Tangled Tree
A horizontal directed-acyclic-graph visualization of the Stadum family — where children can have two parents from different branches, producing the interwoven structure that gives these trees their name. Follow the curved paths from Johannes Stadum to Dean Lloyd across six generations.
Family Structure — Petter Hanson Stadum to Dean
Generations flow left to right. Circles with dashed borders are married-in members. Hover any node for details. Click a node to open that person's profile.
About Tangled Trees
Most family tree software forces a strict hierarchy — each person has exactly one parent node. That works for a single lineage, but real families are more complex.
A tangled tree (sometimes called a reticulate genealogy or DAG family chart) allows any person to connect to two parent nodes — one for each biological or adoptive parent from different lineages. When those parents come from different branches of the tree, the edges literally cross and tangle, producing the web-like structure you see here.
This view was inspired by Nitaku's Observable notebook ↗, which in turn draws on work by David Hillis and colleagues studying phylogenetics. The same technique used to visualize horizontal gene transfer in bacteria applies surprisingly well to family genealogy.
What to look for
- The tangling edges between generations 2–3 and 3–4 show where spouses from outside the main Stadum line joined the family.
- Nodes with dashed circles have no parents in this dataset — they are entry points from other family trees.
- The vertical spread within each generation column reflects how many people are present in that generation.
- Dean William Lloyd (generation 8) is the current youngest leaf — the tree will grow when new family members are added.
- Click any node to open that person's profile page. Gray nodes with dashed borders are married-in members without a dedicated profile.