What is a 3 generation genogram?

A genogram that spans three generations — typically grandparents, parents, and children. Three generations is the standard minimum, because patterns (relationships, illness, roles) only become visible when you can see them repeat across more than one generation.

How do you make a 3 generation genogram?

Start with the index person, use Add parents to create the second generation and again for the grandparents (third), then add siblings and children. Record ages and relationships, and export.

Why three generations specifically?

Two generations show only a parent–child snapshot. Adding the grandparents reveals whether a pattern — closeness, conflict, an illness, a family role — repeats, which is the whole point of a genogram.

Three generations

3 Generation Genogram

One generation is a person. Two is a parent and a child. Neither shows a pattern. The grandparent's drinking, the parent who went quiet under stress, the client sitting in your office with a knot of anxiety they can't name — you only see the line connecting them once you draw all three. That's why the three-generation map is the version your assignment asks for, and the version Monica McGoldrick built the standard notation around.

A three-generation genogram — couples, children, and the emotional lines between them.

Male
Female
Deceased
Index person
Close
Conflict

It's also where Bowen's multigenerational transmission stops being a phrase in a textbook and starts being something you can point at. Three rows is the floor, not the ceiling: it's the fewest you can draw and still catch a theme handing itself down.

A three-generation genogram: grandparents, parents, and children.

What each row carries

Read it top to bottom. Each generation answers a different question.

Top row — the grandparents: Where the theme starts. Migration, a death that reorganized the family, the sibling nobody talks about, the marriage that set the tone. This row is usually the thinnest on detail and the heaviest on consequence.
Middle row — the parents: How the theme got carried or broken. A parent who repeated their own mother's cutoff, or deliberately did the opposite. Cross the couple lines here and the marriages, divorces, and remarriages start doing real explanatory work.
Bottom row — the client and their siblings: Where it lands. Double-square the index person so anyone reading the file knows who the work is about. Birth order, the over-functioning eldest, the symptom that finally brought someone in — it all sits here.

How to build one

Add the index person — the individual the genogram centers on.
Use Add parents to create the second generation, then again on a parent for the grandparents.
Add siblings and any children to fill out each generation.
Record ages, dates, and relationships, then export a clean PDF.

Keep each generation on its own horizontal line and the symbols consistent — square for male, circle for female, the index person double-walled. A grader, a supervisor, or the next clinician to open the chart should be able to read the structure in a glance, before they read a single age.

Using the example as your template

A genogram with 3 generations has a fixed skeleton — grandparents on top, parents in the middle, the index person and siblings on the bottom — so the example above works as a starting template: recreate its structure in the builder, then swap in the real family. Two couples on the top row, their children linked downward into the middle row's marriage, children of that marriage on the bottom. Once the skeleton stands, everything else is annotation, not layout.

Check before you export

The mistakes that cost points on a three-generation genogram are almost never the drawing — they are omissions. Thirty seconds against this list catches them:

The index person is double-framed — the first thing a grader looks for.
Every person has an age or birth year; deceased relatives carry the X and, where known, a death year.
Siblings run left to right by birth order, oldest first.
Couple lines say what happened: marriage, separation, divorce, remarriage — with dates if you have them.
Each generation sits on its own horizontal row, nobody floating between rows.
Emotional lines (close, conflict, cut-off) appear only where you can back them up — an overlay on every pair reads as guesswork.

If any item is unclear, the symbols guide shows each marker with its meaning.

Build a 3-generation genogram — free

Add people, draw relationships, and export a clean PDF or PNG. No download, works on any device.

Open the genogram maker

Frequently asked questions

What is a 3 generation genogram?: A genogram that spans three generations — typically grandparents, parents, and children. Three generations is the standard minimum, because patterns (relationships, illness, roles) only become visible when you can see them repeat across more than one generation.
How do you make a 3 generation genogram?: Start with the index person, use Add parents to create the second generation and again for the grandparents (third), then add siblings and children. Record ages and relationships, and export.
Why three generations specifically?: Two generations show only a parent–child snapshot. Adding the grandparents reveals whether a pattern — closeness, conflict, an illness, a family role — repeats, which is the whole point of a genogram.