Best of the Best: The Biggest and Most Famous Family Trees

It’s impossible to count the exact number of family trees that have been assembled over the years. From popular public figures and celebrities to individuals, people have been creating family visualizations to help them trace back the family lineage to past generations. In this article, we will share the largest, oldest, and most famous family trees of all time.

The Largest Family Trees

According to the Guinness World Record Book, the largest family tree ever assembled belongs to a famous Chinese philosopher and politician Confucius. One of the very first tree editions published in 1837 covered 80 generations and contained over 600,000 descendants. The tree currently contains more than 2 million names. It is now known that the descendants of Confucius live all over the globe, most of them reside in China and Taiwan. 

The Oldest Family Trees

While the Confucius family tree carries the title of the biggest one, the Lurie family is known as the oldest one in the world. Its history traces back to 1037 BC. According to the records, the family lineage starts from the 3rd king of the United Monarchy of Israel and Judah called King David. The information about King David is mainly described in the Hebrew Bible, and largely confirmed by archeological discoveries. 

The Most Popular Family Trees

Some events in our lives make people want to search for more details on their favorite movie characters or public figures. For example, when the Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban movie was released, everyone wanted to know more about Harry’s godfather Sirius Black and his family history. Here is a family tree of the house of Black hand-drawn by J. K. Rowling.

You might have seen the tree before in the ancestral home of the Black family in the movie. You may also remember that several members of this family were removed from the tree by Walburga Black, the mother of Sirius. According to her beliefs, Sirius was also no longer honored to be a member of this family when he decided to run away. 

Another event that makes people want to find out more about someone’s family past is the US Presidential Election. We’ve already compared the family trees of the two previous US presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump. This year we’ve also decided to help you learn more about the recently elected President and the VP of the US Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. If you are interested in the past of the previous US Presidents, you can also check out the article on the Kennedy family tree.

With the recent release of the Crown series 4th season, the royal family tree has become extremely popular, especially the one that covered the family history of Princess Diana. Diana, Princess of Wales belongs to the Spencer aristocratic family that was founded by Sir John Spencer in the 15th century. 

Diana was born on July 1st, 1961 to Edward John Spencer and Frances Ruth Spencer (née Roche) and was the 4th child in a family. In 1981, Diana became officially engaged to Charles, Prince of Wales. The couple got married the same year on July 29th. Together they had two sons, Prince William and Prince Harry. Diana and Charles got divorced after 15 years of marriage in 1996. A year later, Diana died in a car crash in Paris. She still remains one of the most popular members of the British royal family. 

Stay tuned with Treemily and be the first to know interesting facts about the most popular family trees. Try our family tree maker online to create your own visualizations and trace back your family’s past.