Descendant chart: everyone who came from one couple

A descendant chart puts one couple at the top and everyone who came from them below: children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and the people they married. It’s the chart most families want for a reunion, a big anniversary or a gift for grandparents, because everyone in the room can find their own name.

Made for reunions, anniversaries and gifts

• Family reunions. Start from the oldest couple everyone shares. Print it at 24×36 and hang it near the sign-in table so people can find their branch.
• Anniversaries. For a 50th, put the couple at the top. Their wedding year prints under them, with every child and grandchild below.
• Grandparents’ gifts. All their children and grandchildren on one framed sheet. If a new baby arrives within 30 days of buying, add them and download again for free.
• Memorials. Start from the person you’re remembering to show the family they leave behind, with their years under their name.

How to build it

1. Type the couple at the top: both names, birth years and the year they married. If they never married, tick They never married and the chart shows them as a couple without a date.
2. Add their children, oldest first. You can move a child up or down later.
3. Click a child’s name to add their partner and their own children. Keep going down, one family at a time.
4. Check the start person under Descendants of. Their partners come with them.

Already have the family in Ancestry, MyHeritage or a family tree program? Export a GEDCOM file and upload it instead. It’s read in your browser and never uploaded. Then pick who the chart starts from. The GEDCOM guide shows how to export from each one.

Second marriages and half-siblings

Every marriage gets its own branch. Someone who married twice appears twice, once beside each spouse, and a dashed line joins the two, labelled “2nd marriage” when there’s room. Marriages are placed in order of their wedding year, and third marriages work the same way.

Children sit under the couple they came from, so half-siblings sit under their own parents. In the sample above, Susan, David and Karen are Robert and Margaret’s children; Linda and Michael are Robert and Dorothy’s.

A few cases work a little differently:

• Couples who never married get no “m.” line. If a later relationship wasn’t a marriage, the dashed line says “2nd partner” instead.
• Same-sex couples are drawn like any other couple. The app doesn’t ask anyone’s sex, so there are no pink and blue boxes. Michael and Daniel in the sample are one.
• Step-children from a partner’s earlier marriage appear only when the chart starts from that partner. Our blended family guide explains what to do.
• Divorces and adoptions aren’t marked. An earlier marriage is drawn the same way however it ended, and adopted children are drawn like birth children.

Big families and paper size

Nine children in one row? The chart grows wider instead of squeezing names. A wider chart prints smaller, though, so the paper size matters:

• Up to about 40 people reads well at 18×24 inches.
• Larger families look best at 24×36.
• Descendant charts are usually wider than they are tall, so landscape tends to fit best. The app picks the orientation that gives bigger names unless you choose one.

You don’t have to guess. Under the preview, the app shows how big the names will print (for example, “names print at about 14 pt”), and before you pay it recommends the smallest sheet where names reach 10 pt. If a very large family still prints too small, start the chart one generation lower and make one chart per branch.

Looks and printing

There are four looks: Navy & gold (our pick for a gift), Parchment, Minimal and Botanical. Switch as often as you like; names, dates and layout stay the same. 18×24 and 24×36 inches are standard poster frame sizes, sold ready-made at most craft and home stores. Paper, file formats and timing are covered in our printing tips.

Free to build, $12 to print

Building, every chart type, look and size, and the on-screen preview are free, with no account. The preview carries a watermark. When it’s right, pay $12 once through Stripe Checkout for a vector PDF that stays sharp up to 24×36 and a 300-dpi PNG, with no watermark. Typo fixes and re-downloads are free for 30 days. If the print isn’t right, email us within 14 days for a full refund.

Want to show where one person came from instead? Try a pedigree chart of their ancestors.

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