In Math and Physics time flows from left to right. But not on your trees

TheRealMeMyselfAndI

Hi,

Anyone taking a basic math course knows a number line goes from left to right. So when drawing a tree earlier dates should be on the left. But your trees go the opposite direction. I don't see an option to flip the tree to the correct and more logical direction. I find it very confusing having newer people on the left.

Julia Szent-Györgyi

??

It is completely standard in genealogy to start a landscape-oriented pedigree chart on the left with oneself and then proceed to the right with each successive generation. This is how MyHeritage and Ancestry do it (called the Pedigree View on both sites), it is WikiTree's default for the "Family Tree and Tools" tab, and 23andMe displays user-entered family tree data in this format. In fact, I have never seen it the other way around. (The closest you can get to a right-to-left pedigree is in a bow-tie chart.)

I'm curious now: have you ever encountered a pedigree chart going the other way?

Paul W

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_tree.

If I am recording my family tree it does seem logical to have me on the left (as the "subject" of the tree) and record my antecedents, generation by generation, to the right. For some reason, the convention is to have yourself at the bottom of the chart, if it goes from top to bottom of the page. Perhaps that can appear illogical, but I find the left-to-right format perfectly sensible.

Caleb L

I'm not gunna lie, I have never made that connection... Maybe that explains why they made me take Math 1050 multiple times in college. 😀 I have made a note to pass the feedback along.

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