Family Group Sheet

Who this is for

One couple and their children on a single page. Each partner has a block for birth, death and parents, the marriage sits between them, the children are listed in order underneath, and a small sources table says where every fact came from.

Anyone researching a family, from the first afternoon with a box of certificates to a long-running project that needs one sheet per couple to keep the generations from blurring into each other.

What this helps you track

• Each partner's name, birth, death and parents, in one block apiece
• The date and place of the marriage or partnership
• Every child with birth, death and the person they married
• Which source supports which fact, so a guess is never mistaken for a record
• Who compiled the sheet and when, for the next person to pick it up

How to use it

1. Write the two partners' names at the head of their blocks, then fill in birth, death and parents as far as you know them. Leave blank what you do not know; a blank is more honest than a guess.
2. Enter the marriage date and place, and your own name and the date at the foot of the header.
3. List the children in birth order, one to a row, with the spouse and a note for anything that matters — a second marriage, an emigration, a different surname.
4. Use the sources table to record where each fact came from: the certificate, the register entry, the census return, the relative who told you. Number the fact and give the reference.
5. Start a fresh sheet for each child who married; their own sheet is where they become a partner rather than a child.
6. On paper, file the sheets by surname. In the browser version the sheet saves in your own browser and prints or downloads as a completed PDF.

Formats

• Printable PDF (A4 and US Letter)
• Fillable PDF with form fields
• Fill in online, saved in your browser

The printable is laid out inside a box that fits both A4 and US Letter, so the two files are identical and neither one is scaled. The fillable PDF has real form fields. The online version keeps what you enter in your own browser and builds the completed PDF on your device.

How to print

Download the A4 or US Letter file to match the paper in your printer, open it in a PDF reader and print at 100% — not "fit to page", which shrinks the writing space. Both files leave a 14 mm margin, which clears the unprintable edge on home printers. To print the online version with your entries in it, use the Print this sheet button, which prints only the sheet and none of the page around it. More on printing.

Questions

Why one sheet per couple rather than one per person?

Because a family group sheet answers the question a tree cannot: who were all the children of this marriage, and what became of each? A person who married twice appears as a partner on two sheets, which is exactly right.

What counts as a source?

Anything you can point to: a certificate, a register entry, a census return, a gravestone, a letter, a conversation with a relative. Write it down specifically enough to find again — the reference, not just the name of the archive.

Should I fill in a fact I am fairly sure of?

Write it, and mark it in the notes column as unconfirmed or leave the sources line blank for that fact. The sheet is a working record; what matters is that a later reader can tell a proven date from a likely one.

The family had more children than the rows.

Continue on a second printed sheet with the same partners at the head, or add rows in the browser version, which has no limit.

Does it use any particular numbering or software format?

No. It is a plain form, so it can be copied into whichever program or file system you use, or kept on paper alongside the certificates.