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Draw Out Complex Family Trees with Easily Canva
- Devon Noel Lee
- May 22
- 7 min read
A viewer named Jim Ward sent me an interesting question. He wanted wrote:
The Struggle to Example a Family Tree With Multiple Lines of Relationship
Jim generously shared his document with me, and I could tell right away he’d put a lot of thoughtful work into it. He started with an explanation of the research and even referenced a Facebook group for the Royce family, which was a great touch.
From there, he moved into a detailed descendancy chart and several pages of text. But despite his valiant efforts, the formatting—especially the alignment, asterisks, and side-by-side layouts—made the relationships hard to follow. I can see why he hasn’t gotten much feedback; even though the content is solid, the presentation made it tough to digest at a glance.
The Solution: An Organizational Chart in Canva
As I scrolled through Jim's text document and his visual attempts, I kept picturing a tangled family tree with overlapping lines and offshoots. It reminded me of a post I wrote about what program you should use to create a fictional family tree—not because Jim's tree is fictional, of course, but because the tools in that post could absolutely help clarify his layout.
After weighing the options, I went with Canva since I'm already comfortable using it for this channel and for graphics I make for my kids' clubs.
If you use a different chart-building program you love, drop it in the comments—I’d love to hear about it!
Let me tease you with a picture of what I created for Jim.
What do you think? I mean, it's still a family tree but it's focused on what Jim is trying to portray and covers a lot more ground than pages of text.
Within Canva, I chose an "org chart template" as my starting point. It’s flexible enough to show generations and side connections clearly.
If you’re having trouble finding the right kind of template inside Canva, just do a quick Google search like “Canva org chart template”—it’ll usually get you where you want to be faster than searching inside the site.
Using Canva Features for Organization
Once you open a Canva template, you may see a lot of extra details that explain shortcut keys to put elements on your chart. After you learn those, remove those items from your workspace by clicking on them and hitting the delete key.
Here a a few elements you'll need to know to work with an Organizational Chart in Canva.
Adding Elements and Text
For the shapes you'll need:
Type 'R' for a rectangle/square
Type 'C' for a circle/oval
You can resize these shapes after they're created by dragging the 'handles' or little boxes around the same.
You can add text but clicking into the shape
You can customize the shape by clicking on it and then in the pop up menu changing the text font and size, shape color borders.
For lines, type "L".
To customize, click on the line and look for the pop-up menu.
You can customize the lines by color, width, style, and adding text to the lines.
You'll use the bendy and straight lines the most often.
For stick notes, type 'S'.
When you have these basic feature shortcuts memorized, you'll be able to quickly add what you need to generate a complex family tree to show cause your confusing ancestral relationships.
Structuring the Family Tree
The next step to generating your tree is to decide, "what is it you're trying to portray." In short, what is your objective that you're trying to display?
Ancestors of Jim
Descendants of one specific set of Ancestor's of Jim
For this project, we'll comble the descendants of Joyce and Beach couples with the focus being on demonstrating how many different ways Jim's direct ancestors overlap.
Step 1: Add Starting Person
Add a shape (click R or C, or start with the template in the workspace).
Rectangle/Squares for males
Circle/Ovals for females
Add the name of the first person
You can additional identifying details but keep it brief.
This is not a full pedigree chart but a quick reference chart, so be brief.
Format the shape (optional)
Color blue for males and pink for females (you can change later)
Chose a contrasting font color so the name stands out from the background
Or leave this blank and adjust later.
Drag the boxes on the outline of the shape until the shape is the size you want to read the name.
Step 2: Add a Spouse
Add the 'opposite' shape that the starting person. For example, I added Jonathan (a square) in step one, so now I need a circle for his wife.
Add the spouse's name
Format the shape
Click 'L' to create a line to connect the spouses.
Click and drag one end of the line to the side of the first shape.
Click and drag the other end of the line to the side of the second shape.
If you connect the line ends to the dots that surround the shapes, then the lines will stay connected to the shapes if you move or resize the shapes.
Step 3: Add Parents and Siblings
The next step is to add parents (if applicable) to the starting person and then siblings. You can retain the one shape per person process as step 1 and 2 or you can create a couple shape.
In this project, the parents of the first person serve as the 'title' for the branch. So, instead of adding separate shapes for them, I created a rectangle and put both names in that shape.
I formatted the shape
I added a link from the rectangle for the parents (a dot at the bottom middle of the shape) to the shape of the first person, in this case Jonathan. I connected to the point at the top of Jonathan's square.
For the first person's sibling, add a new shape.
You can click "R" or "C," but if you formatted person 1 in step 1, then it's faster to copy that shape.
You can use your keyboard short cuts (Ctrl+C/Cmd+C and Ctrl+V/Cmd+V) or use the menu options that pop up after you click on person 1's shape.
Then, move the new shape so it aligns with Person 1.
Then add a line from the sibling to the parents.
You'll use a bendy / elbow line for this
You'll connect one end of the line to the same spot where person 1 connects to the parental rectangle.
You'll connect the other end to the top middle of the shape you created for the sibling.
Depending on what you're trying to show, you might not need to add any more siblings to your organizational chart. Remember to keep your chart focused on the research objective.
Step 4: Add Children
To add a child to your first person (in this case Jonathan),
Type "R" or "C" on your keyboard, OR
You can use your keyboard short cuts (Ctrl+C/Cmd+C and Ctrl+V/Cmd+V)
or use the menu options that pop up after you click on person 1's shape.
Then, move the new shape so it aligns as a child Jonathan.
Then add a line from the child to the parents.
You'll use a bendy / elbow line for this
You'll connect one end to the top middle of the shape you created for the child.
You'll connect the other one end to the line connecting Jonathan to his wife.
However, sometimes that doesn't work, so you'll want to connect this end ot the dot where the line between Jonathan and his wife begins in Jonathan's shape.
Assure that any additional children added to this chart align with their siblings horizontally.
Step 5: Add Additional Relatives
Now that you have the basics of adding shapes and lines, you can start adding the other relevant individuals to the chart to address your family tree display objective. Remember to keep the chart as simple as possible to showcase the lines of connection without including everything a family tree (bush or forest) contains.
To see how I added cousins who married each other and other complex relationships, please watch this full video tutorial.
Key Points for Generating Complex Family Trees
it's important than you line up the individuals in the same generation so that you can see when some generational levels break.
For instance, an uncle and a niece pairing off, a 1st and a 2nd cousin pairing off, and so forth.
Use the Sticky Note feature to add extra details when necessary.
You can color code and increase the thickness of the lines to emphasize a path.
You can color code your shapes to highlight surnames once the tree in drawn.
You don't have to retain the blue for males and pink for females coloring.
You can color the descendants from the primary ancestral couple to the target person. Don't alter the shapes, but change the colors so that the male and female direct ancestors for that line of descent standout.
You can include additional lines 'off to the side' if necessary.
Use a different color scheme for the 'side' family.
Use different line styles to denote the 'side note' nature of the additional family.
Who Should Bother Building a Tree in This Fashion?
Some genealogists might wonder why they should go through the effort of manually constructing a family tree in Canva instead of using automatic tools in genealogy software or online family trees. Here are a few scenarios where using Canva makes sense:
People with Highly Complex Family Structures – If your family tree includes multiple cousin marriages, pedigree collapse, or step-relations that aren’t well represented in standard genealogy software, organization charts like the one I built in Canva allows for a more customized visual layout.
Genetic Genealogists Handling Endogamy – When dealing with endogamous lines, it’s helpful to illustrate the many repeated connections visually, something that organization charts allows you to do without rigid pedigree constraints.
While traditional family tree software is great for storing data and generating standard reports, organization charts provides the customization needed for truly unique and visually intuitive trees.
What Complex Family Tree Do You Need to Draw Out?
Thanks for reading, and to Jim for sending me his fantastic question!
But now the floor is yours. What complex trees do you need to draw out? If you're unable to create a Canva chart because you get confused determining how to show case an unexpected twist, let me know in the comments section.
If you do generate a tree in Canva, share a link to your blog post or social media post so we can see your creations!!!
