When you create an account for FamilySearch, you need to enter an email address. We strongly recommend that you enter an email address that you do not share with others. Using one email to create multiple accounts—though convenient at first—has proven to be problematic. It is likely that these common issues will come up later on:
- Some features of FamilySearch will not work unless your email address is unique.
- The process of recovering a forgotten username causes confusion since the recovery email, from either FamilySearch or churchofjesuschrist.org, sends all possible usernames and the correct one must be remembered to successfully sign in.
- Sending or receiving messages within the FamilySearch messaging system can get confusing unless the individual sender or the intended recipient is specified within the message itself since there is only one available email address to contact the different account holders.
- Attempts to register a child between 8 and 12 can result in an error message, stating that the email address is already in use by a different account. This halts the registration process.
If you do not have your own email address, you can easily set one up for free with services such as Hotmail, Live Mail, Gmail, Yahoo, and others. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints does not recommend one provider over another. You can easily search the web for the best free email services to find out which one is best for you and to get instructions for how to set one up.
Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints do not have to provide an email address, though we recommend that you do. For members, we also recommend using an email address that you do not share with others.
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