Reports¶
Reports are printouts of your genealogical research — ancestor charts, descendant charts, person profiles — in PDF or printable format.
Create a report¶
Go to Research → Reports. Choose the report type and a focus person — and for ancestor and descendant charts, how many generations to include — and click Generate report. The source list covers all of your research, so there you don't choose a focus person. The report is shown on the page, so you can review it before you save or print it.
Share safely¶
Above the report is the Share safely section, with the same rules as the GEDCOM export. The defaults are the safe ones:
- Private events — the Include private events box is empty to start with, so private events are left out.
- Living persons — Show everything, Name only, Replace the name with "Private" (default), or Leave out completely.
- Descendants and partners of living persons — Leave out – the tree stops at the first living person (default) or Include anonymously as "Private". This applies to deceased children, grandchildren, and later generations of living persons who are hidden, and their partners, since they can reveal who the living persons are. A partner who is an ancestor of a living person isn't hidden.
Hidden persons are shown without dates, places, events, notes, sources, and image. A profile picture where a hidden person is tagged isn't shown either. An event that a hidden person takes part in is shown with the type name instead of its title, since the title may name the person. The focus person is always shown, as "Private" if they would otherwise be left out.
The choices apply as long as PastPaths is open, and carry over to the family tree PDF and to printing an image. When PastPaths starts again, the defaults apply.
Persons without dates count as living
A person with neither a date of birth nor a date of death counts as living — and their deceased descendants are then hidden too. The reports page shows a warning with the number and the Show in the person list button. Enter an approximate year or mark the person as deceased, and the person and the descendants are shown again. → Why is a person shown as living?
Ancestor chart¶
An ancestor chart shows a person's ancestors back through time — parents, grandparents, and so on — numbered according to the Ahnentafel system.
Choose a focus person and how many generations to show (3–8).
Under Parents in the ancestor chart, you choose which parents the chart follows:
- Biological parents (default). Parents without a type count as biological.
- Parents who raised them (adoptive, foster, step) — the ones who raised the child, in the order adoptive, foster, step-parent, and guardian. Where there's no such parent, the biological parent is used.
Descendant chart¶
A descendant chart shows descendants — all children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren of a common ancestor.
Choose a focus person and how many generations downward to show.
Family sheet¶
A family sheet shows a family unit: the focus person, partner, and children with dates and places.
For each partner, the sheet shows:
- the partner's name with years of birth and death, for example "Anna Persdotter (1852–1920)", so persons with the same name can be told apart
- birth and, if known, death
- Marriage banns, Wedding, and Divorce with date and place
- the couple's children, under the heading Marriage or Partnership. Children whose other parent isn't known come last
Marriage banns, wedding, and divorce are taken from the couple's events — events of that type where both are Primary person or Spouse. If there's no marriage or divorce event, the partner relationship's dates are used, without a place: the start date when the couple is married, and the end date when the relationship ended in divorce. If the couple has several marriage banns or weddings, all are shown. A row is only shown when there's something to show.
Is the wedding missing?
Check that both spouses are linked to the marriage event as Primary person or Spouse. If only one of them is linked, the event doesn't count as the couple's.
Person profile¶
A person profile is a summary page about a specific person — with biography, parents, partner, children, siblings, events, and source citations in printable form.
The partners are shown with years of birth and death and with marriage banns, wedding, and divorce, the same way as in the family sheet, with the couple's children under each partner. The children are shown with years of birth and death. Events where the person has a role other than their own, for example witness or sponsor, are shown with the role.
Good to send to relatives who don't want PastPaths installed but want to see what you've found about a specific person.
Source list¶
A list of all the sources in your research, grouped by source type (parish register, census, book, and so on). Shows title, author, archive, and number of citations for each source.
Good as an overview and as an archival record.
Dates in the reports¶
Dates are shown with the precision that's known: "1850" when only the year is known, "1850-03" for year and month, and the full date when the day is known.
For events, the date accuracy is also written out:
| Accuracy | Shown as |
|---|---|
| Approximate | Around 1850 |
| Before | Before 1850 |
| After | After 1850 |
| Between two dates, or an event that lasts for a period | 1850 - 1855 |
Events without a title of their own are shown with the type name, for example "Believer's baptism". If an event has no linked place, the place text is shown.
The persons' dates of birth and death have no accuracy — it only exists on events. → Read more about date precision
Save and print¶
Above the report are the Save PDF and Print buttons. Both create a PDF file in the export folder's Documents\PastPaths\Reports subfolder. Reports from earlier versions remain in Documents\PastPaths\Rapporter. → More about the export folder
- Save PDF saves the file and shows a button that opens the folder.
- Print saves the file and opens it in your PDF reader — choose Print in the reader to print it.
The PDF contains the same details as the report on screen. Long lines are wrapped to fit the page.
If you've checked Show on reports and printouts under Settings, your name, email, and website are shown at the bottom of every page, for example "Compiled by Anna Andersson · anna@example.com · example.com".
Tips¶
- PDF first, paper later. Review the PDF before printing — a large family tree can run to many pages.
- Think about what you share about living relatives. The defaults in Share safely hide living persons and private events. Still read the report before you share it — text you've written yourself, for example a name in a biography or a note, isn't hidden.