Genogram Examples
Genograms come in various sizes and shapes, depending on their purpose. Below you will find examples of various genograms that illustrate a number
of family situations that family trees may not be able to portray.
The first example is of Tiger Woods, considered to be one of the best golf players ever. Tiger was the child of Earl
Woods
and Kutilda Punsawad, from Earl Woods' second marriage. Earl Woods took special interest in his son, and was his first golf coach. Earl had
himself been coached by his father, only in baseball. Earl and Tiger had a unique father-son bond, and Earl was Tiger's greatest inspiration in
life.
This second example is the genogram of Albert Einstein's family. This genogram tried to answer the question, where exactly did
Einstein's genius come from? Well, this genogram does not reveal anyone of particular genius in the rest of his family, which may rule out the
genetic factor. An interesting factor is that one of his sons had schizophrenia, a mental disorder. Also, Einstein still has at least five
surviving descendants.
This next example features a well-known television show host, Rosie O'Donnell, who is in a committed same-sex relationship with
Kelli Carpenter. She has adopted children, prior to her relationship, and her partner has given birth to a child who was conceived with
the help of an anonymous sperm donor during the term of this current relationship. Together with these children, and a dog names Zoe, they create
a household. Rosie also had a foster child named Mia, but she was taken away from her in 2001, so she no longer lives with her.
The genogram also demonstrates that Rosie had a fused relationship with her mother until she passed away at the age of 38 from breast cancer.
After that, Rosie grew estranged from her father who was not emotionally available for his children. Interestingly, her brother is also in a
committed long-term same-sex relationship.
This last example is a fictional breast cancer study involving six families. In this study, a three-generational genogram was
created for the family of six women born in the early 1900s, and diagnosed with breast cancer before the age of 50. With these genograms, we can
easily see the incidence of breast cancer and ovarian cancer in the descendants because of the medical symbols
provided. Researchers can add important details, such as the age of diagnosis, the age at death, the type of cancer, the location of the cancer
(left, right, bilateral), etc., and display them on the genogram to facilitate interpretation of the data.
Next: View Genogram Symbols
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