Family tree

There are three types of tree diagrams GEDKeeper can create: tree of ancestors (ascending relationship tree), tree of descendants (descending relationship tree), and a combined tree (tree of ancestors and descendants). You can set up the diagram appearance from the "Service\Options" menu in the "Options" dialog on the "Charts\Trees" tab. You can change what information to show about persons and change colors of tree elements.

To build a tree, you pick a person out in person list, then choose a tree type (ancestors, descendants, or complete) in the "Pedigree" menu. Alternatively, you can use the following buttons from the main window:


Note: The trees built by GEDKeeper always contain only the descendants and/or ancestors of the selected central person. Exception: with the "Extended tree" option, the ancestors of all spouses of the central person will also be displayed.


After a tree is created, you can use the save button to export the tree in one of the following formats: raster format (BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG) or vector (EMF, SVG, PDF). Not every family tree may be saved as a raster file since they may not store more than 65k pixels per horizontal line. Vector files do not have such restrictions. Therefore, a vector format can store trees of any size. Moreover, having a vector file may be better for the next image processing in graphical applications and printing. Please note that the vector format "emf" is only available in Windows versions of the program.

The following controls are available when you view a diagram:


The number of visible generations (of both ancestors and descendants) can be adjusted from one to nine (or unlimited) by the "Generations" button using the dropdown menu.

With the "Separate depth" option it will be possible to use the selection of displayed generations separately by ancestors and descendants.


The colors of the person cards are configured in the settings section (the button on the toolbar of the diagram window or the menu Service\Options). Also, for each person, for specific needs, you can set a separate color (a pop-up menu by right-clicking on the person card). In some cases, the person cards may be shown in gray (not configurable) - this means that this person has previously been displayed in the tree in another branch. This happens, for example, in the case of ancestor reduction.

In the tree, it is possible to show not only the name, life dates, but also a one-line short comment. To do this, a comment with the type "Tree note", you must enter in the tab "User references" of the editing dialog persons and enable the option "Show special notes" in Options.

The tree diagram has a function for collapsing branches. You need to click on the line leading from the person to the branch. Very close to the person. Then the person itself will remain, and the branch will collapse and a small yellow triangle will appear there - an indicator of the collapsed branch. Or press the [F4] key on this person.

You can also filter content with the filter button.

If you have used the [F6] key or the expand icon (set new person as the central one for the tree), you can use the left and right buttons to return to the previous or next person.

"Display modes" button shows the following tree options:

Other hotkeys:


If the "Additional symbols" display is set in the tree settings and specialized user references were used when editing persons, symbols/indicators will be displayed in the tree to the right of the person cards. Currently available symbols include: symbols for the main religions (Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Old Believers, Islam), symbols for holders of awards of the Russian Empire, symbols for soldiers and those killed in the WWII, symbols for home front workers, repressed persons, and members of the CPSU.


Additional functions are available by right-clicking on any person:


The following tree filtering options are available:

By year boundary
When working with large trees, from 500-1000 people, it is useful to use the options to turn off children in different branches, who died young and did not leave offspring. This is a general case, which is not enough to increase the efficiency of the study. Therefore, there is this filter by year. The meaning is the following - all branches, whose descendants were born after the specified year, will be filtered and will be included in the tree. This is a way to remove from the image all intersected or broken branches and leave only the longest ones. For example, if you select some ancestor, who lived in the 17th century, and set the year to 1900, then only those branches that have survived to this time will remain on the tree.
By specified persons
This is a way to get a simplified tree for one or two or more persons, if it is necessary to clearly display their relationship. That is, when building a tree from some ancestor and setting one or more descendants in this filter - the tree will display only chains of people that unite the ancestor with the selected descendants.
Additionally - by sources
Allows you to simplify working with the tree when processing some source. Only those persons will remain in the tree, who have links to the specified source.

See also: Options.