These printable family tree templates are a fun and vibrant way of engaging your family or your class in family history.
As a family, these templates are a great way to have fun with your partner or children while producing a beautiful representation of your immediate family, and they are perfect for framing and hanging in your house.
Asking your class to build family trees also has wider benefits. It helps children get a grasp not only on the concept of their wider family structure, but it can help them begin to appreciate their own roots and the generational journey that their family has been on.
7 Free Printable Family Tree Templates
These family tree templates are easy to use. Simply print one or more of the family trees below, and fill out the boxes with your family names. (If you have an account, you can also auto-fill some of these templates using the Keepsakes page on FamilySearch.org.)
For more information on how to make a family tree online, skip to the bottom for information on FamilySearch’s online Family Tree.
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3 Fun Type-in Family Tree Templates
Don't want to print out a template and then write on it? No problem! We also have a few type-in templates that you can fill in online and then print for safekeeping. Some of these templates allow you to either include information from your tree or add the information you included on the template onto your online tree.
Module here:
- https://www.familysearch.org/tree-designs/chinese/
- https://www.familysearch.org/africa/instant-tree/browse-designs
- https://www.familysearch.org/mena/instant-tree/browse-designs
Use Our Free Online Shared Family Tree
FamilySearch offers a wonderful free family tree you can access right from the app store or from your browser!
The online FamilySearch Family Tree creator provides an easy way for you to record your genealogy. This is one of the simplest and best ways you can get a comprehensive family chart.
After filling out some basic information about your family (we recommend starting with the first 4 generations), you can view your family tree in several ways, including as a fan chart or basic pedigree chart. You can even print a complete genealogy chart!
To learn more about how to make a free family tree on FamilySearch, watch this video from RootsTech.
Create Family Tree Keepsakes with Ease
To make quick and easy family tree examples to show to your families or classrooms, use our online family tree template activity through the Keepsakes page. This activity requires you to have started your own online family tree through your FamilySearch account, (create one here for free!). Once you've done so, follow the Keepsakes link below, and FamilySearch will automatically generate a family tree example using the information from your online tree that you can print out and show to your family or classroom.
What Is the History of Making Family Tree Diagrams?
Family Tree diagrams have been used across many cultures and places around the world to keep track of family histories.
Before family tree diagrams were easily accessible to all, they were traditionally used in some civilizations to mark the family histories of royalty and nobility. The genealogy of ancient Egyptian royalty can be traced back to 3000 BC.
The oldest family tree, leading back to Confucius, is still being followed in immaculate order over 2,500 years later. Confucius’s family tree now has 2 million known descendants on it. A truly impressive feat!
Anyone today can easily start their own family tree, whether it be starting at slightly outside the immediate family level as in our templates above or stretching back hundreds of years through our online Family Tree, available for free to all users.
Frequently Asked Questions
Typically, though, family trees start with you and your immediate family at the base of the tree. As you build your family tree from there, you will gradually expand outwards, effectively creating the "tree" shape.
Sometimes the hardest part when deciding what you want your family tree to look like is deciding how far you should go! When creating a tree in a family or school setting, going as far as the subject's grandparents is a great place to stop.
For the budding genealogist though, one of our larger printable or type-in family tree templates might be the best option, alongside our free online shared Family Tree tool.
If you’ve started creating a family tree on FamilySearch and would like to change your root person, view our Help Center guide on How do I change the starting person in Family Tree today.
Traditionally, family tree diagrams were also created to allow aristocrats, nobles, and royalty to follow the rules of succession.
Sometimes less information is better if you want your family tree to have a certain look—for instance, if it is being hung up on a wall. This tree could just include the names of you, your sibling, parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents. More detailed trees may include your wider family, for instance your cousins, aunts and uncles, and more.
If you’d like your family tree to be very detailed, you can search through archives to include as much information as you like. This could be birth dates, christenings, weddings, and death dates. You could also include information like when relatives moved to different parts of the world, and where they moved to. In this way, you can start to build out a comprehensive understanding of the choices your family made over generations.
- genealogy or pedigree charts
- family tree template
- relationship chart
- first ancestors chart
- descendency chart
- genealogy tree
- heraldry chart
- family group sheet
- ancestral chart
- ahnentafel chart
- lineage chart
- line of descent diagram
- cousin chart
Ultimately though, as long as the family tree chart is consistent in structure and easy to follow throughout, you can build it in whichever way works best for your family.
Sign up and enjoy even more FamilySearch features!
Signing up for FamilySearch is the best way to keep learning more about your family tree for free! Create your account today, and join the largest network of family historians in the world. If you already have an account, sign in today and enjoy!
At FamilySearch we care about connecting you with your family, and we provide fun discovery experiences and family history services for free. Why? Because we cherish families and believe that connecting generations can improve our lives now and forever. We are a nonprofit organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. To learn more about our beliefs, click here.
