Create a Family Tree
Try these activities to start documenting your family tree branches on FamilySearch.
What is the tree?
It’s a growing collection of family genealogies. People from all over the world have added their branches over many years.
First steps
Starting with your parents, add living and deceased relatives as far back as you can. A quick phone call or text to an older relative might help you fill in some gaps.
Tip: Don’t worry about adding living individuals as you make your way back to the deceased. All information about living people is kept private.
Adding people to the Tree
Select the (+) button to add a person to the tree.
Add the person’s name as well as dates and places of birth or death. Whatever you know or can find out. Then choose next.
Connect to the community Family Tree
As you add names to the tree we’ll look for matches. So, if your deceased grandmother is already in the tree, we’ll find her and make the connection. Finding matches is common—the community Family Tree is made up of contributions from researchers from all over the world, made over many years.
Watch for record hints
In addition to looking for likely ancestor matches in family tree, we’ll also search our collection of historical records for any deceased ancestors you add. When it finds a match, we’ll show you a “hint.” You can recognize a hint by the blue icon that shows up.
Follow the link to go to Family Tree and get started. Click the (?) icon at the top of the page if you have questions or want to learn more about how it works.
Tip: Review hints to see if they are a match. If so, it is a great way to add new branches to the family tree.