How do I make a family tree of my Sims?
Sims family tree maker
Tap a Sim on the tree to name them, then add their children, partners, and parents. Mark who died and how, and who is a vampire or a spellcaster. Or load your Sims 4 save, and the family comes in with its parents, partners, and children. Copy a link to share the tree, or download a picture.
Tap a Sim to edit them. The tree saves on this device as you type.
Partners:
Children: June Marlowe, Milo Marlowe
How to make a legacy family tree
- Press Start a new tree, and give the founder a name.
- Add a partner. Partners stand side by side, joined by a dashed line. A Sim can have more than one partner, so exes and second marriages fit.
- Pick a parent, or the couple, and press Add a child. A child sits one row under their parents. Twins are two children of the same couple.
- Mark the heir in the note, like Heir, generation 2. When a Sim dies, tick Dead and write how, like Old age or Pufferfish.
- Copy a share link, or download the picture for Tumblr, Reddit, or your legacy blog.
Playing a long legacy already? Press Load a Sims 4 save instead, and pick the household. The tree reads who is whose mother, father, and partner from the save, and which Sims are vampires, spellcasters, mermaids, werewolves, aliens, or fairies. Then fix what the save does not say, like who died and who is the heir.
A Sim who marries into the family stands next to their partner in the partner's generation. Add their parents too, and the other family hangs above them.
How the family tree of The Sims 4 works
We read the game's own code to see what it remembers. Each Sim stores six family links of their own: their mother, their father, and their four grandparents. The family tree service of the game builds everything else from those links: siblings and half-siblings, uncles and cousins, step-parents and step-siblings, in-laws, adopted children, and distant relatives and ancestors.
The family tree screen can walk up to 10 generations from the Sim you open it on. In a save with a lot of family links it walks fewer, down to 5 generations once the save holds about 1,500 links. That is why the oldest founders of a long legacy can drop off the in-game tree, and why players keep their own.
The rest of a legacy is in the Sims 4 database: the odds of twins and triplets, how long each life stage lasts, every way a Sim can die, and the life states.
Ideas for your tree
- Roll the rules of each generation with the legacy challenge generator, and write the goal in the heir's note.
- Name a big family fast with the Sims 4 name generator.
- Play the Legacy Challenge by its 10-generation rules, and keep the score next to each heir.
Questions
Is the family tree maker free?
Yes. There is no sign-up and no account. The tree lives in your browser and in the link you share.
Where is my tree saved?
In the storage of this browser, on this device. A share link holds the whole tree after the # sign, which browsers never send to a server, so we never see it. Copy the link to move the tree to another device.
How do I load my Sims 4 save?
Press Load a Sims 4 save and pick a file named Slot_….save. On Windows the saves are in Documents, Electronic Arts, The Sims 4, saves; on a Mac in Documents, Electronic Arts, The Sims 4, saves too. Pick a household, and the tree fills in with up to 120 of its relatives. The save is read inside your browser and never uploaded.
How do I see the family tree inside The Sims 4?
Open the Relationships panel of a Sim and press the family tree button at the top. Click a relative to move the tree onto them.
Does it work for The Sims 2, The Sims 3, and other games?
Yes. A family is a family. The life states come from The Sims 4, and the note field holds anything else, like a generation number or a challenge rule.
How big can a tree get?
Up to 120 Sims, so the share link stays short enough for Reddit, Tumblr, and Discord.