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Half-siblings and step-siblings on a genogram

This page shows the Garner family, where Adam Garner has two children from his first marriage and two from his second, and his wife Megan has a son, Jonah Pruitt, from her first marriage, so the family has both half-siblings and step-siblings.

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Updated October 2026Notation follows McGoldrick, Gerson and Petry, Genograms: Assessment and Treatment (4th ed., 2020)

Genogram half-siblings in the Garner family, with Adam Garner's children Felix and Rosie joined to his divorce line with Tessa Kessler, married in 1998 and divorced in 2009, his children Freya, the focus person, and Arlo joined to his 2012 marriage line with Megan Garner, and Megan's son Jonah Pruitt joined to her divorce line with Colin Pruitt, married in 2006 and divorced in 2010
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Cite this diagram

Genogram Pro. (2026, October 20). Half-siblings and step-siblings on a genogram [Diagram]. https://genogrampro.com/guide/genogram-symbols/half-siblings

Genogram half-siblings in the Garner family, with Adam Garner's children Felix and Rosie joined to his divorce line with Tessa Kessler, married in 1998 and divorced in 2009, his children Freya, the focus person, and Arlo joined to his 2012 marriage line with Megan Garner, and Megan's son Jonah Pruitt joined to her divorce line with Colin Pruitt, married in 2006 and divorced in 2010, and a genogram key
Half-siblings from Adam Garner's two marriages and his stepson Jonah Pruitt, with the genogram key.

  1. First divorce line

    Adam and Tessa married in 1998 and divorced in 2009, and their children Felix and Rosie are joined to this line.

  2. Second marriage line

    Freya and Arlo are joined to Adam and Megan's 2012 marriage line, so they are Felix and Rosie's half-siblings through Adam.

  3. Megan's divorce line

    Megan and Colin Pruitt divorced in 2010, and their son Jonah is a half-brother to Freya and Arlo through Megan.

  4. Stepchild

    Jonah shares no parent with Felix and Rosie, so they are step-siblings joined only through Adam and Megan's marriage.

Read sibling ties from the couple and child lines

Half-siblings and step-siblings are drawn with the same couple and child lines as any other family, and each child is joined to the couple line of their own parents, so you can read which parents they share.

  • Marriage

    A solid black line for a legal marriage.

  • Divorce

    Two forward slashes, for a marriage a court has dissolved.

See every couple and child line on the symbols chart

Join each child to their own parents' line

  • Join half-siblings through the parent they share. Half-siblings share one parent, so Felix and Rosie are joined to Adam and Tessa's divorce line and Freya and Arlo to Adam and Megan's marriage line, and Adam is a partner on both lines.
  • Draw no line from a step-parent to a stepchild. Jonah is joined only to Megan and Colin's line.
  • Draw former spouses on the outer side. With Adam on Megan's left, Tessa is drawn on Adam's left and Colin on Megan's right, so their three couple lines are drawn as one continuous row.
  • Keep birth order within each family. Felix, born in 2000, is to the left of Rosie, born in 2003, and Freya, born in 2014, is to the left of Arlo, born in 2017.

The child lines section of the genogram symbols chart shows every child line, and the divorce and remarriage example shows a blended family in which both former partners remarried.

Avoid two common blended family mistakes

Link a stepchild through the marriage

Common mistake
AdamMeganColinJonah
Correct
AdamMeganColinJonah

A child line from Adam and Megan's marriage line to Jonah would mean that Adam is Jonah's father, so Jonah is linked to Adam only through Adam's marriage to Megan.

Mark the divorce on the first marriage

Common mistake
Correct

Without the two divorce slashes, Adam would be read as married to Tessa and Megan at the same time.

Questions people ask

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How do you indicate half-siblings on a genogram?

Join each half-sibling to the couple line of their own two parents, so the parent they share is a partner on both couple lines, as Adam is for Felix and Rosie and for Freya and Arlo.

How do you represent step-siblings in a genogram?

Step-siblings share no parent, so there is no line between them. Each child is joined to their own parents' couple line, and the two families are linked through the marriage between a parent of one and a parent of the other, as Jonah is linked with Felix and Rosie through Adam and Megan's marriage.

How to draw siblings in a genogram?

Draw siblings below their parents in birth order, with the oldest on the left, and join each one to the couple line with a vertical child line. When the children do not fit between their parents, a sibling line is drawn below the couple line and each child line drops from it.

How do you show a step-parent on a genogram?

Draw the step-parent as the partner of the child's parent, with a couple line between them, and draw no child line from the step-parent to the stepchild.

Do half-siblings follow one birth order across both families?

No. Birth order is kept within each couple's children, so Jonah, born in 2008, is drawn below Megan and Colin's line on the right, although he is older than Freya and Arlo.

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