Family tree templates: Word, Excel or PDF?

Search for “family tree template” and you will find hundreds of options: Word documents full of boxes, Excel spreadsheets, colourful printable PDFs and programs that draw everything for you. Which one is right depends less on the design than on what you want to do. Are you spending an afternoon with your grandmother writing down her grandparents, or building a collection of hundreds of people over the years? This article explains the main kinds of templates, what Word, Excel, PDF and genealogy software are each good for, and how to fill in and print a chart without frustration.

What kinds of family tree templates are there?

Before you choose a file format, it helps to choose a shape. Most templates fall into one of four types:

• Pedigree chart: it starts with one person and shows their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. Each generation doubles and siblings do not appear. It is the classic starting point because it asks one clear question: who are my direct ancestors?
• Fan chart: the same people as a pedigree chart, arranged in a half circle. You sit in the centre and each generation forms a ring. More generations fit on one sheet, and gaps stand out at once.
• Descendant chart: it starts with a couple, such as your grandparents, and shows their children and grandchildren. It is the right template for a family reunion, because everyone alive today can find themselves on it.
• Family group sheet: not a tree but a form for one couple with their parents and children. It has room for dates, places, occupations and notes that never fit into a tree. Many researchers keep one sheet per couple and file them by family.

How the numbers on a pedigree chart work, and why a father always carries twice his child’s number, is explained in How to read and fill in a pedigree chart.

Word and Excel templates: flexible, up to a point

Word and Excel templates have one big advantage: you fill them in on screen, fix typos and print the tree as often as you like. If you know the programs well, you can change colours, fonts and boxes to suit you. For a small tree with parents, grandparents and great-grandparents, that works nicely.

The limits show as soon as the family grows. In Word the boxes are usually text boxes or shapes joined by lines. Add one person and you have to move everything by hand, and long names or a second marriage soon break the layout. Excel is tidier as long as you keep the data as a list: one row per person, with columns for birth, marriage and death. As a diagram, though, a spreadsheet is hard work. You draw the connecting lines yourself, and when you print, the tree tends to spread across several pages. Google Sheets behaves much like Excel, with the bonus that several relatives can work on the same list at once.

The biggest drawback is exchange: no genealogy program can read a Word or Excel file as a family tree. If you switch later, you type everything again. If you do use a spreadsheet, stick to the list format. A clean table is far easier to transfer later than a drawn tree.

Printable PDF templates: quick and made for conversations

A blank chart on paper is the simplest tool of all. Print it, put it on the kitchen table and fill it in together with your parents or grandparents. Older relatives often tell you more in front of a sheet of paper than in front of a laptop, and the empty boxes work like questions: What was your grandmother’s maiden name? Where was she born? A finished sheet is also a lovely keepsake, especially in your grandmother’s handwriting.

The drawback is obvious: paper cannot be searched or shared, and corrections need an eraser. A printable PDF is the ideal start and a good working copy, but not the place for a growing collection.

We offer four free printable family tree charts, all on A4: a 4-generation pedigree chart, a 5-generation fan chart with 31 boxes, a 3-generation descendant chart (grandparents, children, grandchildren) and a family group sheet for one couple and their children. They print fine on US Letter too if you let the printer fit them to the sheet. We do not offer Word or Excel files; our charts are made to be filled in by hand.

Genealogy software: the better choice beyond a few dozen people

A genealogy program is not a template but a database. You enter each person once and link them to parents, partners and children. The program draws the tree for you and can produce a pedigree chart, a descendant chart or a list at any time. Sources, photos and notes are attached directly to the person. Free programs such as Gramps are enough for most families, and online trees on Ancestry, MyHeritage or FamilySearch work the same way.

The decisive advantage is GEDCOM, the shared exchange format of genealogy. Almost every program and online platform can export and import its data as a GEDCOM file, so you are never tied to one provider and can share your research with relatives. Our explainer What is a GEDCOM file? covers what is inside, and the export guides show how to get the file out of the common programs.

Tips for filling in a template

• Use a pencil. Facts change as soon as you find a record. Go over an entry in ink only once it is confirmed.
• Women under their maiden names. Enter the name a woman was born with, not her married name. That is the name you will find in birth and baptism records.
• Mark what is uncertain. “abt. 1890” or “probably Chicago” is more honest than a guessed date that nobody questions later.
• Write down your sources. Note where every fact comes from: a certificate, a census, a family Bible or a conversation with Aunt Mary. Our fan chart and family group sheet have a dedicated field for sources and notes.
• Number your ancestors. Once you have several sheets, ahnentafel numbers keep every person unique. The pedigree chart article shows how.

Where to find the facts in the first place, which relatives to ask, which records to order and how to work with censuses and church registers, is covered in our guide How to make a family tree, step by step.

Tips for printing

Most templates are laid out for A4 or US Letter, which is enough for four or five generations. To stop the printer from cropping or shrinking the chart, choose “Actual size” or 100 % in the print dialogue rather than “Fit”, unless your paper is a different size from the template. Check the orientation too: pedigree and descendant charts are often landscape, fan charts and family group sheets portrait.

For more writing space, print on A3 or tabloid. If your printer cannot, a copy shop can enlarge an A4 chart to A3 at 141 %. Slightly heavier paper copes better with erasing than thin copy paper. And print two copies straight away: one as a working sheet for notes and corrections, one for the clean final version.

When is it time to switch to software?

A simple rule of thumb: as long as your tree fits on one or two sheets, paper is wonderful. Once you start writing the same person down twice, following side branches or spreading sources over several sheets, a program is easier. Typical signs are a few dozen people, your first order of a certificate, or wanting to swap data with cousins. Your filled-in paper charts are not wasted then. They are the basis you type into the program, and often the most treasured keepsake of the whole project.

And if the tree should go on the wall

If your data lives in a program or on an online platform, you can upload it to us as a GEDCOM file and design a poster from it. Without a file, enter your family in the online wizard. Either way, you see a preview before you order. Design your family tree poster.