Download Process Monitor (3.3 MB)
How to Make a Family Tree Diagram (+ Examples)
Based on its name, a family tree is structured like a tree, with the individual as the ‘root’ and their parents, grandparents, and ancestors making up the ‘leaves’ one level at a time.
In a family tree chart, lines are used to connect family members and portray their relationships. Each family member is represented by a shape like a box or a circle with usually their photo inside.
What is the history of making family tree diagrams?
Genealogy or the study of families was the earliest form and application of family trees.
Historically, in Western civilizations, family trees, also known as genealogy charts, were used to depict the ancestry of kings and nobles and verify their claims to royalty and power.
Family trees were maintained for years on end. The family tree of Confucius, for example, is already 2,500 years old and is recorded as the world’s largest family tree with 2 million known descendants.
Today, a genealogy chart is no longer just for aristocrats and important people, but for everyone to record their family history and maintain their family tree.
Should you create a family tree?
If you would like to know more about your family or you want to start recording your family history, then you should definitely make your own family tree.
It is also a great way to find out how your family story relates to important historical events.
More importantly, a family tree can help you identify genetic traits and conditions that run in your family. These are often referred to as genograms.
4 steps to make a family tree diagram
To start creating your family tree diagram, simply follow these steps:
Step 1: Research and prepare information
The first thing you need to do before you start drawing your family tree is to gather information about your family. You can check official birth records and DNA test results or simply talk to a relative or any member of your family who has knowledge about your ancestry.
Depending on how much information you will be able to acquire, it should help you determine how big and how detailed you want your family tree to be. Decide on how many generations you want to include and what information you will display for each family member, such as maiden name, year of birth, and role in the family.
Step 2: Draft your family tree drawing
To draw your family tree, start with a box representing yourself or the ancestor you want to begin with. Family trees can be diagrammed either from the top, bottom or horizontally as long as the root will always be yourself.
Here is an example of a family tree that’s drawn horizontally:
Add more boxes until all your family members have been included. Instead of drawing by hand, save time by using an intuitive design tool like Venngage’s Family Tree Maker to create your family tree. It is specifically made for both designers and non-designers alike so it is extremely easy to use.
Venngage’s Family Tree Maker can help you better visualize your family tree through its user-friendly editor with drag-and-drop features. It allows you to change and connect shapes, add labels, and edit colors and other design elements in a matter of seconds.
Venngage also has dozens of free diagrams and templates that you can customize to make the process even faster and easier.
Step 3: Label the leaves of the tree
Most family trees usually outline up to four generations only to make them easier to understand. That said, make sure that family members and their relationships with each other are clearly illustrated by labeling each box or ‘leaf’ correctly.
Indicate names and roles and any additional information you think may be relevant. Use lines to display relationships between spouses and connect parents with direct descendants like children and grandchildren.
Step 4: Design your family tree diagram
Now, this is the part where you enhance and finalize your family tree. Use family photos to add faces to the people you are trying to introduce with your tree. Color-coordinate shapes, lines, or labels to group generations, differentiate deceased from living relatives, and create a distinction between different relationships.
To make your family tree more attractive and engaging, you can design it with icons, graphics, illustrations, or backgrounds – all of which are provided for free in Venngage’s library. You can also make use of a family tree software to streamline research and access to valuable resources.
Venngage also has a business feature called My Brand Kit that enables you to add your company’s logo, color palette, and fonts to all your designs with a single click.
For example, you can make a family tree diagram template reflect your brand design by uploading your brand logo, fonts, and color palette using Venngage’s branding feature.
Not only are Venngage templates free to use and professionally designed, but they are also tailored for various use cases and industries to fit your exact needs and requirements.
A business account also includes the real-time collaboration feature, so you can invite members of your team to work simultaneously on a project.
Venngage allows you to share your family tree online as well as download it as a PNG or PDF file. That way, your design will always be presentation-ready.
5 Family Tree examples
Here are some family tree examples for inspiration that you can use to create a family tree:
1. Simple family tree
This simple family tree template has a distinguishable tree-like shape and features such as branches and colors. It is editable in Microsoft Excel and Word.
2. Ancestry family tree
If you want a unique and more effectively illustrated family tree, this is the template you’re looking for. It has a horizontal layout with the starting point placed in the middle and extending to the left and right to better display ancestors from both sides of the family:
3. Blank family tree
For a more organized and unified family tree, this template is what you should use. It focuses on the structure of the tree and the arrangement of its parts through clearly defined connections and allotting only small spaces for each family member:
4. Graphic family tree
Here’s a template that you can use if you want to represent family members with icons or graphic illustrations instead of photos. It also uses roles as labels instead of names, which is more effective at portraying relationships.
5. Four generation family tree
Last but not least, here’s a perfect example of a family tree that depicts four generations of family members. If you want your family tree diagram to focus on distant relatives instead of immediate family members, then this template will come in handy:
Introduction
Process Monitor is an advanced monitoring tool for Windows that shows real-time file system, Registry and process/thread activity. It combines the features of two legacy Sysinternals utilities, Filemon and Regmon, and adds an extensive list of enhancements including rich and non-destructive filtering, comprehensive event properties such as session IDs and user names, reliable process information, full thread stacks with integrated symbol support for each operation, simultaneous logging to a file, and much more. Its uniquely powerful features will make Process Monitor a core utility in your system troubleshooting and malware hunting toolkit.
Process Monitor includes powerful monitoring and filtering capabilities, including:
- More data captured for operation input and output parameters
- Non-destructive filters allow you to set filters without losing data
- Capture of thread stacks for each operation make it possible in many cases to identify the root cause of an operation
- Reliable capture of process details, including image path, command line, user and session ID
- Configurable and moveable columns for any event property
- Filters can be set for any data field, including fields not configured as columns
- Advanced logging architecture scales to tens of millions of captured events and gigabytes of log data
- Process tree tool shows relationship of all processes referenced in a trace
- Native log format preserves all data for loading in a different Process Monitor instance
- Process tooltip for easy viewing of process image information
- Detail tooltip allows convenient access to formatted data that doesn’t fit in the column
- Cancellable search
- Boot time logging of all operations
The best way to become familiar with Process Monitor’s features is to read through the help file and then visit each of its menu items and options on a live system.
Screenshots
Related Links
- Windows Internals Book
The official updates and errata page for the definitive book on Windows internals, by Mark Russinovich and David Solomon. - Windows Sysinternals Administrator’s Reference
The official guide to the Sysinternals utilities by Mark Russinovich and Aaron Margosis, including descriptions of all the tools, their features, how to use them for troubleshooting, and example real-world cases of their use.
Download Process Monitor (3.3 MB)
Run now from Sysinternals Live.
Runs on:
- Client: Windows 10 and higher.
- Server: Windows Server 2012 and higher.
