There is a particular feeling you get, deep in a family tree, when you find someone far up — a name from the 1600s, a face you've never seen, a person who lived and died centuries before you were born — and you think: wait, how am I actually related to them? You can see they're "up there" somewhere, but the path between them and you dissolves into a thicket of branches.
The Lineage Certificate exists for exactly that moment. Pick any person in your tree, and Dynasty House traces the single unbroken line of descent between them and you — generation by generation — and lays it out on a certificate you can print, frame, or text to a cousin.
What it actually shows
A certificate names the relationship in plain words — "This certifies that Johann Eckhard Menn (1689–1735) is the 6× great-grandfather of [you], across eight generations of one unbroken line" — and then draws every step of that line, each person with their dates and their relationship to you, joined by the link between them: father of → daughter of → mother of → … ending in You.
It isn't only for direct ancestors. Because it follows the real blood path — up to a common ancestor and back down — it works for an aunt five times removed, a third cousin, anyone you share a bloodline with. The certificate simply shows the shortest true path between the two of you.
Why it matters more than it sounds
Genealogy is full of data — thousands of names, a web of lines — but data isn't the same as belonging. A lineage certificate turns an abstract tree into a personal sentence: this is the chain of people who had to meet, marry and carry on, in exactly this order, for you to exist. Hold it in your hands and the distance between you and a great-great-grandmother collapses into nine names on a page.
It's also the most natural thing in the world to share. Send a cousin the certificate from your common ancestor and you've just shown them — at a glance, no explanation needed — exactly how the two of you connect. Print one for a grandparent and you've given them their place in a line that runs centuries deep.
How to make one
- Mark yourself on the tree — open your tree, select your card, and choose "Set as me." (This is who the certificate traces to.)
- Find any ancestor and tap them, then choose "How are we related?" A strip appears showing the line between you.
- Tap "📜 Certificate." The full chain opens as a printable certificate — complete with your family crest — and a Print / Save as PDF button.
That's it. No fees, no unlock — if the people and dates are in your tree, the line is yours to print.
A note on deep lines
Some trees carry a documented "gateway" line that reaches surprisingly far back — to medieval nobility, or even a Viking. If your tree does, the certificate will happily trace it: forty generations is just as valid a line as four. And if no blood path exists — say you're connected only by marriage — the certificate tells you so kindly, rather than inventing a link. It only ever draws what's truly there.
The bigger idea
Everything at Dynasty House comes back to one belief: a family tree should make you feel something, not just store something. The Lineage Certificate is that belief on a single page — proof, in your own hand, that you are the latest in a long, unbroken line, and that the people who came before are not strangers in a database but the reason you're here. Build your tree, mark yourself in it, and print your line — free.