Getting started

Family Connect is a private digital home for one family. It brings together the family's researched genealogy, the profiles members keep up to date themselves, shared stories and artifacts, private messaging, reunion planning and a Family Historian you can talk with.

• It is invitation-only. There is no public sign-up and the family record is not a public genealogy site.
• Every family site is separate. Nothing you add is visible to any other family.
• Genealogical facts trace back to documents published in Sources & Research.

• An administrator, or a member whose invitation an administrator has approved, sends an invitation to your email address.
• Open the link in the email and create your account, or sign in with Google.
• If your invitation is still waiting for approval, you will receive the email once an administrator approves it.
• If the email has not arrived, check your spam folder and then ask a family administrator to resend it.

• Use the Sign in button in the top-right corner.
• You can sign in with your email and password, or with Google using the same email address.
• Signing out is at the bottom of the My Account menu.

Some families ask for a second step when you sign in.

• A one-time code is emailed to you, carrying your family's logo, name, tagline and colors so you can tell it is genuine.
• Enter the code on the verification page to finish signing in.
• The code expires after a short while; request a fresh one if it has lapsed.
• If the email has not arrived, check your spam folder before asking again.

The main menu is grouped into Family, Preserve and Visit; your own settings live under My Account in the top-right corner.

• Family — Overview, Directory, Tree, Relationship Finder, Shared Interests and Fund.
• Preserve — Stories & Artifacts, Historian, Preserve a Persona and Reunion Planning.
• Visit — Expert Hub and the Conversation Lounge, where you talk with the historian or a digital persona.
• Overview introduces the family and the direct ancestral line; Directory searches by name, profession, industry or family businesses near you.
• Fund, Reunion Planning and the Expert Hub only appear when your family has them switched on.
• My Account — My Profile, Persona Studio, Messages, Help, Sources & Research, Administration for admins, and Sign out.
• If you would rather not hunt, press the Guide button in the corner and say where you want to go — see 'Your Guide'.
• The site can also offer a hand when something is not going smoothly; you choose how much of that you want — see 'Help that comes to you'.