Genogram Assignment Guide ​

If you’re preparing your first genogram assignment, the process becomes much easier once you know what information to collect and how instructors typically assess the final submission. This guide walks through the process, from reading your brief to submitting a finished paper.

Step 1: Read Your Brief and Identify What's Required ​

Before you gather any family information or open any tool, pull out your assignment brief and answer these questions:

• How many generations are required? Three is the standard minimum. Some briefs ask for four. This determines how far back you need to go when collecting information.
• What layers are expected? Structure only means names, ages, and connection lines. Health history means conditions and causes of death. Relationship lines means close, distant, conflict, and cutoff lines for significant connections. Some briefs require all three layers; some require only one. Knowing this before you start saves you from rebuilding the diagram later.
• Is a written analysis required? Most assignments at university level require a paper alongside the diagram. Check whether your brief specifies a page or word count, a theoretical framework (Bowen's family systems theory is the most common), and whether a personal reflection section is expected.
• Are there formatting or submission requirements? Some courses require a printed diagram. Others accept a PDF or image file. Some specify that names be anonymized. Note these before you start.

Step 2: Gather Your Family Information ​

Where to get it: Talk to your parents first. They are the most direct route to both sets of grandparents' history. If a grandparent is still living, a short conversation with them directly is often faster than going through the parent generation.

Some useful questions include:

• Family Structure: Who belongs to the family?
• Relationships: Who was especially close? Who rarely spoke to each other?
• Health History: Are there recurring medical conditions in the family?
• Life Events: Were there major losses, migrations, or turning points?
• Education and Work: Are there noticeable career or educational patterns?

What to do with gaps: Mark unknown family members in the correct position on the diagram with a symbol labeled unknown. Note gaps in your analysis rather than leaving them unaddressed. A partially documented family with honest gaps is more accurate than one where missing information is glossed over.

What to do with sensitive information: You only need enough detail for the diagram to be accurate. "History of depression, diagnosed 2015" is sufficient notation. You do not need names of medications, specific circumstances, or detailed narrative; that level of detail belongs in the analysis only if it is directly relevant to a pattern you are identifying.

Thus, the minimum information you need for a three-generation genogram:

• Your own name, age, and any relevant health information.
• Your parents' names, ages, health conditions, and significant life events (marriages, divorces, deaths).
• Your grandparents on both sides; names, ages or birth years, causes of death where known, and any significant health history.
• Your siblings, and any aunts and uncles your brief specifies.

Don’t worry if you cannot gather every detail.

Most lecturers understand that some information may be unavailable because of adoption, estrangement, death, or limited family records. Missing information is common and can simply be noted in the assignment.

Step 3: Build the Diagram ​

Open EasyGenogram and work through these steps in order. For a full visual walkthrough, see how to make a genogram. If your assignment is specifically about mapping your own household and extended family, the family genogram assignment page is the closest companion example.

• Place yourself as the primary person: Your symbol goes in the middle row. Mark it with a double border to identify you as the index person.
• Add your parents and their siblings: Your parents go in the row above you, connected by a marriage line (or a divorce line with slashes if applicable). Add any aunts and uncles your brief requires beside your parents on the same row.
• Add your grandparents: Both sets go in the top row, each connected to their respective children by the structural lines below them.
• Fill in names and ages: Every person on the diagram needs at least a name and current age or birth year. Deceased members need a cause of death and age where known, marked with an X through their symbol.
• Add health notes: If your brief requires health history, add conditions beside each person's symbol with the diagnosis year. For deceased members, add cause of death and age at death beneath their symbol.
• Add relationship lines: Draw these last, once the structure and annotations are in place. Draw lines only for significant relationships. A diagram does not need every relationship mapped, only the ones that are meaningful enough to affect how the family system reads. For a full reference of line types, see the genogram symbols guide.
• Add a key: List every symbol and line type used on the diagram in a legend at the bottom. An assignment submitted without a key is incomplete regardless of how accurate the diagram is.

Step 4: Look for Patterns ​

This is the stage where the assignment becomes analytical.

Instead of describing individual relatives, look for themes that repeat across the family system.

You may notice:

• Several generations affected by the same illness.
• Repeated relationship breakdowns.
• Strong caregiving expectations placed on certain family members.
• Educational or occupational trends.
• Cycles of conflict between parents and children or certain family members.

Good analysis focuses on these broader patterns rather than isolated events.

A lecturer already sees the diagram. Your written analysis should explain what the diagram reveals.

Step 5: Write the Analysis ​

Most analysis papers run 5 to 10 pages. Structure yours as follows:

Introduction ​

State the purpose of the assignment, the scope of your genogram (how many generations, which family branches you mapped), and the theoretical framework you are using.

If your course specifies Bowen's family systems theory, name it here and briefly note the concepts you will apply. If no framework is specified, check your course readings; the theory you have been studying is almost certainly what the professor expects you to apply.

Family structure overview ​

Describe the composition of the family for a reader who has not seen the diagram. Who is in the genogram, how are they related, what significant events are documented. Keep this section factual and descriptive. Do not interpret here; that comes next.

Pattern identification ​

This is the core section. Name specific recurring patterns and point to the evidence in the diagram.

A pattern that appears in one person is an individual fact, but a pattern that appears across two or three generations in the same family line is worth naming as a pattern.

Common ones: a health condition appearing on one or both sides across generations, a relationship dynamic repeating, a behavioral tendency passing through the family, a loss that restructured the family system.

Be specific; name which people, which conditions, which relationship lines.

Theoretical framework application ​

Connect course concepts to the patterns you identified. If using Bowen's theory: where do you see triangulation, differentiation of self, or multigenerational transmission in this specific family?

Connect the theory to your diagram, not to the theory in general.

A sentence like "Bowen describes triangulation as a process where tension between two people draws in a third" is descriptive. A sentence like "The conflict between my parents following my grandfather's death drew me in as a mediator from age 12, consistent with what Bowen describes as triangulation" is applied.

Reflection ​

What did building this genogram show you that you had not seen before? For nursing and health students, this typically connects to health risk awareness and how family history might inform clinical practice. For social work and counseling students, it focuses on relational patterns and how they might surface in clinical work. Be specific rather than general; name the actual thing the diagram showed you.

Step 6: Review Against the Rubric ​

Before submitting, work through this checklist:

• Generations: the required numbers are present and complete.
• Members: everyone is named with an age or birth year.
• Symbols: correct notation used throughout (squares for males, circles for females, X for deceased, double border for primary person).
• Key: present and accounts for every symbol and line type on the diagram.
• Health notes: included where the brief requires them, with condition names and years.
• Relationship lines: drawn where the brief requires them, with correct line types.
• Analysis introduction: states scope and theoretical framework.
• Pattern identification: names specific patterns with evidence from the diagram.
• Theoretical application: connects course concepts to the specific family, not to theory in general.
• Reflection: says something specific, not generic.
• Paper length: within the range specified in the brief.
• Submission format: matches what the brief requires (PDF, printed, anonymized names if specified).

If any of these are missing, fix them before submitting.

Step 7: Check for the Common Mistakes ​

• Starting to draw before gathering information: Building the diagram with incomplete information means rebuilding it later. Gather first, draw second.
• Leaving grandparents out or partially documented: Three generations means all three fully present. A grandparent whose name you don't know gets a symbol in the correct position labeled unknown; they don't get left off.
• No key on the diagram: Every symbol and line type needs to appear in a legend. Without it, the reader has to guess, which is a basic error in any clinical or academic diagram.
• Writing an analysis that only describes the diagram: The overview section describes the diagram. The pattern section interprets it. The theoretical section applies course concepts to it. The reflection section connects it to the student personally. If the entire paper is describing who is in the family, it is missing three of its four required sections.
• Using the same theoretical statement for every pattern: "This is an example of Bowen's multigenerational transmission process" written three times with different family members is application in form but not in substance. Connect each pattern to the concept specifically.
• Submitting without checking the brief for formatting requirements: Anonymized names, specific page counts, PDF vs printed; these are easy marks to lose and easy to check.

Related ​

• Genogram Assignment
• Family Genogram Assignment
• Genogram Project
• Genogram Homework
• Genogram for Class
• Genogram Symbols Guide
• How to Make a Genogram