Legacy - Colour coding ancestor lines

From the Family Tree Forum Reference Library

As your tree grows, it is possible to colour the ancestor lines, so you know which branch of the tree you are looking at.

All the ancestors of one grandparent will be organized under the same colour. The standard colours are:


  • Grandfather's lineage on your father's side: BLUE.
  • Grandmother's lineage on your father's side: GREEN.
  • Grandfather's lineage on your mother's side: RED.
  • Grandmother's lineage on your mother's side: YELLOW.


To set these colours in Legacy:


  • Navigate to the starting person in your family file (this is usually yourself).
  • Click on Tools, then choose "Apply Ancestor Colours".
  • Click "Apply Colour Coding". Legacy runs through all your direct-line ancestors and marks them for the correct colour code.
  • A small coloured oblong then appears above the person’s name; you will see it continuing as you move back through the tree.



If it does not appear, or if you don’t like the colour and want to change it:


  • Click on Options, then customise, then click on the View tab.
  • Make sure there is a tick in the box next to Display custom generation line colours on screen.
  • There is a small box to the right of this which says Change. Clicking on this lets you choose the colours you want to use. This is useful because you can mark your spouses ancestors in the same way, but choose a different set of colours.
  • If you want to remove it, go to the starting person. Choose options, customise, View tab. Take the tick out of the Display custom generation line colours on screen. Box and click on save at the bottom.



Back to Legacy