Getting started: build your family genealogical tree

A step-by-step guide to creating and filling in a family genealogical tree online — from registration to albums, calendars, and family chat

This page is a practical guide for anyone who wants to build a genealogical tree for free in the browser. Seven steps show how to start your ancestry chart, fill in relative profiles, and manage a family database without installing separate software.

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Registration and Creating Your Tree

When you register, you also add yourself as the first member of your family tree. There is no separate step for adding yourself — it happens during signup.

  • Create an account with your email and password
  • Enter your name, photo, and basic personal details in the registration wizard
  • Confirm your email to activate the account
  • You become the tree creator and the first person in your family tree
Registration

Sign up and become the first member of your tree

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Adding Relatives and Inviting Family

After registration, add parents, spouses, children, and other relatives — then invite living family members to work on the tree together.

  • Add mother, father, spouses, children, and extended family step by step
  • Send email invitations to relatives who are alive today
  • The tree creator decides access rights: view-only or full editing
  • Invited relatives join the tree after accepting and can help expand it
Relatives & Invites

Add family members and invite them by email

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Exploring Your Family Tree

View your genealogy in a modern, easy-to-read layout and move between branches of the family with a click.

  • Browse the tree in interactive visualization modes
  • Open each person's profile directly from the tree
  • Click a person's icon to switch to their personal tree view
  • See generations and family connections at a glance
Tree View

Explore the tree and open personal branches

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Enriching Person Profiles

Add rich information about every relative and track profile completeness with a built-in progress scale.

  • Record birth and death dates, marriages, and places
  • Add education, work history, biography, and full contact details
  • Upload photos, documents, and personal notes
  • Use the profile completeness meter to see what still needs to be filled in
Rich Profiles

Fill in details and track completeness

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Family Photo Album

Create a shared family gallery, tag relatives in photos, and use AI tools for old family pictures.

  • Upload photos to the shared family album
  • Tag people in photos — tagged images appear in each person's gallery
  • Colorize black-and-white photos and improve image quality
  • Generate videos and other visual content from family photos
Photo Album

Shared gallery, tags, and photo tools

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Calendars and Family Artwork

Generate beautiful family calendars with important dates and create visual family portraits from your tree.

  • Create calendars with birthdays, anniversaries, and other family dates
  • Highlight key events for the whole family in one place
  • Generate attractive family artwork based on your tree
  • Share or print calendars and images for relatives and celebrations
Calendars & Art

Family dates and generated artwork

7

Family Chat

Communicate with everyone invited to your tree in a private family chat built into the platform.

  • All invited tree members can take part in the chat
  • Discuss edits, photos, dates, and family news together
  • Keep family communication inside your shared workspace
  • Stay in touch while building and updating the tree
Family Chat

Private chat for invited relatives

How to start building a genealogical tree

7 steps: from signup to a complete tree

Building a genealogical tree starts with an account: you become the first person in the chart, then add parents, spouses, and children. Each step below is a separate stage of filling in your family tree.

Filling profiles and the relatives table

After adding people, fill in dates, biographies, and photos. The table view is handy for quick edits, while the interactive tree shows generations and relationships in a clear genealogical model.

Learn more about features

Import an existing family tree

If you already have data in another family tree program, upload a GEDCOM file — the standard exchange format. This lets you move an existing chart online and continue filling it in.

GEDCOM section

Looking for a general overview of the service? Online family tree on the homepage

Video Tutorials

Watch step-by-step video guides for all features


Video 1
Getting Started: Registration and Setup

Complete walkthrough of account creation and initial setup


Video 2
Adding Your First Family Members

Step-by-step guide to building your family tree


Video 3
Advanced Features and Collaboration

Learn about advanced features and working with family

Pro Tips for Success

Expert advice to help you build the best family tree

Start With Yourself, Then Close Family

Registration already adds you to the tree. Next, add parents, spouses, and children, then work outward to grandparents and cousins.

Invite Relatives Early

Send email invitations to living relatives so they can help fill in profiles, photos, and dates.

Use Tags and the Completeness Meter

Tag people in photos and follow the profile completeness scale to keep every relative's story rich and accurate.

Questions about building a genealogical tree

A basic family genealogical tree with 10–15 relatives can be created in about 30 minutes. Time depends on how much data you already have and how detailed you make each profile.
Yes. GEDCOM import is supported — the standard format used by most family tree software. Upload your file and continue filling in your ancestry online.
No. Family-Tree.Online is a web service: you can create and fill in a genealogical tree in the browser on desktop, tablet, or phone without installation.
Any record can be edited at any time — dates, relationships, or biography text. Recent changes can also be undone.
Yes. Send an email invitation — relatives can view the tree and help fill in profiles, photos, and dates.
A genealogical tree is a chart of relatives: parents, children, marriages, and generations of one family. On Family-Tree.Online you keep that ancestry in the browser — add people, relationships, and photos, and see the tree take shape.
Sign up, add yourself and close relatives — that is enough to build a family tree online without installing software. The basic plan is free; limits and advanced export depend on your plan.
A separate program is optional: Family-Tree.Online is a site where you build the tree in the browser on a computer or phone. If you already have data in desktop software, upload a GEDCOM file and continue online.
You do not need a paper template: the interactive chart already shows generations, marriages, and descendants. As you add relatives, the family-tree template fills in — you can view, print, and export it.
Start with what you already know: parents, grandparents, dates, and places. Then invite living relatives to the tree so they can fill in their branches. Older data from another program can be imported via GEDCOM.
Yes. You can download the tree as a GEDCOM file to use in other genealogy programs, and export it for printing. That way the ancestry stays with you, not only on the website.
People often use “tree of life” to mean a family pedigree or a desktop program with that name. Family-Tree.Online is a web service: you build a genealogical tree on the site, without installing desktop software, and you can import an existing GEDCOM file.
On Family-Tree.Online you create the tree in the browser: sign up, add yourself, parents, spouses, and children. Building a family genealogical tree follows relationships — you do not need to download a separate program, and the pedigree appears on the chart immediately.
A pedigree is the same data as a genealogical tree: people, dates, places, and kinship. Compile it online: fill relative cards, upload photos, and invite living family members to complete their branches. The basic plan lets you start for free.
Family-Tree.Online is a site where you build a family genealogical tree for free on the starter plan: relatives, photos, visualization, and GEDCOM import. You do not need to find and download a separate program — a browser on a computer or phone is enough.
After adding people, open the relatives table: names, dates, places, and relationships go there. That is an online genealogical-tree database — easy to search, edit, and expand, while the tree chart updates automatically.

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