4-generation family tree template (printable)

What usually gets stuck

The first three rows normally come from memory and one phone call. The hard part is the top row: eight great-grandparents, whose names even parents may not know. Look on death certificates and old marriage records, which often name parents. For someone born around 2000, great-grandparents were probably born between about 1910 and 1925, so they should appear in US census records, which are public up to 1950. Write in pencil until you have checked a name against a record.

What is on this template

• 15 boxes across 4 generations
• Relationship labels on every box
• Classic parchment style with a double border
• Landscape page, Letter or A4

It has room for 15 people: you, your parents, grandparents, great-grandparents.

How to fill it in

1. Print at 100% ("Actual size"). A plain-paper draft first saves spoiling the good copy.
2. Write your own name first, then your parents, then each earlier generation. Fathers go on the left of each pair and mothers on the right.
3. Add the years of birth and death under each name, like 1931–2005.

Prefer typing? Open this template in the family tree maker, type the names and print a clean copy.

Who goes on a 4-generation family tree

Four generations means you, your 2 parents, your 4 grandparents and your 8 great-grandparents: 15 people in all. Each generation doubles, so a fifth would add 16 great-great-grandparents and a sixth 32. That is why four generations is the most popular size: it still fits on one page with room to write.

This template follows your direct line, the people you descend from. Filled in online, it can also show your brothers and sisters beside you on the bottom row. To show aunts, uncles and cousins, use the descendant chart, which starts from a couple and works down, or a genogram.

Questions to ask your relatives

1. What were the full names of your parents and grandparents, including maiden names?
2. When and where was each of them born?
3. When and where did they marry?
4. When and where did they die, and where are they buried?
5. Where did they live, and what work did they do?
6. Do you have old photos, letters, a family Bible or certificates I could copy?

Ask the oldest relatives first, and write down or record what they say, with the date. Even a single phone call often fills in most of the grandparents' row.

Where to find great-grandparents' names

• Death certificates and obituaries often name a person's parents and spouse.
• Marriage records usually give both partners' ages and often their parents' names.
• The US census lists every person in a household with ages and birthplaces. The most recent census open to the public is 1950, released in 2022, and the 1950 to 1900 censuses cover most great-grandparents of people alive today.
• Cemetery headstones give exact dates and often name a spouse.

Questions