chart
A family tree chart should be relevant and appropriate to your purpose, as discussed in my article, Which family tree chart is best depends on your purpose.
A good family tree chart also needs to fulfil the principles of good communication, which are:
- Clarity and legibility
- Consistency
- Accuracy
- Context
- Precision
- Readability
the Society of Australian Genealogists Item 2-151
You can learn about the characteristics of a food family tree chart by examining charts that others have produced. Do they communicate well? Are you able to interpret the chart and learn about the family history of the subject? How would you improve the chart?
Checklist for a good family tree chart
Label or title
A good family tree chart has a title or label that describes the subject, the creator and the date.
This information helps the reader understand the content of the tree and how it relates to the family history. It also provides a timeframe, which helps place that version of the family tree into a temporal context and assists with version control. A title or label also provides information that can be included in a source citation, if your chart is used by another researcher.
Without a label or title, the value of a family tree chart to other researchers is vastly diminished. This is particularly important if you are contemplating depositing your chart with an archive, library or family history society; or sharing it with other researchers or family.
Standards
A good family tree chart uses standards that are commonly used by other genealogists. This helps readers the family tree chart.
Example standards:
- Chapman codes as abbreviations for place names
- Surnames in capitals (this is common but not universal)
- Use maiden names for females
- Date formats (day month year, with all four digits for the year)
- Abbreviations, for example, see the list at Ancestry
Include a key
It is a good idea to include a key on your chart even if you use common standards. Not all readers will be familiar with the standards or they may not be bothered to look them up.
Numbering systems
The usefulness of a family tree chart can be improved if the people in the chart are numbered. Numbering helps the reader distinguish between individuals of the same name. You can also use numbering to cross reference the name in the chart to other materials and reports that document your family history.
Family history software provides unique identifier numbers for each person. There are also genealogical numbering systems that are familiar to most genealogists.
Details
A good family tree chart includes the right information and the right level of detail for the purpose of the chart.
See my article, Which family tree chart is best depends on your purpose, for a discussion of this topic.
Contextual information
The value of a family tree chart increases considerably if it is associated with supporting material that provides context. This context helps the reader interpret the chart and, similarly, the chart helps the reader interpret the supporting material.
Part of that contextual material might be a description of the purpose of the chart.
More information
For more of my articles on documenting your family history, go to the Document page.
Post last updated 18 June 2024
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