The Genogram Guide
A genogram is a family tree that records relationships as well as people. This is the full notation, one symbol and one line at a time — 73 symbols and 35 relationship line types, using standard genogram notation (McGoldrick-style).
Genogram Symbols
Squares, circles, and the notation layered on top of them: gender, death, pregnancy, twins, adoption, and the medical and behavioral conditions a clinical genogram records.
Relationship Lines
The lines between people carry most of a genogram’s meaning: marriage and divorce, closeness and conflict, cutoff and fusion, and the structural lines that hold generations together.
Genogram Symbols
See all 73 symbols →People and events
A square represents a male family member in a genogram
A circle represents a female family member in a genogram
A diamond or question mark represents a person whose gender is unknown
A small triangle represents a current pregnancy
A small filled triangle or circle with an X represents a miscarriage
A filled square or circle with an X represents a stillbirth
Conditions
A symbol with the lower half filled indicates alcoholism or alcohol abuse
A symbol with a quarter filled or specific marking indicates drug abuse
A symbol with the left half filled or specific color indicates mental illness
A symbol filled with blue or marked with 'D' indicates depression
A symbol filled with yellow or marked with 'A' indicates anxiety disorders
A symbol split into two colors indicates bipolar disorder
Relationship Lines
See all 35 line types →Marital and structural
A solid horizontal line connecting two people represents a marriage or committed partnership
A dashed horizontal line represents an engagement or planned marriage
A dotted line represents unmarried partners living together
A vertical line connecting parents to children represents biological parentage
A dashed vertical line indicates an adopted child relationship
A dotted vertical line indicates a foster child relationship
Emotional
Two parallel solid lines indicate a close, positive relationship
Three parallel lines indicate an overly close or enmeshed relationship
A single dotted line indicates emotional distance
A line with perpendicular bars indicates an emotional cutoff
A zigzag line indicates conflict or hostility
Double lines with zigzag indicates closeness combined with conflict
Genogram notation based on the conventions described by McGoldrick, Gerson and Petry in Genograms: Assessment and Treatment (W. W. Norton). Genogram Creator is an independent app and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the authors or the publisher.