Family tree builder. Start from a root person, then add parents / spouse / children step by step. Visual tree + JSON export. Up to 5 generations / 100 people. Browser-only.
Family Tree Builder (家谱图生成器)
Root — add the first person
How to use
Add root person
Enter the first person (usually yourself, your father, or the ancestor you want to trace from) — name + gender + birth year. This is the root of the tree.
Extend the family
Each person has buttons: "+ Child", "+ Spouse", "+ Parents". Click and fill in via prompts.
View the tree
The tree auto-refreshes. Spouses appear side by side with a + mark. Children expand below.
Export JSON
Click "Export JSON" to download the full family tree data (useful for backup or import into other tools).
Family trees — Chinese genealogy as cultural heritage
Jiapu (家谱), also called zupu / zongpu / jiachéng, is a uniquely Chinese cultural asset. From the Han dynasty onwards, scholarly clans kept detailed genealogies; from the Song onwards, common families adopted the practice; by Ming-Qing nearly every Han Chinese household maintained an ancestral 家谱.
5 elements of a traditional 家谱
(1) Lineage chart (this tool's focus — who begat whom); (2) Generation poem (zibei — see generation-poem-lookup); (3) Clan rules and household precepts; (4) Ancestral hall records; (5) Notable persons (officials, scholars produced by the clan).
"Digitising the family tree = permanent preservation. Paper genealogies are vulnerable to fire, flood, and insects — one disaster can destroy 10 generations of records."
What this tool covers vs traditional 家谱
This tool focuses on the lineage chart — the most central and most easily lost component. Other elements (generation poem, clan rules, notable persons) suit free-form text records better. The tool's JSON export format is open — any genealogy software can re-read it.
SG/MY overseas Chinese genealogy revival
Singapore + Malaysia Chinese families have seen a genealogy revival in the past decade: tracing roots (often 3-5 generation overseas Chinese, with origins back to Fujian/Guangdong); preserving memories of 90+ year-old elders before they fade; bequeathing a cultural inheritance to children. This tool runs entirely in the browser — no signup, no cloud storage, suitable for older users.
The Confucius genealogy runs to 83 generations
The Confucius family tree is the world's longest continuously documented genealogy — 83+ generations spanning 2,500+ years from Confucius (551 BC) to today.
The Ming dynasty (1368-1644) was the high-water mark of family-tree compilation — nearly every Han clan kept one.
Traditional convention: "minor revision every 30 years, major every 60" — about once per generation.
Women were rarely listed by name in traditional genealogies — typically just as "Mrs. X (née Y)". Modern family trees correct this inequality.
The National Library of Singapore holds 5,000+ overseas Chinese family trees — mostly Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese, Hakka.
The Zhangzhou Genealogy Archive (Fujian) is the world's largest single family-tree archive — 300,000+ documents.
Family tree + DNA is a growing trend — 23andMe / WeGene DNA tests can cross-verify against traditional genealogies.
The "five mourning grades" (五服): family members ranked by closeness into 5 categories — determines mourning duration.
"Sacrificial land" (祭田) in traditional 家谱 — collectively-owned clan property whose income funded ancestor worship, genealogy revisions, and scholarships for clan members.
This tool has no cloud storage — data lives only in your browser tab and is gone on close. Export JSON immediately to back up.
Frequently Asked Questions
Up to 100 people / 5 generations (browser-performance limit). Larger trees should be split into multiple files.
Yes — export as JSON. The tool has no cloud storage, so data is lost when you close the tab. Remember to export.
No. Everything runs in your browser. Your family data never leaves your device.
Currently export only. Import is planned for a future version. The JSON format is open so manual re-paste works in the meantime.
Yes. The tool corrects the traditional inequality of "Mrs. X (née Y)" recordkeeping — all family members are listed by full name regardless of gender.
Yes. Clicking "+ Parents" prompts for both father and mother in sequence.
Currently 1 spouse per person (simplified mode). Multi-spouse / remarriage support planned for a future version.
Yes. The name field is free input — use nicknames, initials, or just first names if you prefer.
One tree per browser tab. Export JSON, then clear, and start a new tree in the same tab.
Yes. All RECATOOLS tools are 100% free, ad-supported.
Method & sources
How it computes
You place people and the relationships between them; the tool derives each person's generation relative to you from those links, finds the path between any two people, and labels that path with the kinship term in English, Chinese and Malay. Cousins are named by the standard genealogical degree-and-removal rule. The labelling engine is the same one the Cousin Relationship Calculator uses, so the two always agree.
What this tool implements
- Generations are derived from the relationships entered rather than typed in, so the tree stays consistent when someone is added in the middle of it
- Kinship terms are resolved from the ordered path between two people — mother's mother gives maternal grandmother — not by pattern-matching a label
- Cousin terms follow the standard genealogical rule (degree = the smaller generation distance to the common ancestor minus one; removal = the difference between the two distances), so 'second cousin once removed' means the same here as on a printed cousin chart
- Chinese labels follow the 堂／表 structure of the Chinese kinship system — 堂 for the paternal same-surname line, 表 for every other line; Malay labels use sepupu for first cousins
- Runs entirely in the browser: a family tree is sensitive personal data about living people, and nothing is transmitted or stored on our side
Sources
- Fêng Han-yi (Fêng Han-chi). The Chinese Kinship System. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 1937;2(2):141-275; reissued Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press for the Harvard-Yenching Institute, 1948 — the paternal same-surname (堂) versus other-line (表) distinction the Chinese labels encode.
- Arnold JS. Kinship: It's All Relative. Enlarged 2nd ed. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co.; 2012 — cousin degrees and the 'once/twice removed' nomenclature.
- Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka. Kamus Dewan Edisi Keempat — entries 'sepupu' (saudara sedatuk) and 'dua pupu' (saudara semoyang). https://prpm.dbp.gov.my/Cari1?keyword=sepupu
What can make this go out of date
- Nothing is fetched at runtime and nothing leaves the browser. Kinship vocabulary varies by region and dialect, so the terms shown are the standard forms rather than the only ones in use.
Pick up where you left off
Stored only in this browser — never sent to our servers.