The AncestorChapters item generates narrative chapters for the ancestors of a selected person. Starting from that person, Pedigree Forge works backwards through the tree, creating a chapter for each ancestral couple it finds. Facts are woven into flowing narrative text with source citations as footnotes.
To edit an AncestorChapters item, double-click it in the Reports tree (or select it and click Edit… below the tree). A dialog appears showing the current starting person and the chapter ordering mode.
The starting person determines which ancestral tree to follow. Click Change… to select a different person. Typically this is the subject of the book or the earliest known descendant of the family being documented.
The ordering mode controls the sequence in which ancestral chapters appear in the report. There are three options:
The default. Works backwards through the father’s line as far as possible, then the mother’s line, recursively. This produces a natural reading order that keeps each paternal line together — you read about one family all the way back before moving on to the next.
Visits ancestors one generation at a time: all parents first, then all grandparents, then all great-grandparents, and so on. This matches the ahnentafel numbering system used in many genealogical references.
Works the same way as "Follow father’s line first", but with one improvement: when the same couple appears as ancestors on both sides of the tree (a cousin marriage or other pedigree collapse), their sons’ chapters are grouped together immediately before the shared parents’ chapter.
For example, if two brothers are both ancestors of the starting person (because their children married each other), the default ordering might place them far apart in the book, separated by several generations of intervening ancestors. The smart ordering pulls the second brother’s chapter forward so it appears right after the first, just before the chapter for their shared parents. This gives the reader natural context — "here are the two brothers, and here are the parents they shared" — before continuing deeper into the tree.
This adjustment only fires when it can be done safely, without disrupting the rest of the chapter sequence. If it cannot group siblings without breaking the flow, it leaves the order as-is.