Create a family tree with graphviz

19 Jan, 2024 • 207 words • 1 min • updated 25 Dec, 2025

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is open source graph visualization software. Graph visualization is a way of representing structural information as diagrams of abstract graphs and networks.

We can also use it to craft family trees!

I came up with the following template:

     text
     
   
digraph G {
    {Greatgrandfather Greatgrandmother} -> Grandfather;
    {Grandfather Grandmother} -> Father;
    {Father Mother} -> Me;

    Greatgrandfather [shape = box;label = "Greatgrandfather Lastname";];
    Greatgrandmother [shape = box;label = "Greatgrandmother Lastname";];
    Grandfather [shape = box;label = "Grandfather Lastname";];
    Grandmother [shape = box;label = "Grandmother Lastname";];
    Father [shape = box;label = "Father Lastname";];
    Mother [shape = box;label = "Mother Lastname";];
    Me [shape = box;label = "Me Lastname";];

    Greatgrandfather [color = "lightblue";style = filled;];
    Greatgrandmother [color = "pink";style = filled;];
    Grandfather [color = "lightblue";style = filled;];
    Grandmother [color = "pink";style = filled;];
    Father [color = "lightblue";style = filled;];
    Mother [color = "pink";style = filled;];
    Me [style = filled;color = lightblue;];
}

…save this to a tree.dot file.

A .png representation of the graph can then be generated with the following command:

shell

dot -Tpng tree.dot > tree.png

Note that dot is part of the graphviz distribution.

In case it’s not installed on your system, it’s widely available, just do it. For example, on macOS:

shell

brew install graphviz

The final result:

family tree