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How to make a family medical history

CDC and the Surgeon General's form both start with a list of relatives and conversations about their health. This page walks through the steps, including the form's own conventions.

Arun Verma, co-founder of Triangle · 2026-10-17

This is not clinical evidence and not medical advice. It does not replace your care team. Discuss anything here with your clinician before you act on it.

How do I make a family medical history?

CDC's how-to starts with three things: write down your close blood relatives from both sides of the family, talk to them about what conditions they have or had and at what age those started, and record what you learn and update it whenever you learn more. CDC suggests family gatherings as a time to talk about health history, and its pages still point to the Surgeon General's web-based My Family Health Portrait for keeping track of the information. An older handout from the same initiative has a printable chart.

Which relatives should I include?

An older Surgeon General's handout, still hosted by NHGRI, sorts the relatives to talk to into three tiers: "Most Important," "Also Important" and "Also Helpful." It lists parents, brothers and sisters, and your children as "Most Important." Grandparents, uncles and aunts, nieces and nephews, and half-brothers and half-sisters are "Also Important," and cousins and great uncles and great aunts are "Also Helpful." CDC says to write down close blood relatives from both sides of the family. MedlinePlus Genetics describes a complete record as covering three generations. The handout also has a way to mark half-siblings, with "half-brother" or "half-sister" plus "same father" or "same mother," and twins are marked "twin" or "identical twin."

What do I write down about each relative?

CDC's list for each relative includes major medical conditions and age at diagnosis, plus cause of death, age at death and ethnic background. An approximate age is still useful when a relative can't recall the exact one. The Surgeon General's form (an older handout) also asks for formal names of conditions where possible and, if you know it, the country or ancestry your relatives come from. It further says to list medicines your relatives may be taking. On the chart, the condition goes under the relative's name with the age at diagnosis, if you know it, and a relative who has died is marked "deceased" with the age at death.

How do I ask relatives about their health?

CDC's sample questions ask which diseases and health conditions a relative has, how old they were when each was diagnosed, and, for relatives who have died, the cause and age of death. They also ask about the family's ancestry. MedlinePlus's encyclopedia notes you may need to explain why you are gathering the information and how it will help you and others in your family. It also suggests offering to share what you find with relatives. CDC cautions that the conversation might not be easy, since some relatives may not feel comfortable talking about their diseases or may not want to talk. It adds that you might think you know about all of the conditions in your parents or siblings but might find out more if you ask. CDC says you may know a lot about your family health history or only a little.

Is there a government form or tool for writing it down?

Yes. The Surgeon General's My Family Health Portrait is a government form and web tool, and CDC's pages point to it for keeping track of the information. One caution: a CDC page at what looks to be the tool's old address now reads "PHGKB Application Offline." CDC's Public Health Genomics and Precision Health Knowledge Base was "discontinued effective August 1, 2024," and "as of April 13, 2026, the site is no longer available." NHGRI's page, last updated January 5, 2023, says the website builds a drawing of your family tree and a chart of your family health history, and both can be printed and shared with family members and your doctor. The Surgeon General's handout has a printable chart with boxes for relatives' names, where you circle M or F. Its own instructions say: "No form can reflect every version of the American family, so use this chart as a starting point and adapt it to your needs." That handout is an older one.

How do I keep it up to date?

CDC says to update the record whenever you learn new family health history information. The older Surgeon General's form says to make a copy for your records and to update it as circumstances change or you learn more about your family's health. MedlinePlus Genetics says it is important to keep the information up to date and to share it with a healthcare professional regularly.

How do I share it with my doctor?

CDC says to collect the information before a visit to your healthcare provider and take it with you, and to share what you do know even if you don't know it all. The older Surgeon General's form says the completed form goes to your health care professional, who can use the information to better individualize your healthcare. A fair question for the visit is whether the practice would rather receive a copy or note the details during the appointment.

What does a family medical history show?

It shows which conditions your relatives have had, and CDC calls it a record of the diseases and health conditions in your family. MedlinePlus Genetics adds that having relatives with a condition does not mean a person will definitely develop it. A fair question for your clinician is what any pattern in your family's history means for you.

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