Genogram tool: a free online genogram maker that protects your data

When I drew genograms with people in sessions, I noticed they often got stuck in the same place. Not on the content — on the drawing. The paper runs out of room when it turns out that Dad married three times. A half-brother can’t find his place. The symbol for adoption gets forgotten. And once the paper is covered in eraser marks, the genogram is harder to read than it should be.

So I built an online genogram maker: a tool in which you draw your genogram yourself, at home, at your own pace — and print it when it’s done. This post describes what a good genogram tool should be able to do, what mine does, and why it is built the way it is.

What a good genogram tool should do

A genogram is not an ordinary family tree, so ordinary drawing or genealogy programs don’t draw it well. In my view, a good genogram tool needs to do five things.

Standard notation. Genogram symbols are standardised in the handbook by Monica McGoldrick and colleagues. A tool must know them — not just the square and circle, but also divorce, adoption, miscarriage, addiction, cut-off. Otherwise the genogram can’t be read by anyone else.

Real families. Remarriages, half-brothers, children from several unions, same-sex couples, single-parent families, foster parents. If a tool assumes every child has exactly two married parents, it won’t be able to draw most modern families. So a child must hang from the union, not from two parents.

Relationships, not only kinship. The heart of a genogram is the lines between people: closeness, tension, cut-off, abuse. A tool that can only draw kinship is a pedigree, not a genogram.

Printing. A genogram is most useful on paper — when you bring it to a session, show it to a sibling, write notes on it. The tool must be able to produce a clear sheet with a key.

Privacy. A genogram holds health and very personal information about people who never consented to it — about parents, brothers, grandparents. Where that information goes is therefore the most important question of all.

How the genogram maker works

The genogram maker guides you through five steps. Each has its own job, and you can go back between them at any time.

Family. You start with yourself and add relatives with the buttons above the canvas: father, mother, partner, children, brothers and sisters. The tool places them itself and keeps the spacing even as the tree grows. You can move people with the mouse, and edit or delete them with a right-click. If you’d rather write than click, you can describe your family in words — “my mum Marjana, born 1961, was married to my dad Danilo …” — and the tool proposes people, years and unions from the description, which you then review and confirm. The parsing runs in your browser, not through artificial intelligence on a server. (The parser is built for Slovenian sentences.)

Relationships. You drag from one person to another and choose the type of relationship. Sixteen types are available in the standard notation — from closeness and fusion through hostility to cut-off and reconnection, and abuse. Here you also set the type of union: marriage, cohabitation, secret affair, divorce.

Illnesses. For each person you can mark an illness or mental disorder, an addiction or suspicion of one, and remission too. The fill of the shape follows the standard notation, and the name of the illness is shown below the shape.

Attachment. For those who want to go deeper there is an attachment-focused genogram: for each person you can mark the internal working model of attachment they have towards the important people in their life. You will find a short explanation of attachment in the knowledge base under attachment.

Print. Finally, the tool prepares two A4 sheets: the first is the genogram with a key that shows only the symbols on the drawing; the second holds questions to reflect on at home. In the print dialog you can choose “Save as PDF”.

Where your data goes

This is the question I consider most important for any genogram tool, so I made it the foundation.

The genogram is created, saved and printed only in your browser. No name, no year, no illness reaches the server. Even the helper that parses a family described in words works in the browser using Slovenian language patterns — the description is never sent to any language model for processing.

The only thing that reaches me is your email address. On your first visit you enter it, receive a confirmation link, and with one click unlock the tool for 180 days. That way the tool isn’t open to every bot, and your genogram stays yours.

Why did I set it up so strictly? Because a genogram contains health information about third parties — about a mother who had depression, a grandfather who drank, a brother who attempted suicide. Those people never agreed to their information being stored anywhere. You can draw them for yourself. I must not keep them.

Who the genogram maker is for

I built the tool for several kinds of people I meet.

Those preparing for a session. Anyone coming to an A Look into the Past session can draw their genogram at home and bring it along. That leaves more time in the session for conversation and less for drawing. I described what else to bring in What to bring to a genogram session.

Those who want to understand their family. You don’t have to be in therapy to be curious about where your patterns come from. You can draw a genogram out of curiosity and keep it for yourself.

Those talking with their family. A printed genogram is a good prompt for a conversation with parents or grandparents. When you show it to them, they often remember things they wouldn’t otherwise mention — and correct what you got wrong.

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take? Most people draw a basic three-generation genogram in half an hour to an hour. With relationships, illnesses and attachment it can take longer — but you don’t have to do it all at once. You can save the genogram and continue later.

Does it work on a phone? The tool responds to touch too — a long press on a person opens the menu. But for drawing a larger genogram, a computer or tablet with a bigger screen is most comfortable.

Can I send the genogram to someone? Yes. Save it as a file or print it to PDF and send it to whomever you like. Who you show it to is your decision — and it is worth remembering that it contains information about other people.

Is there an English version? Yes, the tool works in Slovenian and English, and you can switch between them in the top bar.

What if I don’t know something? Leave it blank. A person without a name is drawn with their role — “father”, “grandmother” —, and years can be missing. Blank spaces on a genogram are as telling as filled ones.

Comparison with other options

The genogram maker isn’t the only route to a genogram. Depending on what you need, other options may be just as good or better.

Paper and pencil. The most direct, no computer, with its own particular feel. For small families it is entirely enough. You will find a printable template with a key in the knowledge base under genogram template.

General diagramming programs. They allow a lot of freedom, but don’t know genogram symbols and don’t place people automatically. Every change has to be redrawn by hand.

Genealogy apps. Excellent for a family tree and searching for ancestors, but they generally don’t draw relationships and often store data on their own servers or share it with other users. I wrote more about the difference in Family tree: how to make one.

Specialised genogram programs. There are desktop programs, aimed mainly at professionals, that can do a great deal, but are usually paid and take some learning.

The genogram maker is built for people who want to draw a genogram themselves, in standard notation, without worrying about their data.

How a first session with a genogram from the tool might sound

People who draw their genogram at home often look at it with new eyes in a session. The conversation might go like this (a composite, not a real person):

“I drew it on Sunday. It took three hours, though I thought I’d be done in half an hour.”
“Where did you stop longest?”
“At my grandmother. I didn’t know what relationship to draw between her and my mum. No line was right.”
“What would a line need to be able to say to be right?”
“That it was close and dangerous at the same time.”

Being stuck like this is not a flaw in the tool. It is the point where therapeutic work begins — where symbols aren’t enough and things need to be spoken. The post A Look into the Past: what happens in a 90-minute genogram session is about the session itself.

Exercise: your first ten minutes in the tool

1. Open the genogram maker and confirm your email.
2. Add your parents and siblings with the buttons above the canvas — just shapes, no details.
3. Switch to “Describe in words” and describe your grandparents in a few sentences. See what the tool picks up, and correct what isn’t right.
4. In the Relationships step, draw a single relationship — the one you feel most strongly.
5. Save the file and open it again in a few days. What do you see differently?

What the tool cannot do

It doesn’t replace conversation. The genogram maker helps you draw a genogram, not understand it. The meaning of patterns often only emerges in conversation with someone who knows how to ask.

It doesn’t keep your genograms for you. Because the data stays only in your browser, the genogram is lost if you clear your browser data or change device — unless you saved it as a file. That is the price of privacy, and I think it is a fair one.

It doesn’t collect everything it could. Some marks from the professional literature — such as place of residence or income next to each person — are deliberately left out, because that is not information a tool should collect about third parties.

I described the step-by-step process on a complete family example in Making a genogram.

What to remember

• A good genogram tool knows the standard notation, real families, relationships and printing — and protects privacy.
• The genogram maker guides you through five steps: family, relationships, illnesses, attachment, print.
• You can describe your family in words; parsing happens in your browser.
• Only your email address reaches the server — never the genogram.
• The tool is free; you can print the genogram or save it as a PDF.