Frequently Asked Questions

I originally built this software to support my wife while she was in school for counseling, and I know how expensive specialized tools can be. I wanted students, therapists, and families to have a clean, practical genogram tool without another subscription in their life. I’m a solo developer, and this is a personal project I maintain in my free time. There are no ads, no marketing or data sales, no AI (therefore no token/GPU fees), and no hidden paywall. All saved data is text based which consumes very little storage space on my server. If the need arises later to supplement hosting costs, the most I would do is ask for dontations to keep this site runnning, however, I dont anticipate that need for quite awhile.

Yes. I do not sell your data or share it with third parties and, as the sole developer, I am the only person with database access. Accounts exist so you can securely save your work and come back to your diagrams later, and the app uses secure sessions, password hashing, and HTTPS in transit. Your genograms stay private by default unless you intentionally enable sharing and send someone your public read-only link. However, if you do not access your account at least once a year, the system will send a 30 day warning email and then automatically delete your account and genograms after 365 days of inactivity.

Head to the registration page and sign in with Google or Apple, or enter your email and a password. Your password needs to be at least 10 characters long and include an uppercase letter, a lowercase letter, and a number. If you leave the name field blank, I’ll just use your email as your display name. After you submit, keep an eye out for a verification email.

You'll need to verify your email first. I send a verification link to your inbox that stays active for 24 hours. Once you click that, your account is fully active and you can sign in. If you don't see it, double-check your spam folder.

No worries! Just use the Resend verification page, enter your email, and I'll send a fresh link. Make sure you’re using the exact same email address you signed up with.

This usually means your password is correct, but the account isn't verified yet. Click the link in the email I sent you; until then, you won't be able to create or import genograms.

It happens to the best of us. On the sign-in page, click Forgot password? and enter your email. I'll send you a reset link that’s valid for one hour. For security reasons, I don't confirm if the email is registered on the site, so if you don't get a link, double-check your spelling or try registering if you think you might not have an account yet.

Once you're signed in, go to your Dashboard and select your name from the menu, then Edit profile. You'll need your current password to save any changes. Just a heads-up: if you change your email, you’ll need to verify the new address before you can create or edit genograms or post in the forum (you can still sign in). You can also link Google or Apple for one-click sign-in from Edit profile, as long as you keep at least one sign-in method.

Yes, though I'll be sad to see you go. In the Edit profile menu, there’s a Delete my account button at the bottom. You'll need to enter your password to confirm. Please keep in mind that this permanently removes your account and all your genograms—it can't be undone.

To keep the database clean, accounts that haven't been used for a full year (365 days) are automatically removed. You will be sent a warning email 30 days before that happens, and simply logging in will reset the clock.

After you sign in, the Dashboard is your home base. Under My Genograms you’ll see everything you own—start a New genogram, open one to edit, or use **Import** (GEDCOM, GedcomX XML, or Gramps). If someone has invited you as an editor, those genograms appear under Shared with me.

You likely still need to verify your email. These features are only available once your account is fully verified. If you’ve already done that and it still isn't working, try signing out and back in.

On the Dashboard, click the genogram name in My Genograms. You can also use the Dashboard button in the editor to return to this list.

On your Dashboard, find the genogram you want to remove, open its Actions menu, and choose Delete. I’ll ask you to confirm because once it's gone, it’s gone for good.

Click Add person in the toolbar and pick a symbol (male, female, other/unknown, pregnancy, pet, and more gender options). You can drag the symbol onto the canvas. To move someone later, drag them to a new spot—when you release, their position is saved automatically. Pan and zoom are remembered automatically for when you return.

To zoom, use the + and − buttons on the canvas or your mouse scroll wheel. To pan around, just click and drag any empty part of the background.

Yes. Hold Shift and click people, text boxes, or shapes to add them to the selection, or Shift+click again to remove one. If someone is already selected by itself, the next Shift+click pulls them into a multi-selection with whoever you click next. You can also hold Shift and drag on empty canvas to draw a selection box; everything that overlaps the box is selected, replacing any earlier selection. Drag any selected item to move the whole group. When multiple items are selected, a Delete selected button shows how many are in the set—after you confirm, they’re removed (deleting people also removes their partner and parent–child links). Multi-select isn’t available while you’re placing a new person or shape, drawing an emotional link, or in Add Link modes—finish or cancel that first.

I use standard genogram symbols: squares for males, circles for females, and dashed circles for unknown or non-binary genders. There are also symbols for pregnancy, pet, abortion, and miscarriage where those apply. You can always click the Key button on the canvas to see a legend of every symbol currently on your map.

Yes. Open that person’s edit panel and choose **Smaller** or **Larger** under Display size—smaller is handy for siblings, former partners, or anyone you want to take up less space; **Larger** draws a bigger person icon on the canvas. Label text size follows your genogram font settings and does not change with display size.

You can mark one person per genogram as the origin (focus) person—for example who the diagram is centered on. Open their edit panel and set them as the focus person for this genogram. That choice can appear in the legend when you export, too.

Click a person and use the Edit button—or double-click the person to open the edit panel immediately without using that button. The side panel is where you update their name, dates, occupation, and religion, and where you can add partners, parents, or medical attributes.

These are markings for patterns like illness, addiction, or recovery. They follow standard styles, appearing as specific colors or patterns on the symbol. You can even use the Attribute Customizer to tweak colors and quadrant patterns for a specific genogram.

Yes. In each person’s Details tab, set a Socioeconomic status level and (optionally) leave Show SES symbol on chart enabled. When enabled, a small coin-style marker appears on the person symbol and the legend includes SES levels used in your map.

Sometimes you want to mark people your own way—not only with standard illness or addiction patterns, but with themes that matter to your case or your family story. Custom groups let you define labels (for example “In therapy,” “Substance use,” or “Lives with grandparents”) and apply colors or highlights so those people stand out on the canvas. Think of them as your personal highlighter set: you name the categories, pick how they look, then tag whoever belongs in each one.

In the editor, open the Menu and choose Groups. That opens a panel where you can add groups and pick how each one looks—colored labels, a soft background behind the name text, a **person background** fill inside the symbol (standard illness/addiction markings still draw on top), or a highlight ring around the person. (Hover or focus the **?** in the panel header for a short explanation of how groups work.) To tag someone, select them, open their edit panel, and use the Groups tab to check the boxes that fit. You can turn highlighting on or off from the Groups panel when you want a cleaner view or to focus on one category at a time.

If you turn on the option to include the key in PDFs and images (under Settings), the legend can list the custom groups that are actually in use on your diagram—so viewers aren’t left guessing what the colors mean. The regular on-canvas key button can show them too when they’re part of your map.

Yes, as long as you use GEDCOM (.ged) through this app. A full export and import round-trip keeps your group definitions and who was in which group, so you’re not redoing that work after a backup or a move to a fresh genogram. Other export formats are better for sharing a picture or a standard genealogy file—they aren’t meant to carry every custom styling detail.

Heritage lets you define your own heritage or ethnicity labels (with colors), then assign percentages to each person in the Heritage tab. On the canvas, those percentages appear as a color pie inside the person symbol, so you can see ancestry mix at a glance instead of squinting at notes.

For biological parent-child links, the app can auto-blend both parents at 50/50 per heritage type. If you want to set a person manually, turn on Manual heritage and enter your own values. For adoptive and foster links, inheritance is not automatic, so you can set values directly if you want.

Use Add Link in the toolbar and select Spouse/Partner Link. Click the first person, then the second. Once the line appears, you can click it to set the relationship style—like marriage, divorce, or cohabitation—and add dates.

You can do this from the person's side panel (Add parent/child) or by using the Add Link tool. You'll be able to choose who the father and mother are and if the connection is biological, adoptive, or foster. For twins or triplets, use the parent–child link settings to put siblings in the same twin group (and mark identical twins if that applies).

These represent the quality of a relationship, like harmony, discord, or friendship. Use Add Link, then Emotional link, and select two people. You can even customize the line style and direction (arrows) in the side panel.

Households allow you to group people together with a dotted boundary. You can create these from the Households button in the toolbar; hover or focus the **?** in that panel’s header for a short note on “lives together” vs **Lives in household** on a parent–child link. If a child moves to a different family (like in a foster situation), you can use the Arrow to household feature in the parent-child link settings to show exactly where they went.

Click Add text box in the toolbar, then click where you want it on the diagram. In the side panel you can set font size, text color, and bold, italic, or underline. You can also show a border and set border color and style, and add a background fill with its own color and transparency. Drag the box to move it or use the corner handles to resize. If you’d like a note to “point at” something on the map, scroll down in that same panel: choose Link to Object, then click a person, a shape, a household outline, or even a couple line or parent–child line. A connector draws from your text box to that spot (for shapes it hugs the nearest edge so you don’t get a dramatic diagonal through a long highlight). One link per box—use Clear link first if you want to aim at something else—and you can set the connector’s color, thickness, and pattern so it fits the rest of your diagram.

Use Add shape in the toolbar to choose a circle, square, or polygon. For circles or squares, drag on the canvas; for polygons, click each point and double-click to finish. In the side panel you can set the shape’s color and transparency, turn on an optional border, and choose border color, thickness, and pattern. Shapes are great for grouping people or highlighting themes (for example religion or language).

In the editor, go to Settings and turn on Public. You can then copy a secret link to share. Anyone with that link can view your genogram, but they won't be able to edit it or see your other work.

Yes! In Settings, toggle Anonymous on. Your data stays the same for you, but public viewers will see random, gender-appropriate names instead of the real ones.

Yes. Open Settings and turn Public off; the old link will no longer allow access.

Yes. If you own the genogram and your email is verified, open the editor, use the Menu, and choose Collaborators. Enter someone’s email to invite them as an editor. They’ll get a link by email; once they accept (and have an account with that email), they can edit alongside you.

On the Dashboard, look under Shared with me. Those are genograms you’re invited to edit but don’t own.

Editors can change the diagram like you can, but they can’t delete the genogram or turn public sharing on or off—only the owner controls that.

Yes. In Menu → Collaborators, the owner can transfer ownership to someone who is already a collaborator. After that, the new owner controls sharing and invites.

GEDCOM is a standard file format for family tree data (.ged or .gedcom). On the Dashboard, choose **Import** and pick your file. The app reads the file briefly, then the import options screen appears so you can control scope before anything is written to a new genogram. For **GEDCOM only**, you can import the entire file in one go, or choose **Select a focus / origin person**: search the file for one person to use as the root, set how many ancestor generations to include (from 1 up to 20—the count is for ancestors above that person), and the import will bring in that person, their ancestors along those generations, their spouse, and their children. That smaller slice keeps huge exports (for example from Ancestry) from timing out or overloading memory. If a file has a very large number of people, the app may require the focus / origin person approach for GEDCOM. **GedcomX (.xml)** and **Gramps (.gramps or Gramps XML)** always import the full file; use GEDCOM from your genealogy program if you need a partial tree. After import, a new genogram is created. If the file includes layout or position data this app understands, I’ll use it when possible; otherwise I’ll lay out a sensible starting arrangement you can adjust on the canvas.

In the editor, open Export from the menu. A dialog asks for the file type and a filename (the correct extension is added for you). You can download GEDCOM (.ged) for full structured data and a reliable round-trip back into this app, GedcomX XML (.xml) for the open genealogy exchange format, or PDF, PNG, or JPG for a visual copy of your diagram. When you pick PNG or JPG, the dialog shows Export size—presets from Small (50%) through Extra large (200%) that scale the image’s pixel width and height (larger sizes are better for high-DPI printing or big displays). The same Export size control appears when you choose PDF. For PDF and image exports, enable the Include key in exported PDFs and images option in Settings first if you want the legend on the file.

Yes. The Undo button in the toolbar steps back through your recent changes (up to about the last ten), including adds, deletes, edits, and moving people (and similar layout changes).

Once you're signed in, you can start new topics or reply to others in the Forum. You can also upvote topics you find helpful. Please remember to protect everyone's privacy—never share identifying details about families or clients in public posts.

This is usually just a security timeout if the page has been open a while. Refreshing the page and trying again almost always fixes it.

That’s me! I’m the developer who built and maintains this tool. I hope it helps you in your work or your personal journey.