Core workflow
Family tree
Last updated 2026-07-30T20:30:47+00:00
The tree is the heart of Racinage. It supports a horizontal canvas for relationship mapping and a vertical view for compact browsing.
Tree layouts
Use horizontal view when editing relationships and visual spacing matters. Use vertical view when browsing a branch or opening profiles from a narrow screen.
- Horizontal: best for adding spouses, external partners, parents, and children.
- Vertical: best for scanning a branch and expanding or collapsing family sections.
- Generation rail: the left-side rail marks generation positions in horizontal view and can be hidden from Manage > Settings.
- Reset view: returns the horizontal tree to the centered home position.
Admins can also set the default tree view and horizontal zoom from Manage > Settings > Interface Appearance. A user's saved local layout choice still takes priority on that device.
Adding people
Turn on edit mode, hover over a person or couple, and use the add controls. Racinage supports creating a new person or attaching an existing person who is not already in the selected tree.
To work across every family account where you are an owner or approved collaborator, open the tree selector and choose Manage Persons. The directory shows each person once, including people not yet assigned to a tree, with family and tree filters, search, Grid and List views, optional grouping by family account or first letter, and progressive loading as you scroll. Cards show the available year range and age at a glance. Selecting a card opens the same read-only person details used by the tree.
A small calendar icon marks living people whose birthday is today or tomorrow. It appears in the directory and in both Horizontal and Vertical tree views.
This creates the first root of a new tree.
Use parents for ancestry and spouse for the main couple relationship.
Children appear below the parent or couple branch.
Spouses and external partners
A spouse is the current couple relationship in the main branch. An external partner represents another partner of one person in that couple. External partners and their children are placed beside the related person so sibling branches stay readable.
Profile actions
Click a person profile image or card to open the profile modal. Editors can replace, update, hide, mark dead or alive, and remove people according to their permissions.
Each person also has a private gallery for additional photos and videos. The profile modal shows a compact preview below the person details. Select View all to open the complete collection above the profile, then select any item to browse it in the lightbox with Previous and Next controls. Editors can add or remove media, while viewers can only browse it.
- Hide: keeps the person in the structure but hides the visible details in the tree.
- Show: restores hidden details without rebuilding the whole tree.
- Mark Dead or Mark Alive: toggles the deceased marker and updates the deceased statistic.
- Remove: can remove only the person or remove their relationships, depending on the branch.
The persons directory can also edit or permanently delete a full person record. Before deletion, Racinage shows linked-tree and record impact, requires the exact name, rechecks all family permissions, removes tree links, repairs affected tree roots, and preserves the person name on supported event, project, and history references.
Large tree performance
Non-structural actions such as hide, show, mark dead, and mark alive update the visible cards in place. Structural actions such as adding a child or removing a relationship still refresh the tree because the branch shape changes.