How to build a family tree (a beginner's guide)
Building a family tree is one of the most rewarding ways to connect with your history - but a blank page can feel intimidating. This guide takes you from an empty screen to a tree you will be proud to print and frame, and it explains the decisions you will face along the way so you do not get stuck.
Everything below can be done in the free RootsPrint editor. There is no account to create and nothing to install; your tree is saved privately in your own browser as you work.
Before you start: gather what you already know
You do not need a research plan or old certificates to begin. Spend ten minutes writing down what you already know from memory:
- The full names of your parents, grandparents, and any great-grandparents you can recall.
- Approximate birth years - even “around 1950” is useful for keeping generations in order.
- Who married or partnered with whom, and roughly when.
- The names of siblings, aunts, uncles, and cousins you are close to.
Do not worry about gaps. A family tree is built up in layers, and the software is designed for you to fill in details later.
Step 1: Start with yourself
Every tree begins with a single person: you. Open the editor and enter your first name - that is all it takes to begin. From there, the tree grows outward as you add relatives around you.
Starting with yourself (rather than a distant ancestor) keeps the process concrete. You know your own parents, grandparents, and siblings, so the first few generations come quickly and give you momentum. Working from a half-remembered great-great-grandparent, by contrast, tends to stall early.
Step 2: Add the people you know first
Work outward from what you are certain of, one ring at a time:
- Parents - add your mother and father.
- Siblings - add brothers and sisters who share your parents.
- Grandparents - add parents for each of your parents.
- Partner and children - add your spouse or partner and any children.
- Aunts, uncles, and cousins - add the siblings of your parents, their partners, and their children.
Add each person from the relative you already have on the chart - for example, select your father and add his parents - so the relationship is recorded correctly the first time. Do not worry about getting everything perfect. You can rename people, correct dates, and re-arrange relationships at any time, and undo is always one click away.
Step 3: Record the details that matter
For each person you can capture as much or as little as you like: birth and death years, places, a photo, occupation, and free-form notes. Even a first name is enough to place someone on the tree; the rest can be filled in as you research.
A few fields are worth prioritising early:
- Birth year. More than any other field, dates keep generations in the right order and make the finished chart informative. If you are unsure, enter your best estimate rather than leaving it blank.
- Maiden / birth surnames. Recording a person under the surname they were born with makes it far easier to trace their line later.
- Notes. Use the notes field for anything that does not fit a form field - “emigrated 1912”, “second marriage”, or a source you want to remember. Your notes stay private on your device.
Step 4: Handle the tricky parts
Real families are rarely tidy, and a good tool should not force them to be. Here is how to represent the common complications:
- Unknown parents. If you know two people are siblings but do not know the shared parent, add a placeholder parent and name it later once you find out. This keeps the sibling relationship correct in the meantime.
- Blended families. People can have multiple partners and children across different relationships. Add each partner separately and attach the right children to the right union, so step- and half-relationships display accurately.
- Adoption and fostering. Record the relationship that reflects your family as you understand it, and use the notes field to capture the detail (“adopted, 1975”) for context.
- Same names across generations. When a grandfather, father, and son share a name, birth years are what keep them distinct - another reason to fill dates in early.
Step 5: Check your tree for mistakes
As a tree grows, small errors creep in - a child accidentally attached to the wrong parent, or an impossible date. RootsPrint quietly checks your tree in the background and flags plausibility issues such as a child born before a parent, or a birth date later than a death date. Each warning links straight to the person so you can fix it or dismiss it; nothing is changed automatically.
Reviewing these warnings every so often is the easiest way to keep your tree trustworthy before you print or share it.
Step 6: Find your way around a growing tree
Once you pass a few dozen people, two features make a large tree manageable:
- Search lets you jump straight to anyone by typing part of their name - much faster than scrolling.
- Focus narrows the chart to one person’s ancestors, descendants, or immediate family, so you can concentrate on a single branch without deleting anything. Switch back to the full view at any time.
If you are ever curious how two relatives connect, the built-in relationship calculator names the exact kinship for you - for example “first cousins once removed” - so you never have to work it out by hand.
Step 7: Keep a backup
Because your tree is stored privately in your browser, there is no cloud copy by default. That is good for privacy, but it means you are responsible for backups. Clearing your browser data or switching devices will leave the tree behind unless you have exported it.
Get into the habit of exporting a GEDCOM or JSON file whenever you have done meaningful work. Either file is a portable backup you can re-import on any device. GEDCOM is the standard genealogy format that other software can read; JSON preserves everything RootsPrint stores. Our guide on GEDCOM vs JSON explains which to choose and what each format includes.
Step 8: Print something worth framing
When your tree is ready, export it. Because a whole tree rarely fits one page readably, the most flattering print usually comes from a focused view centred on one person - their close family, ancestors, descendants, or direct line - with the number of generations capped so names stay legible; the paper size then fits itself. You can also export a high-resolution image to share, or a multi-page family Book for a complete keepsake. See how to print a family tree and how to export a family Book for the details.
A realistic first session
You will not finish a family tree in one sitting, and you do not need to. A productive first session usually looks like this: add yourself, your parents, and your grandparents; fill in birth years from memory; add your siblings and your own children; export a backup. That is already three generations - a real, framable tree - and a foundation you can keep growing whenever you learn something new.
Ready to start? Open the editor and add your first person. When you want to go further, browse the rest of our guides or see everything the tool can do on the features page.