Change starting person in Family Tree • FamilySearch

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Before you start

When you create a FamilySearch Account, you become the account holder by default and you must be the starting person.

You enter your name and appropriate vital information as the starting person in Family Tree in your FamilySearch Account settings. Scroll to Family Tree Preferences.
You are assigned a unique seven-digit Person ID.
You appear in the starting (or root) position when you open Family Tree.
Your name and Person ID appear as the first person in the FamilySearch Recents list.
You cannot change the record of the living starting person (yourself as the account holder) to deceased.
You cannot delete yourself as the living starting person.

You can select someone other than yourself to appear as the starting person in Family Tree. You can later change the starting person back to yourself.
When you set another person as the starting person in your Family Tree, this person appears as the second person in the FamilySearch Recents list. You always appear as the first person in the Recents list.

Sign in to FamilySearch.
In the top-right corner, click your name.
Click Settings.
Click the Account tab.
Scroll to Family Tree Preferences and click the Edit icon. .
To make yourself the Starting Person, click the circle next to your name.
To make someone else the alternative Starting Person, click the circle next to the blank box and enter their Person ID.
Click Save.

You can only change the starting person in Settings in Family Tree on the FamilySearch.org website. You cannot change the starting person in other situations, such as these:
- From the FamilySearch mobile apps
- In Family Tree Lite
- When using discovery center experiences
- From relationship links
When you sign out and back in with the same browser, you see the last page that you were on in FamilySearch. You do not see the starting person option.
If you open Family Tree in a different browser, you begin at the starting person.
The starting person determines who the default "person of focus" is in the First Ancestor view.

You receive an error when you add a death date to a relative. The person shows as the first person listed in the Recents list.
You changed the name and vital information on your own Person ID to that of another person. Now the name and vital information do not match you as the account owner.
The View My Relationship feature appears not to work correctly.

Click on Recents and write down the ID number at the top of the list. You were assigned this ID number when you created your FamilySearch account as the owner.
Write down the ID numbers of living relatives in Family Tree who are connected to the person: parents, siblings, spouses, and children.
Make a diagram of how things should appear after you fix the starting person problem.

Disconnect the “Root Person” from being the child in the family or the spouse in the marriage. Work from the spouse's Person page to keep him or her connected to the children.
To represent yourself as the starting person, change the name and vital information of your assigned ID number.
As needed, create a record for a deceased person who shows as the starting person. Add the person as a child to the correct parents in Family Tree.
Verify or update all relationships per the diagram you made.
Move Memories and Sources to the correct Tree profile.
If you created another record for yourself, merge it with the starting record.

If you need help, please contact FamilySearch Support.

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