How to make a family tree: steps, sources in Spain and how to bring it to life

A family tree starts with a simple question: where do we come from? The answer is spread across the memories of the older generation, the papers the family keeps and the civil and parish archives. This guide explains how to make a family tree step by step, where to search in Spain and how to bring it to life with photos, voices and stories.

You need no experience. This is genealogy for beginners: paper and pencil, or a free program, and a little patience.

Step 1: start with yourself

A family tree is built backwards, from the known to the unknown. First write down your own details: full name, date and place of birth. Then your parents', with the date and place of birth, of marriage and, where relevant, of death. Then those of your four grandparents and your eight great-grandparents.

With three or four generations you already have a good skeleton. If you prefer a general guide with all the steps, read creating a family tree step by step.

Step 2: ask the older generation

What your parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts remember is in no archive. That knowledge disappears with them; the records stay.

• Ask for full names, with both surnames.
• Ask about villages and parishes, not only provinces.
• Ask for approximate dates: "before the war", "when your father was born".
• Bring out the old photos and ask who is in each one.

Record the conversation with your phone. Our free sheet of twenty questions to ask your parents can be printed and taken along on the visit. To prepare a longer interview, see the oral history interview: questions and how to record it.

Step 3: look for the libro de familia and the memorial cards

Many families keep documents in a drawer or a shoebox that save weeks of searching:

• The libro de familia (family book): it records the marriage and the births of the children, with dates and places. It is the most reliable starting point for the recent generations.
• The recordatorios (memorial cards): for a death, a first communion or a wedding. They give names, dates and often the parish.
• Letters, deeds, military service booklets and photos with something written on the back.

Step 4: always note the source

Next to every fact, write where it comes from: "grandparents' libro de familia", "baptism record, parish of San Pedro, book 12, folio 34", "told by aunt Carmen in 2026". That way you, or whoever continues the tree, can check it later. A fact without a source is a rumour.

Step 5: make use of the two surnames

In Spain every person carries two surnames. Traditionally the first surname (primer apellido) is the father's first surname and the second surname (segundo apellido) is the mother's first surname. Today parents can agree on a different order, but in older documents this is the usual pattern. Women also keep their own surnames all their lives, including after the wedding.

For research this is a great advantage:

• Every full name already gives you a lead to two families: the father's and the mother's.
• Women appear in the records under their own surnames, so you do not lose their trail.

Where to search in Spain

When family memory runs out, the archives begin. These are the main sources:

• Registro Civil (since 1 January 1871): births, marriages and deaths. Certificates are free: you request them through the online portal (sede electrónica) of the Ministry of Justice, by post or in person. Be wary of websites that charge for them. By default you receive an extract (extracto); for the full entry, ask for the certificación literal.
• Parish registers (before 1871): baptisms, marriages and burials, compulsory since the Council of Trent. They are kept in the parishes and in diocesan archives; the Guía de los Archivos de la Iglesia en España helps you find the right archive.
• PARES (Portal de Archivos Españoles): from the Ministry of Culture, free and without an account. It includes, among other things, Movimientos Migratorios Iberoamericanos and the Catastro de Ensenada.
• FamilySearch: a large collection of Spanish parish and diocesan records, free with an account.

You will find more archives and tips in our guide starting a family tree in Spain: where to find the records.

If your family comes from Latin America

Each country has its own civil registry, with different starting dates, and before it come the parish registers, as in Spain. FamilySearch also has large collections for Latin American countries, free with an account. The two surnames are used in many Spanish-speaking countries, so the advantage of step 5 applies there too.

Keep the tree in an open format

To make it last and to share it, move it into a program or an app that reads and writes GEDCOM, the exchange format for family trees. To make a family tree for free there are good options, such as Gramps (with a Spanish interface), Ancestris or MyHeritage Family Tree Builder.

Already have a GEDCOM file? With our free GEDCOM viewer you see in the browser how many generations it contains and where the gaps are, without an account; the file never leaves your device. And with our printable ancestor chart you get a sheet of four or five generations, on paper, as PDF or as SVG.

Bringing your family tree to life

A tree with names and dates answers the question of who. It does not say what they were like. For a family tree your grandchildren will want to open, add this:

• Photos with a name and a year. Digitise the old photos and write under each one who is in it and in which year, even if approximate.
• The voices of the older generation. Record your parents and grandparents telling something in front of a photo. Their accent, their laugh, their way of speaking: no record captures that.
• Stories. Write down what is told at the table, even if it is only half true, and note who you heard it from.
• Sharing. Show the tree to the family while you build it. Whoever looks at it recognises faces, corrects dates and adds what they know.

How The Memory Palace helps

The Memory Palace is a private 3D palace you walk through, with a hall, wings and rooms: on iPhone, iPad, Android and in the browser, in English and four other languages, with the data stored in the EU. It is a family tree app that also keeps what brings the tree to life.

• The tree, in and out. Build it in the app or import your GEDCOM file, and export it again as GEDCOM whenever you like.
• Three views. A tree view, a fan chart and a descendants view, with a photo per person.
• A wing per branch of the family and a room per person, couple or period, as you decide. The photos hang on the walls, with a name and a year under each frame.
• The voice next to the photo. Record in your own voice who it was, or add a recording you already have.
• Sharing with the family. Share the tree with a link, or invite relatives into a room or a wing so they can add their own photos, stories and recordings. Everything else stays private.
• All yours. A full export as a ZIP file, at any time, also on the free plan.

Want to see it first? Walk through an example palace, without an account.

Related guides

• Tracing your family history: a beginner's guide to genealogy
• Gaps in your family tree: where to search next
• How to preserve your family history and pass it on