Genogram Maker

Genograms for Nursing

A live family health history genogram (fictional) with conditions annotated under each person. Edit it here or open it in the full editor for your own assessment.

Saved

Drag people to arrange. Click a person to edit their details.

John1935–1998MI, age 63Maryb. 1938Type 2 diabetesCarl1936–2015Colon cancerEdithb. 1940HypertensionPaulb. 1958Type 2 diabetesRobertb. 1962HypertensionLindab. 1964Breast cancer, dx 2019Sarahb. 1990PatientMarkb. 1992

Editable preview — your changes aren't saved here.

Quick start

  1. Add people with the ▢ ◯ ◇ buttons, then click the canvas.
  2. Use Connect… for marriages, children, and emotional lines.
  3. Click a person to edit name, years, deceased, notes.
  4. Drag to arrange, or hit Auto-arrange.
  5. Export as PNG or PDF — the legend builds itself.

Export

includes watermark

Includes a title block and an auto-generated legend of the symbols you used.

Where genograms show up in nursing

Family assessment is a core competency in BSN and NP programs, and the genogram is its standard artifact. Community and family-health courses assign a three-generation genogram of a volunteer family; pediatric and OB rotations use them for household context; primary-care and genetics settings use the same diagram to screen hereditary risk. The Calgary Family Assessment Model — the framework most nursing programs teach — explicitly lists the genogram (with an ecomap) as the structural assessment tool.

What a nursing genogram must include

  • Three generations — the patient, their parents, and grandparents (or the patient, siblings, and children, depending on age). Mark the patient as the index person with a double outline.
  • Ages and years. Birth years for everyone; birth–death years and cause of death for the deceased. Age at diagnosis matters: a myocardial infarction at 45 and one at 88 carry different screening implications.
  • Condition annotations. Note chronic and hereditary conditions under each symbol: cardiovascular disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, cancers (with site), mental illness, substance use. In this tool, use the Notes field — it renders under the name and exports with the diagram.
  • Household composition. Who lives with the patient affects discharge planning and caregiving capacity — cohabitation lines and a household note carry that.
  • A legend. Instructors grade for it and charts require it. Exports here generate the legend automatically from the symbols you used.

Genogram, pedigree, or ecomap?

The three get conflated. A pedigree is the genetics-focused cousin — same shapes, strict rules about shading affected individuals, used for inheritance analysis. An ecomap puts the household in a circle and maps connections to outside systems (school, church, work, agencies). The genogram sits in the middle: family structure plus health plus relationships. Many family-nursing assignments ask for a genogram and an ecomap of the same family — this tool covers the genogram half, and the genogram vs. family tree page covers the casual-use boundary.

Workflow for a clinical or course assignment

  1. Load the family health history template.
  2. Interview the family; replace the fictional people, years, and conditions as you go — the diagram autosaves locally, and nothing is uploaded (worth stating in your confidentiality note).
  3. Use initials if your program requires de-identification.
  4. Auto-arrange, then export the PDF — title block and legend are added for you.

Unsure about a symbol — say, how to mark a miscarriage or twins? The symbols reference renders every case, and the medical example shows a finished diagram read aloud.