Children
Children hang from their parents’ couple line: a line drops from it to each child, in birth order with the oldest on the left.
How to read it
The University of North Dakota’s guide draws the children born to a couple below them, each connected to the line between the parents, starting with the oldest on the left. The Multicultural Family Institute’s sheet and the National Society of Genetic Counselors’ pedigree order them the same way, oldest to youngest. The line down says how a child joined the family: on the Institute’s sheet it is solid for a biological child, dashed for an adopted child and dotted for a foster child, and Twins share one point on the parents’ line. A Pregnancy or a Miscarriage takes its place in the same row. The Institute’s sheet writes each child’s birth year beside the line (’92-) and the age inside the symbol.
Also searched as: child line genogram, children symbol, genogram children, sibling order.
This explains what a symbol records on a genogram. Clinicians vary the notation, and a genogram’s own key takes precedence.
Read next
- Next in Genogram symbolsTwinsTwo lines to two children that start from the same point on the parents’ line mean twins. A short bar joining the two lines marks identical twins.
- The same shape in African flagsFlag of EthiopiaEthiopia’s flag is green, yellow and red in equal horizontal stripes with a blue disc in the centre holding a yellow star of equal lines with yellow rays. Ethiopia’s Flag Proclamation makes the green labour, fertility and development, the yellow hope, justice and equality, and the red sacrifice and heroism for freedom and equality; the blue disc is peace and the star the unity of Ethiopia’s nations, nationalities and peoples.
More genogram symbols
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with circles, lines or squares and rectangles.
Sources
- QA Case Review: Genogram Resource, ND CFS Quality Assurance, revised November 2022, Children and Family Services Training Center, University of North Dakota, Steps 2 and 5
- Standard Symbols for Genograms, The Multicultural Family Institute (copy on a PBworks course wiki), Page 1
- Practice resource-focused revision: Standardized pedigree nomenclature update centered on sex and gender inclusivity: A practice resource of the National Society of Genetic Counselors, Robin L. Bennett, Kathryn Steinhaus French, Robert G. Resta and Jehannine Austin, Journal of Genetic Counseling 31 (2022): 1238–1248, National Society of Genetic Counselors (Wiley), Figure 3, Pedigree line definitions
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 9, 2026. How we research
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