Blended family tree: every marriage gets its own branch

Real families rarely fit a template with one box for each parent. Grandma married twice, a brother has children from two marriages, a couple never married, two dads are raising a son. In this builder you say who belongs to whom, and the chart works out the layout.

What the chart handles

Second and third marriages

Each marriage is its own branch. A person who married more than once appears once beside each spouse, joined by a dashed line that’s labelled “2nd marriage” when there’s room. Marriages are placed in order of their wedding year. In the example, Joan appears with Ray and again with Ed.

Half-siblings

Each child sits under the couple they came from. Mark and Lisa are Joan and Ray’s children; Tony is Joan and Ed’s son. They share a mother and sit in the same row, under different couples. One generation down, Max is a half-brother to Sam and Ella.

Parents who never married

Leave the wedding year empty, or tick Never married, and the couple is drawn without an “m.” line, like Tony and Priya in the example. If someone’s later relationship wasn’t a marriage, the dashed line reads “2nd partner” instead of “2nd marriage”.

Same-sex couples

Two husbands or two wives are drawn like any other couple. The app never asks anyone’s sex, so there are no pink and blue boxes and nothing to set.

Single parents

A parent without a partner on the chart can still have children on it. Open the parent and choose Add children without naming a partner.

Step-children: what works today

A descendant chart shows everyone who came from the person it starts from, with all of that person’s marriages. Children from a partner’s earlier relationship aren’t that person’s descendants, so they don’t appear. Here’s what that means in practice. Say Amy has a son from her first marriage. She marries Ben, who has a daughter from his first marriage, and they have a baby together.

• A chart that starts from Amy shows her son and the baby.
• A chart that starts from Ben shows his daughter and the baby.
• No single chart shows all three children side by side yet.

So start the chart from the partner whose children you most want on it, or make one chart for each side. A chart that starts from Amy’s parents works like Amy’s: her children are on it, and Ben’s daughter isn’t.

What isn’t drawn

• Divorce. An earlier marriage is drawn the same way whether it ended in divorce or death.
• Adoption. Adopted children are drawn like birth children; there’s no adoption mark. Each person has one set of parents on the chart, and if a GEDCOM file lists someone in two families, the chart uses the birth family.
• Places, notes and photos from a GEDCOM file. The chart shows names and years.

How to enter a blended family

1. Start with the person the chart is about and their first spouse or partner. Add the children they had together.
2. Open that person and choose Add another marriage or partner. Type the next partner and the year they married, or tick They never married.
3. Add the children of that marriage under it. Each marriage keeps its own list of children.
4. Do the same further down: open a child to add their partners and children.

Importing a GEDCOM file from Ancestry, MyHeritage or a family tree program? Second marriages come through on their own. After the import, the Your family box tells you what the layout did, for example that someone’s two marriages each get their own branch and that half-siblings sit under their own parents. The GEDCOM guide shows how to export the file.

Tips for a chart everyone is happy with

• Decide whose chart it is. For a gift to Grandma, start from her: all of her marriages and all of her children are on it.
• Name it to fit. Use Edit the title to write something like “The Sullivan and Novak Family”.
• Check the order. Children print in the order you enter them, and you can move them up or down. Marriages without a year keep the order you entered them in.
• Check the size. Up to about 40 people reads well at 18×24 inches; larger families look best at 24×36. The app shows how big the names will print before you pay.

For more on sizes, looks and what you get for $12, see the descendant chart guide.

Ancestry and MyHeritage are trademarks of their owners. Family Chart Maker is not affiliated with or endorsed by them.