Genogram Symbols

This is a complete reference to standard genogram notation — the symbol set formalized by Monica McGoldrick and Randy Gerson and taught in family therapy, social work, nursing, and medical training. Every figure below is rendered live by our free genogram maker, so what you see here is exactly what your exported diagram will look like.

A genogram has three visual layers, and the symbols split the same way: person symbols (who someone is and whether they are living), structural lines (marriages, divorces, children), and emotional relationship lines (how people actually get along). Keep the layers straight and even a complex family reads at a glance.

Person symbols

Each family member gets one shape. Position matters: partners sit side by side, children hang below their parents, and generations line up in rows — oldest at the top.

Male — square

Males are drawn as squares. In a couple, the male is conventionally placed on the left. Age can be written inside the square; birth year goes underneath.

Female — circle

Females are drawn as circles, conventionally to the right of their partner. As with all person symbols, the name sits directly below the shape.

Unknown / unspecified — diamond

A diamond stands in when sex or gender is unknown, when it is intentionally left unspecified, or for a person of any other gender identity. Some clinicians also use it for pets or unnamed household members; if you do, say so in a note.

Index person — double outline

The index person (also called the identified patient, or IP) is the person the genogram is about — your client, patient, or yourself. Draw their symbol with a double outline so any reader can orient the whole diagram in one look.

Deceased — X through the symbol

An X through the shape marks a death. Add the death year below the symbol; the convention is birth year – death year (for example, 1938–2009). Some practitioners also note cause of death for medically relevant losses.

Birth & death years

Write years beneath the name: b. 1972 for a living person, 1938–2009 for a deceased one. In our maker these labels come from the birth/death year fields in the edit panel and are placed automatically.

Pregnancy and pregnancy loss

Pregnancies and losses are drawn smaller than full person symbols and hang from the couple's line like any other child. These carry real clinical weight — in family therapy for grief, and in obstetric and family-health histories.

Pregnancy — triangle

A current pregnancy is drawn as a triangle in the child position, often annotated with gestational age.

Miscarriage — small filled circle

A spontaneous pregnancy loss is a small solid dot in the child position, usually with the year. No name is required, though families sometimes add one.

Induced abortion — small X

A terminated pregnancy is a small X in the child position. Where the distinction matters clinically, the X distinguishes an induced termination from the filled dot of a miscarriage.

Stillbirth — small shape with X

A stillbirth is drawn as a smaller square or circle (sex, if known) with an X through it, plus the year. The reduced size distinguishes it from the death of a born child.

Couple & relationship lines

Partners are joined by a line that drops from the bottom of each symbol and runs horizontally between them. The line style encodes the legal/relational status, and children hang from this line — which is why genograms stay readable where family trees tangle. Marriage dates can be written on the line (m. 1994).

Marriage — solid line

A solid connecting line is a marriage. By convention the husband is drawn on the left. Add m. plus the year for a dated history.

Separation — one slash

One diagonal slash through the couple line marks a separation (legal or informal). The couple is still connected — the relationship has not been dissolved.

Divorce — two slashes

Two diagonal slashes mark a divorce. Keep the line: shared children still hang from it, and the history stays legible. Dates (m. 1990, div. 2003) are common annotations.

Cohabitation — dashed line

A dashed couple line is a committed unmarried partnership — living together, engaged, or a long-term relationship. Some notations add a LT (living together) label with the start year.

Children, adoption, and twins

Children hang from their parents' couple line on vertical drop lines, arranged left to right from oldest to youngest. The drop line's style encodes how the child joined the family.

Biological child — solid drop line

A solid vertical line from the couple line to the child's symbol. Siblings share the same horizontal rail, oldest on the left.

Adopted child — dashed drop line

A dashed drop line marks adoption. If the biological parents also appear on the genogram, the child can carry both a solid line (biological) and a dashed line (adoptive) — the pair of lines tells the placement story.

Foster child — dotted drop line

A dotted drop line marks a foster placement — common in social work assessments where household composition changes over time. Add placement dates in a note.

Twins — joined drop lines

Twins share a single point on the parents' line, with angled lines fanning out to each child — the shared origin is the visual cue that they are twins.

Identical twins — joined lines with a bar

For identical (monozygotic) twins, add a horizontal bar connecting the two angled drop lines. Without the bar, the twins are read as fraternal.

Single-parent line

When only one parent is known or relevant, the child's drop line hangs directly from that parent's symbol instead of from a couple line.

Emotional relationship lines

The emotional layer is what separates a genogram from a pedigree chart. These lines connect any two people — not just couples — and describe the quality of the relationship. Because they can crowd a diagram, our maker draws them color-coded on a togglable layer and adds every style you used to the exported legend automatically.

Close — two parallel lines

A warm, supportive bond. Two parallel lines between the two people.

Fused (enmeshed) — three parallel lines

An over-involved relationship with weak boundaries — in Bowen's terms, low differentiation. Three parallel lines. Fusion is not closeness; it often pairs with conflict.

Distant — dashed line

Emotionally remote but not severed: polite holidays, little real contact. A single dashed line.

Conflict — zigzag line

Open, ongoing conflict: arguments, hostility, litigation. A zigzag line between the two people.

Fused + conflictual — zigzag inside parallel lines

Enmeshed and fighting — the high-intensity pattern where two people can neither get along nor leave each other alone. A zigzag drawn between parallel lines.

Cutoff — broken line

Complete estrangement: contact has stopped. A line broken in the middle by two small perpendicular bars. In Bowen theory, emotional cutoff is a key pattern to track across generations.

Using the symbols well

Always include a legend. Even standard notation has variants, and non-specialist readers (clients, families, case reviewers) need the key. Our exports build the legend automatically from the symbols you actually used.
Three generations minimum. Patterns — losses, cutoffs, illness — only become visible when you can compare across generations.
Date what you can. Birth, death, marriage, divorce, and placement years turn a snapshot into a timeline.
Keep the emotional layer togglable. Structure first, process second; a diagram carrying both at full density is hard to read in supervision or court settings.
Note your variants. Extended sets exist for substance use (symbol half-filled at the bottom), psychiatric illness, and abuse (directional arrow lines). If you use an extension, add it to the legend.

Ready to put the notation to work? Open the genogram maker, or start from a clinical template and study the worked examples.