Pedigree Chart, Four Generations

Who this is for

Four generations of direct ancestors on one page. It is laid out as a numbered table rather than a branching tree: person one is you or your starting person, two and three are the parents, four to seven the grandparents and eight to fifteen the great-grandparents, each with a line for birth, marriage and death.

Anyone starting a family history who wants the direct line written down before it branches, and anyone further on who wants a one-page summary of a particular ancestor's four generations to carry to an archive.

What this helps you track

• The direct ancestors of one person, numbered so each line is unambiguous
• Where each person was born and died, and when they married
• Which of the fifteen places are still blank, which is the research list
• A summary that can be copied from group sheets and checked against them

How to use it

1. Write the name of person one — yourself, or whoever the chart starts from — and your own name and the date in the header.
2. Fill the rows from the top down. Each person's number tells you who they are: two and three are the parents of one, four and five the parents of two, six and seven the parents of three, and so on.
3. Enter birth, marriage and death with places as far as they are known, copying from your group sheets or certificates rather than from memory.
4. Leave any unknown line blank rather than guessing. The blanks are the point of the chart — they show you where to look next.
5. When the great-grandparents are filled, start a new chart for any of them as person one, and write the new chart's number after that person's name on this one.
6. On paper, keep the charts together in number order. The browser version saves in your own browser and prints as a completed sheet.

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 a table and not a tree diagram?

Because the table gives every ancestor a full line for dates and places, which a tree squeezed onto one page cannot. The numbering does what the branches would: an even number is the father of the person with half that number, and the odd number after it is the mother.

What are the numbers for?

They are the usual ancestor numbering: person one, parents two and three, grandparents four to seven, great-grandparents eight to fifteen. A person's father is always double their number and their mother is one more than that.

What if I only know a first name or a surname?

Write what you know and nothing more. A surname alone on line twelve is still information, and the blank date beside it tells you what to search for.

How do I go back further than four generations?

Start a second chart with one of the great-grandparents as person one, and write that chart's number after their name on the first. Each chart covers four generations; a numbered set covers as many as you can find.