Hobbies And Interests
Things You'll Need
Instructions
Create a key for the gene to designate male and female and the gene or traits that are being referenced. For example, all female are circles and all males are squares. If tracking eye color, use the colors. If tracing diseases, use a key such as an unshaded circle or square refers to an unaffected person and a shaded shape means the person suffered from the disease.
Start the chart with the oldest relatives in which information can be found regarding the trait or gene. For example, if charting eye color, start with your great grandmother and grandfather, or even earlier generations if the color of those relatives are known.
Create branches off the initial relatives for each child they had. Use the key to designate male or female and the gene or trait expressed by that individual. Place them in order of birth from oldest to youngest, with the oldest located to the left.
Indicate if the children got married with a solid line to another shape and if that coupling produced offspring. Draw branches from to each child oldest to youngest starting from the left. If the person had children with more than one person, indicate this on the chart. Indicate the sex of the children with the correct shape and use the key to indicate the gene or trait of the child.
Continue creating branches for all the relatives including all their children and what gene the children expressed or did not express using the key you created in Step 1.