family tree

• Hyphenation: fa‧mi‧ly tree

family tree (plural family trees)

1. A diagrammatic representation of a pedigree, illustrating the connections between a person's ancestors.
2. The totality of someone's ancestors.
   • 1997, Doug Adams, The Prostitute in the Family Tree: Discovering Humor and Irony in the Bible, →ISBN, page 3:

     Heredity and environment are not the absolute arbiters of what will be, as Jesus' genealogy details in the first chapter of Matthew's Gospel. As Gardner Taylor, an African-American preacher in Brooklyn, noted, Rahab the prostitute is in the family tree of Jesus Christ.

   • 2010, Amelie von Zumbusch, Barack Obama's Family Tree: Roots of Achievement, →ISBN, page 22:

     As the years have passed, Barack Obama's family tree has grown.

   • 2011, Suzannah Knight, Black Magic, →ISBN, page 18:

     It's never been discussed whether or not there is mental illness in my family tree but I know a great aunt committed suicide years before using paracetamol.

• tree

• genealogy

• Family trees on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

• family tree on Wikipedia.Wikipedia