Why some branches fold back

In an ideal family chart, every line flows in one direction and no connector ever needs to cross another. In practice, many families contain relationships that make this impossible: cousins who married, people who appear in multiple lineages, or complex multi-generational connections.

When TreeLine encounters these situations, it uses a technique called a foldback: a branch is placed on the opposite side of where it would naturally appear, with a connector that doubles back. This avoids the alternative — a tangle of crossing lines that would be much harder to read.

Foldbacks are marked subtly in the chart. If you see one and want to understand which relationship caused it, look for the connector that returns against the direction of time.