The Best Family Tree Creator Apps
Exploring our family history used to mean spending endless hours digging through dusty records in distant lands. But in 2024, numerous online resources make discovering your ancestry simpler and more accessible. With just your smartphone and a family tree maker app, you can uncover your family’s past and craft a family tree in no time.
Interactive tools now enable us to record family stories, locate ancestral homes on maps, and even scan important documents. In this article, we’ll introduce you to top apps, including a digital brochure maker, to help you create your family tree online, guide you on how to start, and inspire you to map out your family story.
What is a family tree?
A family tree is a visual chart or diagram that represents the generations of your family and their connections over time. Sometimes, as seen in the templates below, they can resemble an actual tree.
Family trees can feature names, birth and wedding dates, and even photos. They can be simple, listing just immediate family members, or quite detailed, including ancestors from many generations ago.
With a family tree diagram, you can easily trace your origins, identify your ancestors, and see how you’re related to them. It visually represents the connections among family members, showing how one person is related to others.
The tree can map out the ancestors of an individual or a nuclear family or trace the lineage of those sharing a surname. Some, like European nobility or royal families, have intricate family trees maintained over generations.
Your family tree chart doesn’t need to be complex. There are numerous free templates that let you create a striking online family tree with just a few clicks. You can then publish it online as a digital brochure using Publuu or share it with family members worldwide.
Publuu’s online brochure example
View more online brochure examples
How to create a family tree?
Family trees typically represent each generation on a separate level, allowing you to quickly identify which ancestors precede which generation. Marriage is often depicted by a horizontal line between two people or tree branches. Children from a marriage are shown with a parenthesis linking the couple to their offspring. While most family trees are vertical, some are designed horizontally.
Begin by deciding how far back you want to trace your family history. Do you aim to go back to the 16th century? For many, the limit is often World War I, as older archives may have been lost. Using a family tree generator, you can always add more family members to your online tree.
Next, fill in the fields with your ancestors’ names, birth dates, and dates of death. You can also add other details, such as wedding dates or birthplaces, often found in family archives.
The list of the best family tree maker software
Family Historian
Family Historian is a leading family tree maker program, supporting variations like multiple partners and same-sex marriages. Its user-friendly interface lets you swiftly add data and photos to a comprehensive family tree. Integrated with online databases, it’s ideal for developing your tree before creating it in a graphics program with professional templates.
Family Tree Maker
This intuitive app is perfect for beginners and those curious about their family tree. While it can be pricey, it creates beautiful, straightforward trees and synchronizes your family history with relatives. Changes to your tree are accessible on smart devices via cloud subscription, even letting you check historical weather data, like the day your great-grandfather was born!
Family trees – free creators
FamilySearch
FamilySearch is an international non-profit by the Church of Latter-Day Saints (‘Mormons’) that helps people discover their roots. It offers free access to data, with some privacy controls, and allows anyone to edit your family history, potentially connecting you with distant relatives.
Family Tree Builder
This app offers both online and downloadable versions for creating a family tree viewable on computers and smartphones. The basic creator is free, but a paid subscription provides access to a database of historical and DNA data.
Family tree free templates
This family tree template lets you create a detailed heritage chart or a fun image for school projects.
This simple family tree template helps you record names and direct ancestors in a linear format.
This unique family chart presents your family history in a fan-like design, showing both sides of your lineage.
This family tree template offers space for family photos and bios.
This retro template can serve as a distinctive family tree.
This simple template allows kids to create and print a family tree for school projects.
Summary
Family tree maker apps provide an efficient way to manage and display your family history. While many require subscriptions for full access to archives, you can create a family tree in any graphic design program and export it as a beautiful online brochure with Publuu!
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