What Is an Hourglass Chart?
Creating an Hourglass Chart
An hourglass chart begins with a couple in the center and goes backward in time moving up from the source couple and forward in time moving down from the source couple. An hourglass chart resembles a bottom-to-top ancestor chart and a top-to-bottom descendant chart sewn together.
The chart example above includes a source couple in the center, 1 generation of ancestors, and 3 generations of descendants.
To create an hourglass chart...
Typically, an hourglass chart will include...
You can see in the
> panel that the relationship term "Parents" appears next to the Ancestor generations box and "G Grandchildren" appears next to the Descendants generations box, to help explain who'll be included in the hourglass chart.The numbering of generations for hourglass charts is a bit different than other charts. In the example above, the hourglass chart will have 1 generation of ancestors, 3 generations of descendants, plus the source couple, for a total of 5 generations.
A layout is a collection of settings that determine the content and "look" of a chart. To create or customize the layout for an hourglass chart...
Most of the layout settings for hourglass charts are common to other charts and reports. Follow these links for more information...
![]() |
|
![]() |
|
![]() |
|
![]() |
|
![]() |
|
![]() |
|
![]() |
The default layout for hourglass charts will not include places. This will help control the size of the hourglass charts. Of course, you may include places in the layout's Event format settings. If included, places will, by default, be put on a separate line. These defaults have been chosen to help keep the width of an hourglass chart from exploding.
When clicking the here.
button in the panel, Reunion will build and open a new chart in a new window. To learn about editing the chart, clickNote: hourglass charts have some unique editing features, which are described here.