Family trees, Genealogies and Pedigrees

Most definitions of "family tree" say it is a kind of chart, or a graphic rendering of relations. If you describe the same relations in text-form, it's called a pedigree or a genealogy. And they are two different things.

Ahnentafel or Pedigree

Ahnentafel is a German word. An "Ahnentafel" starts in the present with one person, the "proband" (at the left side or the bottom), and then shows all the ancestors, working back in time through the generations.
Another word for Ahnentafel is Pedigree; personally, I associate the word "pedigree" more with animals, but it is an official genealogical term for humans as well.

An overview of this kind can start with a person in the present time. However, the GDPR-rules about privacy make it difficult to disclose data about the first generations.
In these days we should expect to see pedigrees starting with someone who is allready dead or with someone from a century ago.

More information about Ahnentafels:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahnentafel

Genealogy

A genealogy starts with a person (or couple) in the past (the "progenitor") and then goes on to show all the descendants up till a certain time.
On this website I present several different genealogies, all with their own progenitor.

There may be connections between two or more genealogies, for instance because persons from different genealogies have married. But at the base of separate genealogies (or the roots of the family trees) there can be no connections.
As soon as two progenitors have a mutual forefather, they become separate branches on the same family tree or genealogy.

More information about Genealogies:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genealogy