Is my Findmypast family tree public or private?

At Findmypast, your privacy is paramount to us. That's why your Findmypast family tree has privacy settings that you control.

 No one can browse or search your family tree from anywhere else online. Tree Search and tree-to-tree hints are only available to other Findmypast members.

We never share any family tree information on anyone who’s still alive.

By default, deceased ancestors (or those born more than 110 years ago) in your family tree are shareable with other Findmypast members via tree-to-tree hints and Tree Search. This helps you and other Findmypast members grow your family tree by connecting with those who share your ancestry.

Family history research is most successful as a shared activity. We can all benefit from each other’s knowledge and discoveries. We encourage everyone to share their family trees. It’ll make family history a more gainful experience for everyone – from beginners to expert genealogists.

Sharing a link to your family tree

You can share a temporary link with family and friends using the 'Share' button in your family tree view. Just copy the link to your clipboard, then paste it into a message to whoever you want to share with – like an email or WhatsApp message. They'll be able to view your tree for seven days using the link.

You can share the same link with as many people as you like. They’ll need a Findmypast account to view your tree, but we’ll ask them to log in or create a free account once they click on your link.

People with the link to view your tree will be able to:

• View all deceased people in your family tree
• View facts about deceased people in your tree (except any facts that disclose information about living people)

They will not be able to:

• View anyone in your family tree who is living, or not marked as deceased
• View any facts that you’ve marked as private about living or deceased people
• View any media or photos, whether you’ve marked them as private or public
• Edit any information on your tree

You can check what people with the link will see by pasting the link into your own browser first.

The link you shared will expire automatically after seven days, but you can share a new link with the same person, or anyone else, whenever you like.

Opting out of sharing family tree information

If you'd prefer to keep your family tree completely private, you can opt out of this setting as follows:

1. Open your family tree and select the ‘Tree settings’ cogwheel in the centre of your screen

2. Untick the ‘Share deceased ancestors’ box and save the changes

We’ll always follow the permissions selected in your family tree settings. If you’ve unticked the box marked ‘Share deceased ancestors’, your family tree details will remain private. If you’ve ticked the ‘share deceased ancestors’ box in your tree settings, other members will be able to search for and view information about your ancestors through our Tree Search feature. Additionally, those ancestors will continue to be shared as tree-to-tree hints.

Your family tree sharing settings are set for the entire family tree, not per person on it. If you've opted to share, the information for every deceased person on the tree will be searchable and discoverable.

When using Tree Search, if you see a result marked as private in your results, this means there is a matching person contained within the Findmypast family tree network, but unfortunately the owner of that tree has kept their tree private, so you are unable to access its details.