Ancestor Chart

What Is an Ancestor Chart?
Creating an Ancestor Chart
For Whom?
How Many Generations?
Pruning and Duplication
Layout

Single Page Ancestor Charts

The Create Chart Button


Editing Tree Charts

Pictures in Charts

Privacy Filter

What Is an Ancestor Chart?

An ancestor chart is a graphic document that begins with one person and moves backward in time — showing the parents of each person in the tree. If you haven't entered some of your ancestors, the corresponding boxes will not appear in the chart.

Note: To learn about a cascading pedigree chart — a series of four- or five-generation, single-page, cross-referenced charts, click here.

Creating an Ancestor Chart

To create an ancestor chart...

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

A panel full of options will appear.

For Whom?

By default, names of the husband/wife of the current family appear in the "Who" section when you select Charts > Ancestor. To create an ancestor 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 to another person and, once again, select Charts > Ancestor.

When you create an ancestor chart, Reunion will start with the person selected in the "Who" section and look "backward" in time. It gathers information about all direct ancestors of the starting person until it reaches the beginning of a lineage or it reaches the specified number of generations (2 to 99).

How Many Generations?

To set the size of an ancestor chart, use the up/down arrows beside the Generations heading or simply type a number into the box. Ancestor charts can be from 2 to 99 generations.

Pruning and Duplication

As Reunion is gathering ancestors for the chart, it will only include marked ancestors if the Marked ancestors only button is checked.

Ancestral duplication in an ancestor chart is caused when relatives marry. Reunion will conveniently notate (with double asterisks) and remove duplicating branches if the Remove duplicates button is checked.

The double asterisks ** only appears where the duplication is removed.

If you choose not to remove duplication, the duplication is neither removed nor notated in charts.

Layout

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

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

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

Include Siblings of...

This layout setting lets you include the siblings of...

The example below includes siblings. Note that siblings appear in correct chronological order. Also, note the thicker, blue lines for direct ancestors of the source person (John Fitzgerald KENNEDY Jr).

Include Spouses of...

This layout setting lets you include spouses of the source person and/or the spouses of siblings of ancestors.

Single Page Ancestor Charts

If you want to print an ancestor chart that is preformatted to fit on a single page, and you're willing to accept some limitations, check the Limit to one page button in the Charts > Ancestor panel. Preformatted single-page charts (which don't use printer reduction or scaling) are limited to 7 generations, depending on how much information you want in each box...

The following limitations apply to single page charts...

When you click the Limit to one page button, the Layout button disappears and is replaced with a Box Setup button. Clicking the Box Setup button opens the Box Setup window, with options for single-page charts...

You can actually get more generations on a single page by unchecking the Limit to one page button and using reduction or scaling in the Page Setup window. However, doing so requires a little more work on your part.

The Create Chart Button

When you click the Create Chart button in the Charts > Ancestor panel, Reunion will build and open a new chart in a new window. To learn about editing the chart, click here.