Family Tree Health Assessment Tool - Generations Genealogy

The Tree Health Assessment Tool helps you assess the accuracy and completeness of your family tree.

I developed this tool to be used in planning family history research, but I have also found it useful in other aspects of research.

Here you will find a description of the tool and some examples of its use. For detailed instructions and templates, download the free guide below.

What is the Tree Health Assessment Tool?

There are two formats for the tool – a family tree chart format and a table format. You use the chart or the table to guide a systematic analysis of the strength of the evidence that you have for key conclusions in your tree and document your findings.

The chart format focuses on the identity of people in your tree and the relationships between them. The table format can focus on any other conclusions about people in your tree.

Good evidence is indicated by the colour green and the more green you have, the healthier your tree. ‘Health’ in this sense means that the conclusions are reasonable and defensible, which means those sections of the tree are more likely to be accurate. Areas that are not green and healthy need more work.

The simple chart and table formats help you document the strength of the evidence for conclusions that you reach, and plan further research.