We’re still working on making the user interface intuitive. For now, you will likely need instructions to get started. The instructions also will help you, as the group admin, prepare to help your group take advantage of this new feature.

Tip: We suggest you bookmark the main help page for future reference.

1. Choose a scope for your family group.

Decide who you want in your Family Group Tree. Start with immediate family. For example, you could have groups for:

• All of your siblings and parents.
• All of the cousins on one side of your family.
• Your children and grandchildren.

You can include in-laws and other family who can be added into a family tree, including step, foster, guardianships, and adopted family.

Do not create a Family Group Tree for groups of users who are not related. You can have separate groups for sharing ordinances and other purposes.

2. Create the family group.

If you already have a family group with the people you want in your Family Group Tree, you can add the Family Group Tree to your existing group.

If not, create a new group.

3. Build the Family Group Tree.

Everyone you plan to invite to the group must be in the Family Group Tree before you invite them to the group.

We recommend that you copy people from your private list when possible to ensure ensures that all details and memories that you already recorded will be shared with the family group. The copying process creates duplicates, but that's OK.

If the people are not in your private list, you can type them in manually.

4. Invite the group members

If you created a new group, invite family participants to help you build out the Family Group Tree.

If you are using an existing group, use the chat to communicate with each group member that you have turned on the Family Group Tree.

Important: The process for sending invitations has changed. In the new process, each invitee is issued a unique link. You, as the administrator, will need to issue separate invitations to each person. But you will no longer need to approve each person's use of the link to join the group.

Try every Family Tree feature in your Family Group Tree.

Put special attention on the new sibling view, which was designed specifically to enhance the group tree experience. We have lots of ideas about what to do.

Provide feedback.

You can either:

• Click the Feedback button on the right side of the Family Group page and left side of the sibling view.
• Join the community group!

Assign at least one other administrator

We recommend that every group have at least 2 administrators. After a group members join, you can give administration rights to one or two of them.

A few help articles are available to help you use Family Group Trees. They are not yet available in the FamilySearch Help Center.

The preview is currently available on the FamilySearch website and the Family Tree iOS mobile app.