Free & printable

Family tree template

A blank ancestor chart you fill in by hand. Pick 3, 4 or 5 generations, portrait or landscape, sized for A4 or US Letter, then print or save it as a PDF.

Generations
Orientation
Paper size

The boxes get small at 4 and 5 generations, that's normal for this chart. Plenty of people print the 3-generation version once for each grandparent's line instead of one crowded sheet.

How to fill it in

Start with yourself in the bottom box, then work backward. Each row above holds one generation further back: your parents, then your grandparents, then great-grandparents if you picked 4 or 5 generations. In every pair, the box on the left is the father's side and the box on the right is the mother's side, so the same pattern repeats all the way up the chart.

It's fine to leave boxes blank. A template like this is meant to be built up over time, and a few conversations with relatives usually fill in more than you'd expect. If two people share a box (for example, a grandparent you never met), write what you do know, even just a surname or a place, and come back to it later.

Why the rows double

Everyone has exactly two parents, so the number of ancestors doubles every generation back: 2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great-grandparents, 16 second great-grandparents. Genealogists call this doubling layout a pedigree chart, or an ahnentafel (German for "ancestor table"). It's the standard shape for this kind of chart, which is why the boxes get narrower the further back you go. The great-grandparent row and the row above it are labeled GGF and GGM (great-grandfather, great-grandmother) and 2xGGF and 2xGGM (second great-grandfather, second great-grandmother), short forms genealogists use, so the label fits the box.

A pedigree chart like this only has room for one direct line, no siblings, no partners, no photos. Once you want the whole family together, not just your ancestors, Family Tree Studio builds that on a canvas and turns it into a print-ready poster. If you'd rather look up exactly what to call a relative once you've mapped them, the cousin calculator and the relationship chart cover that. And if you already have a tree in a GEDCOM (.ged) file from another program, the GEDCOM viewer lets you browse it right in your browser before you fill anything in by hand.

Questions

Good to know.

How many generations should I use?
Start with however much you already know for certain. Three generations (you, your parents, your grandparents) is easy to fill in from memory for most people. Four and five generations reach further back, but the boxes get small, so many people print a fresh three-generation sheet for each grandparent's line instead of cramming everyone onto one page.
What do the boxes mean, and why do they double each row?
Everyone has exactly two parents, so each generation back has twice as many ancestors as the one after it: 2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great-grandparents, and so on. This is the standard pedigree layout genealogists call an ahnentafel chart. In every pair, the left-hand box is the father's side and the right-hand box is the mother's side, all the way back. The two deepest rows use short labels (GGF/GGM, 2xGGF/2xGGM) for great-grandparents and second great-grandparents, so the label fits the box.
Can I add siblings, spouses or photos to this template?
Not on this chart. A pedigree template like this one only has room for your direct line of ancestors, one father and mother per box. If you want a tree with siblings, partners, children, photos and notes for everyone, that is exactly what the Family Tree Studio app builds, on a canvas you can arrange freehand and then export as a poster.
What paper size and orientation should I pick?
Use A4 or US Letter to match the paper in your printer. Portrait suits three generations comfortably. For four or five generations, landscape gives the wider rows more room, which keeps the great-grandparent boxes from getting too cramped to write in.
Can I save this as a PDF instead of printing it?
Yes. Click print, then in your browser's print dialog choose "Save as PDF" instead of a physical printer. The chart is sized to your chosen paper before it opens the dialog, so the saved PDF matches.
Does this page track or store anything?
No. The chart is drawn in your browser from the generation, orientation and paper size you pick. Nothing is uploaded, saved or tracked, and it works the same with no account and no internet connection once the page has loaded.

Ready for the whole family, not just the direct line?

Family Tree Studio adds siblings, partners, photos and notes, then exports a print-ready poster you'll be proud to hang. Free to build, on iOS.

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