Questions people ask

Can I use it yet?

Almost. Everything for building and keeping a family tree works, and it is being used on a real one. The last piece is delivery: the app produces the code that lets you in and the invitations you send to relatives, but it does not yet send them for you on any channel, so there is a step you cannot do alone. Until that is wired up, ask directly and it will be set up with you.

How do I get my family started?

Either start a tree yourself and invite your relatives, or open the invitation link a relative has already sent you. Those are the only two ways in. There is no public list of families, so there is nothing to browse and nothing to request access to.

You do not need an email address. An invitation can be sent to a WhatsApp or mobile number, and that number, with a password you choose, becomes how you sign in afterwards.

Send an invitation directly to the person, not to a group. An invitation is one named relative's place in your tree. Somebody who opens a link cannot be checked by us, so they see nothing until a steward confirms they are who they say - a claim that goes unconfirmed for seven days lapses on its own. An invitation can only be used once, expires after fourteen days, and can be withdrawn before then.

How much does it cost?

Nothing, and no price has been decided. There is no subscription running today. If that changes, exporting everything and deleting everything will still be free, because a tree you cannot get back out is not yours.

Is my family information sold, or used anywhere else?

No. Never sold, never shown to advertisers, and never used to train AI models. It exists inside your family's own tree and nowhere else, and nothing crosses between one family and another.

Can I get my data out, or delete it?

Yes, and you do not need anybody's permission.

For yourself: sign in, open the menu under your name and choose Your account. There you can download your own data, and you can close your account. The file you get holds your account, the ways you sign in, which family trees you are in and what you do in each, and your own record in each one. It does not hold other people's records, or the photographs and stories, because those belong to the family rather than to you.

Closing your account is not the same as leaving a family tree. Your account is how you sign in. Your record is your family's record of a relative, and it stays, because taking it out would break somebody else's history - a father who leaves is still his children's father. If you want your record changed or taken down as well, ask your family, or write to us.

For the whole family: a steward can export the entire tree - every person, every relationship, the stories, the events and the details of every photograph - as one .zip file, which opens by double-clicking on any computer. Inside are the photographs as ordinary picture files, named for what they are of, and a family.json holding every record. The family's owner, and only its owner, can delete the family outright. One thing to be straight about: the records are a record, not a document - family.json will not open as an album or a family chart, though each photograph in it names the picture file it belongs to. Both are buttons on the family's settings page.

Who can see what I add?

You decide, for each piece of information separately, whether it is visible to the whole family, to a few relatives you pick by name, to the stewards only, or to nobody but you. How that works.

What if I want my information removed later?

You can ask for it directly. Your name gets reduced to an initial and your details cleared, but your place in the tree stays, so nobody else's family history breaks because of it. You can also ask for complete removal, which is handled as its own separate, deliberate step. Requests like this are answered within a month.

Does somebody need my permission to add me to the tree?

A relative can add you and record how you are related to them without asking first, the same way anybody might mention a cousin's name. But anything that reveals more than that, such as your phone number, or your name on a printed poster, needs your own yes first. And two relatives have to agree before a claimed relationship becomes a fact at all.

Can I belong to more than one family?

Yes, which is what marriage does. One account reaches every family you belong to, and your role is held per family, so you can be a steward of your own tree and a reader of your wife's. There is one account per person however many phone numbers and email addresses you put on it.

What is not built yet?

Two things worth knowing. Only email is delivered - sign-in codes and invitations arrive by email, and neither WhatsApp nor SMS is wired up, so a relative who is only reachable on WhatsApp still needs their invitation passing on by hand. And your own family's cloth as a poster background is not built, only the four frames on the poster page.

Is this only for families from Cameroon?

No. It is being built and tested on a Cameroonian family first, because that is where it started, but it is designed for any family to use with their own names, their own homeland, and their own traditions.