Separation
One slash across a marriage line means the couple have separated. The date is written beside it, as in s ’95.
Easily confused with
How to read it
Washburn University’s guide shows marital separation as a single diagonal line across the Marriage line, and the University of North Dakota’s guide as a single slash along the connecting line; a Divorce is two. The Multicultural Family Institute’s sheet writes the date after an s, so m ’90 s ’95 is a couple married in 1990 and separated in 1995. A separation that ended is kept in the dates: the same sheet writes s 95-96.
Also searched as: genogram separation, separated genogram, separation symbol.
This explains what a symbol records on a genogram. Clinicians vary the notation, and a genogram’s own key takes precedence.
Look-alikes
Two slashes across the same line are a Divorce. Two short upright bars across a line drawn straight between two people are a Cutoff, a break in contact. The medical pedigree uses a break in the relationship line (//) for a partnership that no longer exists.
Read next
- Next in Genogram symbolsDivorceTwo slashes across a marriage line mean the couple are divorced. The year is written beside them, as in d ’97.
- 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
- GenoGrams, Jay Memmott, Department of Social Work, Washburn University, Basic Symbols, slides 5 and 6
- QA Case Review: Genogram Resource, ND CFS Quality Assurance, revised November 2022, Children and Family Services Training Center, University of North Dakota, Step 3
- 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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