Put the genealogy on the projector — Family Tree for Abraham, David, and Jesus
Add a Family Tree slide in BibleSlides — search biblical people, frame the household, and step camera focuses so the room sees who belongs to whom, not a screenshot of a study chart.
Matthew’s opening chapter, Ruth’s closing verse, the lists in Chronicles — genealogy Sundays stall on a simple question: who belongs to whom? Paper charts and Logos layouts help you on Tuesday. They rarely survive as a readable sanctuary slide.
BibleSlides Family Tree is the slide type for that teaching beat: search a biblical person, frame the household, and advance stepped focuses from the tablet so the room sees the line while you stay in the text.
A genealogy that only lives in your study notes is still private. If the congregation cannot see the parents, spouses, and children you are naming, you are asking them to trust a family line they cannot check.
How this differs from Timelines (and from Gospel Harmony)
You may already use Timelines for when — Paul, the kings, Advent order. Gospel Harmony answers which Gospel records this event. Family Tree answers kinship: parents, spouses, children, and the verse that places someone in the line.
| Need | Use |
|---|---|
| “Where are we in Paul’s journey / the kings / Advent?” | Timelines |
| “Matthew adds this line; Mark is silent here” | Gospel Harmony |
| “How does Boaz sit under Judah — and under David?” | Family Tree |
| A quick place photo or map journey | Bible photos / 3D maps |
Same family of stepped teaching tools. Different pastoral moments.
The pastor’s problem: “son of…” is not a slide
What usually happens:
- You wave at a paper genealogy — the front row sees nothing useful
- You paste a list of names into bullets — no sense of household, marriage, or generation
- You screenshot a dense chart — unreadable past the third row
None of that matches how you actually teach: “Abraham is here. Isaac. Jacob — and Judah’s line runs through Tamar to David, and Matthew will name that line again.”
What Family Tree is
In the editor, add a Family Tree slide. The modal title is Family Tree. Search a person (placeholder copy: “Search Abraham, Mary…”) or start from the default home person when you open a new slide.
The graph behind the slide is biblical kinship data from Theographic Bible Metadata (Robert Rouse, CC BY-SA 4.0) — on the order of 2,000 people, with parent and marriage links, era labels from Primeval through the early church, and scripture references that establish genealogy connections where the data supplies them.
Quick-reach names are grouped for teachers: Primeval, Patriarchs, Exodus, Judges, Kings, Prophets, Gospels, and Early church — Abraham, Ruth, David, Mary, Jesus, and many others without hunting an index.
While you write notes, hovering a recognized biblical name can also surface a household preview and insert a Family Tree slide for that person — so the tree stays inside the same sermon document as your verse slides.
Frame the household, then step it
Teaching rhythm matches verse annotations, map journeys, and Timelines:
- Choose the home person (the Home step on the minimap rail)
- Set generations above and generations below (default one each; you can widen or tighten)
- Add steps that re-focus the camera on the next person or household you will name
- Advance step chips from the tablet while you speak
Optionally use reveal in place when you want steps to layer without a separate slide per click. Home can show the wider household; later steps tighten on the person you are explaining.
You are not replacing sequential exposition of Genesis, Ruth, or Matthew 1. You are putting the kinship beat on a slide you can advance, then returning to the Bible Verse slide.
Display controls that match how you preach
The display bar stays practical:
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Zoom | Frame a tight household or pull back for more of the line |
| Above / Below | Generations above and below the selected person |
| Dates | Birth and death dates from Abraham onward (toggle On/Off) |
| Verses | Scripture references that establish each genealogy connection |
| Husband / Wife | Show or hide each side of the household |
| Spouses | Keep marriage partners as cards, or drop them for a clearer blood line |
| Marriage | Arched marriage links — spouses can stay visible when links are off |
Use those toggles while you build the slide. The sanctuary should still see a clean, stepped story — not every chip.
You can also add light canvas markup (labels, arrows, focus) the same way other stepped teaching slides do — when a spoken callout needs to land on one person.
A quiet Sunday workflow
- In sermon prep, decide whether the room needs who belongs to whom as much as the next verse
- Add a Family Tree slide → search the person (Abraham, Ruth, David, Mary, Jesus…)
- Set generations and toggles; add only the steps you will say out loud
- Keep speaker notes under the slide in the same document
- On Sunday, advance Family Tree steps from the tablet; return to Bible Verse slides for the argument of the text
If Q&A pulls you to a name that was not in the deck, live Family Tree from the tablet can open the kinship graph without rebuilding the file — then return to the prepared outline. Prefer an authored slide when the genealogy is the outline beat.
When not to use Family Tree
- The verse on screen already carries the kinship point — leave the tree closed
- You only need era order or journey dates — use Timelines
- You need parallel Gospel citations for one event — use Gospel Harmony
- You need a quick sketch, not a genealogy — use Board
BibleSlides remains a quiet servant: Scripture first, kinship when it serves the Word, then out of the way.
Related guides
See BibleSlides features
Notes and slides in one document, Bible Verse slides, stepped markup, Verse Analysis, 3D maps, BiblePlaces photos, and tablet presenter apps — built for pastors who teach Scripture.