Genogram Maker
Reference

Genogram Key

A genogram key (or legend) is the box beside the diagram that explains every symbol and line style it uses: who is male or female, what the slashes mean, which color is conflict. Instructors expect one on every genogram, and it should list only the symbols you actually used.

Walter1938–2011Ruth85Daniel60Claire58Sam56Nora30Leo27Ivy18
Fig. 1 — A genogram whose key is shown belowOpen in Genogram Maker

The key for Fig. 1

  • Male
  • Female
  • Nonbinary / unknown
  • Deceased
  • Identified patient
  • Condition: Heart disease, Alcohol use, Depression
  • Marriage
  • Living together
  • Divorced
  • Adopted
  • Miscarriage
  • Close
  • Conflict
  • Cutoff

What to put in a genogram key

  1. Every person symbol you used: male, female, unknown, deceased, identified patient.
  2. Every couple line: marriage, living together, separated, divorced.
  3. Every child line: biological, adopted, foster, and any pregnancies or losses.
  4. Every emotional line, with its color and pattern, so it still reads in black and white.
  5. The name of each health condition you marked with a half-filled symbol.

Common mistakes

  • Copying a full key with symbols the genogram never uses. It makes the diagram harder to read.
  • Telling emotional lines apart by color only. Printed in grayscale, close and conflict look the same.
  • Marking a condition with a fill but never saying which condition it is.

Genogram Maker builds the key automatically from what is on the canvas and exports it with the diagram. Make a genogram with a key.