Heritage Patterns Explained
What the horizontal, vertical, and diagonal heritage fills mean, and how heritage differs from immigration markers.
In the Cultural view, each person's heritage is shown as a fill pattern inside their symbol: horizontal, vertical or diagonal lines, a grid, dots, waves, a braid or a checker.
Do the directions mean anything?
No. The direction has no fixed meaning. The patterns only make different heritages easy to tell apart. Assign one pattern per heritage (for example, Diagonal R = Irish, Vertical = Mexican), name it in the Heritage section, and use it consistently. The Genogram Key explains which pattern is which.
Dual and multi-heritage
A person can carry more than one heritage. Their symbol shows each pattern in its own section: two heritages split it in half, and three or more divide it into slices. Give each heritage in the family its own pattern, and each person's symbol combines the ones they carry.
Heritage vs. immigration
Heritage describes cultural background. Immigration is marked separately with a squiggle, set in the Location section of the Inspector under Immigration Marker:
- Single (~): the person has lived in two or more cultures.
- Double (~~): the person immigrated.
The squiggle is drawn on the line to the person's parents, or above the symbol if they have no parents on the chart. Record the year and country of origin in a tag or in Notes. See Recording Extra Details on People.