# I need a family tree generator!

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-family-tree-generator/514199>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [October 18, 2009, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-family-tree-generator/514199 "2009-10-18T03:07:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Mississippienne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Mississippienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mississippienne)\
**Post date:** [October 18, 2009, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-family-tree-generator/514199/1 "2009-10-18T03:07:53Z")

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I’m in the process of writing an extremely long and complicated fantasy story on Fictionpress. One of the things I’d like to do is create a genealogy chart for the main characters so my readers can keep track of who’s related to who easily. Ideally, I’d like to find an online generator that would let me create something similar to [this](http://www.duke.edu/web/Archives/history/duke-genealogy-chart.jpg) (random example I grabbed from a web search). I find a lot of free templates online, but they all seem to be made to be printed out and filled in, and what I want is something that would allow me to add lines, names, etc. and make a jpg or other image file. Does anyone know of a program or website that would allow me to do this?

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**Author:** ![Dorjan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorjan/32/12440_2.png) [@Dorjan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dorjan)\
**Post date:** [October 18, 2009, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-family-tree-generator/514199/2 "2009-10-18T13:53:54Z")

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Try [geni.com](http://geni.com), should be perfect for what you want to do.

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**Author:** ![J-P\_L](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/j-p_l/32/3156_2.png) [@J-P\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/J-P_L)\
**Post date:** [October 18, 2009, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-family-tree-generator/514199/3 "2009-10-18T14:01:26Z")

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[Brother’s Keeper](http://www.bkwin.org/) is a free genealogy program for the PC

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**Author:** ![longPath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bb73d2/32.png) [@longPath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/longPath)\
**Post date:** [October 18, 2009, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-family-tree-generator/514199/4 "2009-10-18T14:10:15Z")

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Have a look PAF5 (Personal Ancestral File) at [http://www.familysearch.org](http://www.familysearch.org)

It’s free and very comprehensive.

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**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2009, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-family-tree-generator/514199/5 "2009-10-19T05:05:03Z")

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Heck, Microsoft Word can handle what it sounds like you want. You just use the flowchart tools. That’s how I was taught in school. Here’s [the official tutorial](http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA103377581033.aspx).

If you’d rather have part of it premade, you can try [these templates](http://labnol.blogspot.com/2006/09/create-family-tree-charts-inside.html). Or just Google family tree in word