The decline in fertility accompanied by increased non-marital fertility and delayed childbearing, the decrease in marriage rates and the increase in divorce rates have all contributed to dramatically changing family structures in Europe. Although previous research has studied these demographic changes extensively, we still know little about how union and fertility dynamics evolve over the individual life courses and how life courses within and between generations are linked. In collaboration with the State Institute for Family Research at the University of Bamberg (ifb), we study the causes and consequences of fertility and family dynamics in Europe from a life course perspective focusing not only on individual life courses but also on linked lives between children, parents, and grandparents.