Family Tree adds people to your person list if they were born less than 110 years from the day you enter the information into Family Tree and if you have not entered a death date. If Family Tree identifies a person as living, then only a limited number of users can see that information.
Family Tree information
If the person is in your FamilySearch Tree (your private tree), then only you can see information on the Details, Sources, Collaborate, and Time Line tabs. Only you can see the pedigree that the person is part of.
If the person is in a family group tree, that information is visible to all members of the group.
To confirm which tree you are in, look at the far left side of the Family Tree menu.
Memories
All memories—even those attached to living people—are publicly viewable by default and potentially findable:
- They can be shared through linking, social media, and e-mail.
- They can be found through a topic tag search in FamilySearch Memories.
- They may be found using Google and other search engines.
If this is acceptable, you can leave the memory's visibility setting at public. Otherwise, we recommend that you open the memory and change the visibility setting to private (only you) or limited access (only members of a family group).
Please see our Submission Agreement before adding memories to FamilySearch.
Change history
Sometimes, a living person is linked to a deceased person that all FamilySearch users see.
If another user merges or deletes the publicly visible deceased person, FamilySearch updates the change history of the living person to show that a change was made to the relationship between the living person and the deceased person.
This update may show the contact ID of the user who performed the merge or deletion. This user did not see the living person's information.
Related articles
Who can see my living relatives in Family Tree?
How does Family Tree determine whether a person is living or deceased?
How does Family Tree protect the privacy of living people?
Do confidential people in Family Tree ever become public?
How do I see a list of the private and confidential people I have added to Family Tree?
How do I make a memory private?