Family Relationship Types
A family tree is built from relationships between individuals. This article covers the types available and what each one means on the diagram.
Parent and Child
The core of any family tree. A parent–child relationship can be recorded from either direction — mark someone as the parent of another person, or as the child of another person — and the result is the same link.
On the diagram, children are drawn below their parents, which is what produces the generational layout.
Care Relationships
Not every parent–child link is biological. Three variations are available so a tree can be accurate without being misleading:
- Adopted — for an adoptive parent–child relationship.
- Foster — for a foster care arrangement.
- Guardian — for a legal guardian who is not a parent.
Each is drawn with its own link style, so someone reading the diagram can tell the nature of the relationship without needing a footnote.
Partners
A partner relationship joins two people side by side on the same generational level, with their children drawn below.
Partnerships carry a state, so a tree can show a family as it actually is:
- Current — an intact partnership or marriage.
- Separated — separated but not divorced.
- Divorced — a former partnership.
Recording a former partner is worth doing rather than deleting the link: it is usually the clearest way to explain step-children and blended families, and the diagram distinguishes the states visually.
Blended Families
Because partnerships carry state and parent links carry type, blended families come out of the layout naturally:
- A parent's former partnership stays visible, so children from that relationship are attached to the right people.
- Step-children connect to their biological parent, and to a step-parent through the partnership.
- Adopted children can be identified as such without being separated from the family.
Deceased Family Members
Deceased individuals stay in the tree and keep their relationships — they are simply styled differently. Removing them would break the lineage of everyone below them.
Recording Relationships
Relationships can be created two ways:
- On the diagram — draw the link between two people directly on the canvas.
- In the data — create the relationship from the individuals' records, and it appears on any family tree containing both people.
Either route produces the same relationship. Use whichever suits what you are doing: drawing is quicker while building a tree from scratch, while the data route suits bulk record-keeping.
See How to Create Relationships Between Entities for the mechanics.