Tree of Life
A radial phylogenetic-style tree showing how the Stadum family dispersed geographically across six generations — from Norwegian roots to North Dakota homesteading, then outward to Minnesota, Ohio, and California. Colors encode where each family member lives today.
Geographic Spread — Norway to California
The tree radiates outward from the family's Norwegian origin. Leaf positions follow the family hierarchy; colors show where each person lives. Hover any node for details.
About Radial Family Trees
The "tree of life" is a concept borrowed from evolutionary biology, where a radial dendrogram shows how species diverged from common ancestors over time. Applied to genealogy, each branch represents a generation, and the leaves at the outer ring are living family members.
This layout is particularly effective for showing geographic dispersal: as branches radiate outward they also spread physically — the Stadum family moved from Norway to North Dakota, then scattered across the Midwest and to California. Colors make that pattern immediately visible without a map.
The radial format was popularized for public genealogy by the fan chart — a half or full circle showing ancestors radiating back in time. Here the direction is reversed: time flows outward, with the Norwegian origin at the center and living descendants at the edge.
Geographic patterns to notice
- The North Dakota branch (Palmer) is the sole ND representative — Rugby, ND was the family homestead after emigration from Norway.
- Minnesota dominates generation 3 and beyond — Rodney settled in Faribault, and most of his descendants stayed in the state.
- Beverly's Ohio branch is the most geographically isolated — Cambridge, OH sits alone in the blue-coded arc.
- Scott's California leaf (Alameda, CA) is the farthest west the family has spread — an orange outlier in the green-dominated outer ring.