Family Tree¶

Track family relationships with parent/child relations. This example shows how to set up biographical notes with automatic bidirectional linking.

Goal¶

Create a family tree where:

Each person note links to their parents
Children are automatically shown (via implied relations)
Display birth year and gender as badges

Configuration¶

Relations¶

Relation: parent

Setting	Value
Name	`parent`
Visual direction	Ascending
Aliases	Property: `parent`
Implied	`child` (reverse)

Relation: child

Setting	Value
Name	`child`
Visual direction	Descending
Aliases	Property: `child`
Implied	`parent` (reverse)

Groups¶

Group: "Parents"

Setting	Value
Name	Parents
Members	`parent`, depth 0
Display properties	`birth`, `gender`

Group: "Children"

Setting	Value
Name	Children
Members	`child`, depth 0
Display properties	`birth`, `gender`

Sample Notes¶

Alice Smith.md¶

---
type: person
birth: 1960
gender: F
parent:
  - "[[Robert Smith]]"
  - "[[Mary Johnson]]"
---

# Alice Smith

Alice is a software engineer.

## Biography

Born in 1960 to Robert Smith and Mary Johnson.

Bob Wilson.md¶

---
type: person
birth: 1958
gender: M
parent:
  - "[[James Wilson]]"
  - "[[Susan Brown]]"
---

# Bob Wilson

Bob is a teacher.

Carol Smith.md¶

---
type: person
birth: 1985
gender: F
parent:
  - "[[Alice Smith]]"
  - "[[Bob Wilson]]"
---

# Carol Smith

Carol is a doctor.

## Family

Daughter of Alice Smith and Bob Wilson.

How It Works¶

From Carol's Perspective¶

When viewing Carol Smith, the Trail pane shows:

▼ Parents
  parent  Alice Smith      [1960] [F]
    parent  Robert Smith   [1935] [M]
    parent  Mary Johnson   [1938] [F]
  parent  Bob Wilson       [1958] [M]
    parent  James Wilson   [1930] [M]
    parent  Susan Brown    [1932] [F]

▼ Children
  (no children yet)

Carol sees her full ancestry—parents, grandparents, and so on.

From Alice's Perspective¶

When viewing Alice Smith:

▼ Parents
  parent  Robert Smith     [1935] [M]
  parent  Mary Johnson     [1938] [F]

▼ Children
  child  Carol Smith       [1985] [F]

Alice sees her parents above and Carol as her child below. The child relation is implied—you never added it to Alice's note, but Trail inferred it from Carol's parent link.

Adding Spouse Relations¶

Extend the family tree with spouse relationships:

Additional Relation¶

Relation: spouse

Setting	Value
Name	`spouse`
Visual direction	Sequential
Aliases	Property: `spouse`
Implied	`spouse` (reverse)

Additional Group¶

Group: "Spouse"

Setting	Value
Name	Spouse
Members	`spouse`, depth 1
Display properties	`birth`, `gender`

Updated Note¶

---
type: person
birth: 1960
gender: F
spouse: "[[Bob Wilson]]"
parent:
  - "[[Robert Smith]]"
  - "[[Mary Johnson]]"
---

# Alice Smith

Now Alice shows Bob as spouse, and Bob shows Alice (implied reverse).

Filtering by Gender¶

Show different views for different people:

"Brothers & Sisters" Group¶

Setting	Value
Name	Siblings
Members	`sibling`, depth 1
Filters	(none)

Alternative: Separate Groups by Gender¶

Group: "Brothers"

Setting	Value
Filters	`gender` equals `M`

Group: "Sisters"

Setting	Value
Filters	`gender` equals `F`

Tips¶

Consistency¶

Use consistent property values:

Property	Consistent Values
`gender`	`M`, `F` (not "Male", "female", etc.)
`birth`	YYYY format (1960, not "1960" or "Jan 1960")

Orphan Detection¶

Notes without parent relations are "orphans" in your tree. Use a filter group to find them:

Group: "Unconnected"

Setting	Value
Filters	`parent` not exists

Large Trees¶

For large family trees, consider:

Limiting depth (e.g., depth 2 for grandparents only)
Using show conditions to only show family groups on person notes
Splitting into separate groups for maternal/paternal lines

Complete Configuration¶

Copy this to get started quickly:

Relations:

parent (ascending) → implied: child (reverse)
child (descending) → implied: parent (reverse)
spouse (sequential) → implied: spouse (reverse)

Groups:

Parents: parent depth 0, display: birth, gender
Children: child depth 0, display: birth, gender
Spouse: spouse depth 1, display: birth, gender