How to Indicate Marriage on a Pedigree Chart

Family trees can be highly decorative or simplistically practical.

Pedigree charts, also known as family trees, have been kept by families and governing bodies for hundreds of years. Such charts have practical applications, such as family medical histories and determining birthright and inheritance. Many people, however, build their family trees just out of curiosity. The National Center for Biotechnology Information has on its website a link to a guide standardizing the symbols used in these family trees, including those used for relationships like marriage, from the National Journal of Human Genetics.

Instructions

1. Place the husband's name on the left side and draw a square or rectangle around it.

2. Place the wife's name directly to the right of the husband's, one name-length away. Draw a circle or oval around her name.

3. Connect the two names with a single, solid line. Though this is generally understood as marriage, there is additional information you can include, if you have it.

4. Write "married" followed by the year they were married, if you so choose, on the line that you drew.

5. Draw a line downward, perpendicular to the first and halfway between the two names if the couple has any children. If there is just one child, put the name directly under the line and draw a square or circle around it for male or female, respectively. If there is more than one, draw a new horizontal line with smaller vertical lines coming off it for each child, the oldest on the left, and gender-differentiate accordingly.

6. Draw two diagonal hash marks in the marriage line if the couple is divorced. If showing past marriages as well as current, try to keep the left-to-right, male-to-female dynamic in the active relationship. For example, a past wife should be drawn the left of the husband and a past husband to the right of the wife.

References

• American Journal of Human Genetics: Recommendations for Standardized Human Pedigree Nomenclature