A family tree gift for grandparents
The whole family including the grandchildren, laid out so no branch looks like an afterthought.
- Suggested shape
- Centered chart
- Suggested style
- Heritage
- Who appears
- Everyone in the tree
Why this shape
What grandparents actually want to see is everyone, themselves included, and the grandchildren by name. That rules out the direct-line shapes, which drop siblings, partners and anyone who married in. A centered chart keeps every generation balanced on the page, so the side of the family with four children does not drag the whole thing off to one side. Heritage is the safest style for a gift: engraved serif on warm paper, nothing that will date.
Getting it right
Put the grandparents at the top rather than yourself, and work down. Ask one parent for the names you are unsure of before you start — the gap that will embarrass you later is almost always a great-aunt. Anyone you cannot name yet is drawn as a placeholder, so a missing person never blocks the rest.
Free to build, no account needed to start.
Other occasions
Family reunionEveryone descended from one couple, on one sheet, in a shape that does not collapse when one branch had six children and another had one.
Wedding giftTwo families meeting on one page, set as names rather than boxes.
MemorialOne person at the heart of it, with the generations they came from drawn around them.
Anniversary giftThe family a couple built, set as a printed register rather than a diagram.