How do I add notes to a person in Family Tree?

Article Id: 1281
April 04, 2024

The Notes tool in Family Tree allows you to record information that does not fit the standard fields on a person page. Add notes to share questions, insights, warnings, and research notes about your ancestors. Use alert notes to notify other users to read the notes before changing information in Family Tree.

Notes are public. Other users can view, edit, delete, and restore your notes.

  • An alert note can have up to 3,000 characters.
  • A regular note can have up to 10,752 characters.
  • A person can have 50 notes, with one of them being an alert note.

Tip: Brief notes are more likely to be read than long ones.

Steps (website)

  1. Beginning in Family Tree, click the ancestor's name whose record you are working on. 
  2. In the details that pop up, click the person's name again. 
  3. Click the Collaborate tab. 
  4. Add a note:
    1. At the top of the Notes box, click + Add Note.
    2. Enter the title and note.
    3. If the note contains information that you want others to read before editing or merging, click the checkbox for Alert note.
    4. Click Save. 
  5. To edit an existing note, follow these steps:
    1. Find the note that you want to edit. 
    2. Click the Edit icon . 
    3. Make your edit. 
    4. Click Save. 
  6. Delete a note:
    1. Find the note that you want to delete. 
    2. Click the Edit icon .
    3. Click Delete Note. 
    4. Enter a reason for deleting the note. 
    5. Click Delete. 
  7. Restore a note:
    1. On the Details tab, scroll down to the bottom of the Latest Changes menu, and click Show All.
    2. Find changes about the note in the list.
    3. Click Restore in the Note Added or Note Changed entry.
    4. Click Restore.

Steps (mobile app)

  1. In the Family Tree mobile app, navigate to the Person page of the person.
  2. If the Vitals and Other Information fields do not show, tap Details.
  3. Tap +.
  4. Tap Note.
  5. Enter a title for your note and also the note itself.
  6. In the upper right portion of the screen, tap Save.

Steps (Family Tree Lite)

You cannot use notes in Family Tree Lite. Use Family Tree on the full FamilySearch website instead.

What is included on the Person page in Family Tree?
In Family Tree, how do I move information from the life history to notes?
In Family Tree, how do I move information from the life history to notes?

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