Family tree maker
Build a family tree on the canvas: two parents joined by a labelled marriage line with the children merged beneath it, life dates and a note on every card, extra marriages, male/female tints, then export SVG, PNG, PDF or JSON. Saved on your device, fully offline.
Open Family tree maker →What is the family tree maker?
A tool that builds a family tree directly on an interactive canvas. A person and their partner sit side by side, joined by a labelled marriage line, and their children hang from a single merged drop off that line — the way a family tree is meant to read. Click a card to open its menu, edit the name, life dates and a short note in place, add children and further marriages, and set whether each person is shown with the male or female tint. Every connector carries a label you can edit: the marriage line and each child's line up to their parents. Export the tree as an SVG vector, a PNG image, a PDF document, or JSON to save and reload later. It runs fully offline in your browser, and your tree is saved on your own device.
How to use Family tree maker
- Start from the example — The maker opens with a small example family. Click any card and press Enter — or click it again — to edit that person's name, life dates and note in place.
- Add the children — The + below a couple adds a child to that marriage. Children of the same parents share one merged line, so the tree stays readable however wide it grows.
- Label the relationships — Click the label on any line to rename it. The marriage line takes words like Married, Engaged or Divorced; a child's line takes Son, Daughter, Adopted and so on. Common words are offered as you type.
- Handle second marriages — Add a marriage from a person's menu and a second partner appears beside them, joined by a line routed above the row so it is always clear who married whom. Each marriage keeps its own children.
- Style and export — Set the male and female tints, the accent and the box fill to suit — every card follows them, so the whole tree restyles at once — then download the tree as SVG, PNG, PDF or JSON.
Frequently asked questions
How do the merged lines for children work?
Two parents are joined by a horizontal marriage line. Their children do not hang from one parent — a single drop descends from the middle of that marriage line to a shared rail, and each child drops from that rail. That is what makes it a family tree rather than an organisation chart.
Can someone be married more than once?
Yes. Choose Add marriage from a person's menu and another partner is placed beside them. The first partner is joined by a straight line; later ones are joined by a line routed above the row, so no two marriages can be confused. Each marriage holds its own children.
What can I put on a card?
A name, a free-text life-dates line and a short note. Dates are free text on purpose, so "1948 – 2011", "b. 1975" and "12 March 1948" all work in any calendar or language. The note suits a birthplace, an occupation or a maiden name.
How do I change the relationship words on the lines?
Click the label itself. A small field opens with the usual words suggested — Married, Engaged, Partners, Divorced, Widowed for a marriage; Son, Daughter, Child, Adopted, Step-son, Step-daughter, Foster for a child — and you can type anything you like instead.
How does the male and female colouring work?
Each person can be set to male, female or unspecified from their menu, and takes the matching chart-wide tint. Unspecified people use the plain accent colour. There are no per-card colours: every card follows the four pickers above the canvas, so one change restyles the whole tree and it stays consistent wherever you export it.
Can I move someone to a different part of the tree?
Drag their card onto another card and they move there with all of their descendants. Dropping onto a person adds them to that person's family; dropping onto a spouse adds them to that couple. You can also promote anyone to be a new top-level ancestor from their menu.
What formats can I export?
SVG for a sharp, scalable vector, PNG for a quick image, PDF for a document, or JSON to save the tree and re-import it later — all generated in your browser, with nothing uploaded.
Will my tree be saved, and does it work offline?
Yes to both. The tree is stored locally in your browser and drawn on your device with no upload and no AI, so it keeps working without a connection. Use Reset to start fresh, and keep a JSON download as your own backup.
Tips
- Click a card once to open its menu; click again to edit the name, dates and note in place.
- The + below a couple adds a child to that marriage — a person with two marriages has one + per marriage.
- Select a person and an empty label appears on their line up to their parents; click it to name the relationship.
- Drag a card onto another to move that person and all of their descendants into a new family.
- Export SVG when the tree needs to print or scale cleanly, and JSON to reload it and keep editing later.