Family History Book Builder
List the people in your family with their dates as you know them, link them as parents, partners or siblings, and add the stories and dates you want to keep. The builder draws a family tree from the links and makes a book with contents, an entry for each person, the stories with their sources, a timeline and your photographs.
Dates are printed exactly as you write them, such as "c. 1890" or "before the war". A date you leave empty is printed as not recorded; nothing is guessed or calculated. It is a family record compiled from memories and papers, not proof of ancestry or identity. Photos stay on this device.
Downloads: PDF, Project file
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How to use the Family History Book Builder
- Pick a layout: Compact (A5, runs on), Spacious (8 × 10 in, each part on a right-hand page) or Section-led (US Letter, each person and story on a new page).
- Add people with their name, birth and death dates as text, a short biography and, if you like, a photo.
- Add relationships: choose two people and how they are linked. Parent links go from parent to child.
- Add stories with a source note, and dates for the timeline; tick Uncertain for a date you are not sure of.
- Upload photographs and add a caption and source for each, then Create document.
Example
A 16-page A5 book of five people across three generations: a tree with two couples, an entry for each person (one with no known birth date), two stories with sources and a timeline that ends with one undated event.
What it does not do
- Not an identity document or proof of ancestry or of a relationship. Zerdly does not check any name, date or link.
- A loop in the parent links (someone their own ancestor) is refused, naming the link that closes it.
- Very large trees continue over several tree pages; lines are drawn between people on the same page.
- Text that does not fit moves to the next page, never shrunk. PDF and project file only.
- Up to 250 pages and 500 entries in any list.
Documents are made in your browser and are not uploaded or stored by Zerdly. Check the finished document before you use it.
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