Descendant Chart

What Is a Descendant Chart?
Creating a Descendant Chart
For Whom?

Multiple Spouses for a Source Person

How Many Generations?
Pruning a Descendant Chart
Removing Duplicate Branches
Layout

The Create Chart Button


Editing Tree Charts

Pictures in Charts

Privacy Filter

What Is a Descendant Chart?

Reunion creates descendant charts and descendant reports. In both cases, the document begins with one couple and looks forward in time — down the roots, as it were, from the starting couple in the family view.

descendant chart

A descendant chart is a graphic document that shows descendants of the source couple for a specified number of generations. Descendant charts include graphic elements — boxes and connecting lines — to depict relationships.

Here is a small example of a descendant chart:

Here is the text version — a descendant report:

Joseph Patrick KENNEDY (6 Sep 1888 - 18 Nov 1969)
& Rose Elizabeth FITZGERALD (22 Jul 1890 - 22 Jan 1995)
        | John Fitzgerald KENNEDY (29 May 1917 - 22 Nov 1963)
        | & Jacqueline Lee BOUVIER (28 Jul 1929 - 19 May 1994)
        |         | Caroline Bouvier KENNEDY (27 Nov 1957 - )
        |         | & Edwin Arthur SCHLOSSBERG (19 Jul 1945 - )
        |         | John Fitzgerald KENNEDY Jr. (25 Nov 1960 - 16 Jul 1999)
        |         | & Carolyn BESSETTE (7 Jan 1966 - 16 Jul 1999)
        |         | Patrick Bouvier KENNEDY (7 Aug 1963 - 9 Aug 1963)

Descendant reports are discussed here.

Creating a Descendant Chart

To make a descendant chart...

  1. Select Charts in the navbar on the left.
  2. Select Descendant from the list of charts.

A panel full of options will appear.

For Whom?

By default, names of the husband and wife of the current family appear when you select Charts > Descendant. Either can be selected to begin the report.

To create a Descendant chart for a different person, select (single-click) any name in any sidebar and the "Who" section will be updated. Or, return to the family view and navigate until you find the desired starting person.

When creating a Descendant report, Reunion will start with the person in the "Who" section and move "forward" in time. It gathers information about all the descendants of this person and his/her spouse (whose name also appears in the "Who" section) until it reaches the end of a lineage or the specified ending generation (2 to 99).

Multiple Spouses for a Source Person

Descendant charts show the descendants of a couple, not an individual. If the selected person in the "Who" section — the starting person — has multiple spouses, the descendants of his other spouses will not be included in the report. This is because the child of a man's second marriage is not a descendant of his first marriage, or vice versa. If you need to show descendants of multiple spouses of a couple, then you need to change the starting couple. (I.e., start the report from a parent or other ancestor of the couple.)

Also, if the starting person has multiple spouses, be sure to have the correct spouse selected. For example, let's assume that Cher had two spouses: Sonny and Greg. If you want the Descendant chart to begin with Cher and Sonny, then navigate until you see Sonny and Cher in the family view. However, if you want the report to begin with Cher and Greg, then navigate until you see Greg and Cher in the family view. The key is to get the right spouse in the family view before initiating the Descendant chart — because the chart will only include descendants of the couple in the "Who" section of the chart window.

How Many Generations?

To set the size of a descendant chart, use the up/down arrows next to the Generations heading or simply type a number into the box. Descendant charts can be from 2 to 99 generations. There is no limit on the number of boxes in a chart or its dimensions.

Pruning a Descendant Chart

The Descendant Chart window provides buttons for pruning large charts by including only...

Removing Duplicate Branches

To identify and remove repetition in a descendant chart, click the Remove duplicates button in the Descendant Chart window.

Repetition (the creation of duplicate branches) occurs when descendants of married cousins (or siblings) appear more than once in a descendant chart. If duplicate branches are removed from a chart, the source of the duplication (the related couple) will have a double asterisk (**) added to their entry in the descendant chart (even if the couple has no children, or if the couple is part of the last generation in the chart). The first occurrence of a branch, as it appears in the descendant chart, will remain in the chart — other occurrences will be removed.

To learn how to find points of duplication in a graphic tree chart, click here.

Layout

A layout is a collection of settings that determine the content and "look" of a chart. To create or customize the layout for a descendant chart...

  1. Select Charts > Descendant.
  2. Click the Layout button and choose Define Layouts.

Most of the layout settings for descendant charts are common to other charts and reports. Follow these links for more information...

The Create Chart Button

When you click the Create Chart button in the Charts > Descendant panel, Reunion will build the new chart from the entries and links in your family file and open the chart in a new window. To learn about editing the chart, click here.