Genogram Key
Every symbol, grouped the way a legend is usually laid out. The live diagram below is loaded with a three-generation family so you can see each marking in context — turn the legend on and export a PDF to get the key printed alongside your own genogram.
Drag people to arrange. Click a person to edit their details.
Editable preview — your changes aren't saved here.
Quick start
- Add people with the ▢ ◯ ◇ buttons, then click the canvas.
- Use Connect… for marriages, children, and emotional lines.
- Click a person to edit name, years, deceased, notes.
- Drag to arrange, or hit Auto-arrange.
- Export as PNG or PDF — the legend builds itself.
Export
includes watermarkIncludes a title block and an auto-generated legend of the symbols you used.
People: shape, sex, and status
Shape carries sex; the markings on top of the shape carry status. A square is male, a circle female, and a diamond is used when sex is unknown or unspecified. The index person — the client, patient, or student whose genogram it is — takes a doubled outline, and a cross through the shape marks someone who has died.
Male — square
Female — circle
Unknown — diamond
Index person — double outline
Deceased — X through shape
Birth & death years
Years go beneath the shape, birth first. An age inside the shape is the other common convention — pick one and use it consistently, because a bare number is ambiguous.
Partner lines: marriage, separation, divorce
A horizontal line between two people is a union, and what is drawn on that line says which kind. Marriage is a plain line, cohabitation a dashed one; a single slash marks separation and a double slash divorce. Where the date matters — and in clinical notes it usually does — write it on the line itself.
Marriage — solid
Cohabitation — dashed
Separation — one slash
Divorce — two slashes
Child lines: biological, adopted, foster, twins
Children hang below the union line, conventionally oldest to youngest, left to right. A solid drop line is a biological child; adopted and foster children take dashed or dotted lines, which is how a reader tells household from lineage at a glance. Twins join at a single point on the union line.
Biological — solid
Adopted — dashed
Foster — dotted
Twins — joined lines
Emotional relationship lines
This layer is what separates a genogram from a family tree, and it is the part readers most often need the key for. The lines describe the quality of a relationship rather than its legal or biological facts: close, fused (enmeshed), distant, conflictual, and cut off. Fused is not "extra close" — it denotes low differentiation, where one person's anxiety becomes the other's immediately.
Close — two parallel lines
Fused (enmeshed) — three lines
Distant — dashed
Conflict — zigzag
Fused + conflictual
Cutoff — broken line
Because these lines are interpretations, a common convention is to draw the structural diagram first and add the emotional layer afterwards — the editor above keeps the two on separate toggles for that reason.
Printing and attaching the key
A key is only useful where the diagram is. Turn the legend on in the editor and export a PDF: the legend is drawn into the export next to your genogram, with a title block, so the page stands alone in a chart or an assignment. For the fuller walkthrough of each symbol, including pregnancy, miscarriage and stillbirth notation, see the genogram symbols reference. To see a key in use on a finished diagram, read the worked examples, or start from a ready template.
Genogram key FAQ
›What is a genogram key?
A genogram key (also called a legend) is the panel that tells a reader what each shape and line in the diagram means — square for male, circle for female, double line for a close relationship, and so on. Because a genogram uses notation rather than words, it is only readable by someone else if the key travels with it.
›Does a genogram have to include a key?
For coursework and clinical records, yes — include one. Standard notation is standard, but not every reader has it memorised, and instructors and chart reviewers generally expect a legend on the page. Exports from this tool can include a legend automatically, so it stays attached to the diagram.
›How do I get a genogram key as a PDF?
Build or load a diagram in the editor above, turn the legend on, then export a PDF. The legend is drawn into the file alongside your genogram, which is what a printable key normally needs to be — attached to the specific diagram it explains, not a separate sheet.
›Is the genogram key the same in every book?
The core is stable: the shapes for sex, index person and death, the union and child lines, and the emotional-relationship lines all follow the notation standardised by Monica McGoldrick and Randy Gerson. Individual programs and textbooks add their own extras — symbols for substance use or specific illnesses in particular vary, so label anything unusual directly on your diagram.