Recording Extra Details on People
Where to put blood types, family roles, immigration details, occupations, and anything else the standard symbols don't cover.
Standard notation covers a lot, but most projects need a few more fields: blood type, family roles, military service, immigration dates. This guide shows where each kind of detail goes and how to show it on the canvas.
The person tabs
Click a person to open the Inspector. Below the header are four tabs:
- Identity: first and last name, Gender, Orientation, plus middle name, maiden name, title, suffix, nickname and Alternative Name / Alias.
- Vitals: status, birth date, age, Birth Place, death details, and Explicitly childless.
- Career: Current Occupation with From (year) and To (year), and Tags / Attributes.
- Notes: free-form notes about the person.
On the canvas, a maiden name appears under the name as (née Smith), an alternative name in brackets, and an occupation with years as Teacher (1985–2019).
Custom fields: use Tags
There is no field builder, but Tags / Attributes in the Career tab works as one. Type a value and press Enter. Add as many tags as you like, for example Blood type O+, Veteran, Parentified child or Family peacemaker.
Tags and notes are written under the person while the Notes text label is on. Open Text Labels (the tag icon in the toolbar) to switch it on or off. Long notes are shortened on the canvas unless Wrap long text is on.
Colour-coding a group: the Custom layer
To mark a category across several people (for example a risk level or family roles), use the Custom section at the bottom of the Inspector:
- Pick a colour from the swatches. The colour shows on the symbol while the Custom view is on (the eye icon on the section, or Views in the toolbar).
- Type a name under Label for this color, for example High Risk. Labelled colours appear in the Genogram Key.
- Click the pencil at the top of the section to rename it, for example Risk Level or Family Roles. The key uses that name as the section heading.
The colour label shows in the key, not under the symbol. For text under the symbol, use a tag.
Immigration
Set the squiggle marker in the Location section under Immigration Marker: Single (~) for someone who has lived in two or more cultures, or Double (~~) for immigration. It is drawn on the line to the person's parents, or above the symbol if they have no parents on the chart. There is no separate immigration-date field, so put the year and country of origin in a tag or in Notes. Birth Place and Country (which shows a flag in the Location view) are also available.
Free text on the canvas
For a note that isn't tied to one person, add a Note (N) or Text (T) from the toolbar. For sensitive content, use a Secret (S).