Introduction

This page explains the basic steps to create a genealogy tree using Generations.

Adding Members

To get started, let's introduce the most common toolbar buttons to build a genealogy tree.  To quickly add members to the genealogy tree, you can use the appropriate short-cut key or right-click with mouse and select a command from the context menu.

	New Male (W).  A male is represented by a square.
	New Female (E).  A female is represented by a circle.
	New Mate (M).  Creates a mate for the selected male or female.   As a convention, the husband is displayed to the left and the wife is displayed to the right.  The horizontal bar between the two individuals is a "Marriage" object and can be manually inserted by using the (R) keyboard short-cut key.
	New Parents (P). Creates parents to the selected individual.  If parents already exists, Generations will prompt to create adoptive parents instead.
	New Son (S).  Adds a son to the selected marriage.
	New Daughter (D).  Adds a daughter to the selected marriage.
	New Alias (A).  Creates a mirror copy of the selected member without including him/her as an additonal member of the family.
	Family Wizard (F).  Displays a dialog to create a new family and/or add children to an existing family.

Here is a sample of a family of three children.

Creating Links

Generations automatically create links between members when you use any of the following toolbar button: New Mate, New Parents, New Son, New Daughter and Family Wizard.   A link represents a relationship between a member (individual) and a family.    If the member is a child, then it must have a "Child Link" to the marriage object.  If the member is a parent (or future parent), then it must have a "Parent Link" to the marriage object.  Please note a member can be both a child and a parent and therefore have several links.   Generations offers the flexibility to create links between members to handle complex genealogy trees.  If you need to create links, select the member you want to create a link and right-click with the mouse to display the context menu.  Select the menu item "Link As Parent" or "Link As Child" and follow the instructions on the status bar.

If you want to change the link, you can double-click on the link to get the following dialog.

• Link As Parent.  The member is a parent (or a potential future parent).
• Link As Child.  Biological child from two parents.
• Link As Adopted Child.  This is the case of a child adopted by a family.  Adopted child are displayed by a blue line.

It is important to select the correct type of link because Generations uses those links to find relationships between individuals. In the future, Generations will generate reports by extracting information from those links.

Creating Marriages

The other type of link is a "marriage" object.  Generations uses word "marriage" to represent a relation or union between two individuals.  The word "marriage" is used instead of "relation" or "union" because it the most common relation in a genealogy tree and is easy to understand.

Label

The label field can be used to put a short description of the relationship.  The label will be displayed in the genealogy tree centered between the two individuals.  Here are few examples:

• "m. 1972".    Married in 1972.
• "m. 1972, s. 1978"    Married in 1972, Separated in 1978.
• "m. 1972, s. 1978, d. 1981".  Married in 1972, Separated in 1978, Divorced in 1981.

Relation

Describes the type of relationship between the two individuals.

	A married couple.
	A married couple no longer living together.  A separation is displayed by a single oblique bar.
	A married couple now divorced.  A divorce is displayed by two oblique bars.
	Two people in the process of getting married.
	Two people living together but not married.
	Two people dating.  Can be handy to remember a boyfriend's name :)
	This is the polite term for having a mistress or a one night stand.  Select this relation if children are the product of such a relationship.
	Anything else?

Tips

• A marriage object has only two parents.  Generations does not enforce that rule, but will display a warning if you attempt to create a "m�nage � trois".
• To create a tree where a family has more than two parents, create one marriage object for each couple involved.  Link each child to their respective parents.  This allows Generations to follow those links and generate reports about siblings, half-siblings, parents and relatives.
• An adopted child can be attached to more than one marriage object.  Use the "Link As Child" and "Link As Adopted Child" to link the child to the families involved.

Picture

Displays the primary picture for the marriage (if any).

Comments

Additional information to be documented about the marriage.

Version 2.0 of Generations will have fields for religious and civil marriage including date, place and other relevant information.

Marriage Pictures

You can add as many pictures as you wish to a marriage object.  Simply click on the Add button to add pictures.  More explanations to add pictures is available here.

Example of an Extended Family

This is a fictive example of an extended family tree.  Here are the facts that can be extracted.

• Albert married Claire in 1978.
• Bob married Julie in 1975.
• Claire died in 1982 at the age of 29.
• Bob died in 1982 at the age of 32.
• Albert married Julie in 1984.  (Maybe they met at the hospital, since both Claire and Bob died in 1982).
• Mike is the child of Bob and Julie and was "adopted" when Albert married Julie.
• Merry is the child of Albert and Julie, and therefore Mike's half-sister.
• Pete is Header's big brother and Merry's half-brother.
• Mike has no genetic link with Pete or Header.

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