A guide for people starting out
FamilySearch accounts: how to create one, connect to your ancestors, and what you get free
FamilySearch is the largest free genealogy resource in the world, and the single fastest way to find out who your ancestors were. This page covers what it costs, how to sign up, the one concept that makes the whole thing click, and the handful of things that trip new users up.
What you’ll see
Sign up to FamilySearch
Free, and about two minutes. No payment details.
Create your free accountOpens familysearch.org in a new tabIs FamilySearch really free?
Yes — genuinely, with no catch worth worrying about. FamilySearch is funded by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and offered free to everyone, of any faith or none. There is exactly one kind of account, and it is the free one. No credit card is requested when you sign up, because there is nothing to charge for later.
You do have to be signed in to search historical records, which occasionally gets mistaken for a paywall. It isn’t one — it’s a condition of the agreements FamilySearch has with the archives and record custodians who supply the images.
How to create a FamilySearch account
Two minutes, four steps, no payment details.
Go to familysearch.org and choose Sign Up
On the mobile app, open the Family Tree or Memories app and choose Continue with Username, then Sign Up.
Open the FamilySearch sign-up pagePick how you want to sign in
You can continue with Google, Facebook, or Apple, or create a username and password of your own. Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints can use a Church account instead.
Enter your details
First name, last name, birth date, username, password, and an email address. In the US, Canada, and Brazil you can add a mobile number for account recovery.
Accept the terms and verify
Agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Notice, select Done, then activate the account from the verification email or text. That's the whole thing — there is no payment step.
Age requirements
Anyone 13 or older can sign up on their own. Children between 8 and 12 can have an account with a parent’s permission, given through a consent code sent to the parent.
Church accounts are separate
If you’re a member of the Church, a Church account can sign you in to FamilySearch — but the two account systems are managed separately, and having one does not automatically create the other.
How to connect to your deceased ancestors
This is the part that feels like magic, and it happens in the first sitting.
Start with yourself
FamilySearch walks new users through a tool called Guided Tree — Build Your Tree on the website, Get Started in the app. It asks for your own details first, then works outward.
Add your parents and grandparents
Names, approximate dates, and places are enough. You do not need documents, and you do not need to be certain — approximate birth years still produce matches.
Watch for the match prompt
The moment you add someone deceased, FamilySearch searches the shared tree for a profile that already exists for that person. If it finds a likely one, it shows you what it knows and asks you to confirm — This is Him, or This is Her. Read it carefully; this is the decision the whole tree hangs on.
Confirm the match, and the tree opens
Accepting a match grafts your line onto everything other people have already documented above that ancestor. A tree with six names in it can become a tree with hundreds. If no match exists, you create the person and become the one who documented them.
Follow the hints from there
Each profile carries Research Helps: record hints suggesting documents to attach, possible duplicates to merge, research suggestions, and flagged data problems. Working through hints is how the tree keeps growing after the first burst.
How far back will you get? Honestly, nobody can tell you in advance. It depends entirely on how much other people have already contributed for your families and the places they came from. Some lines connect into centuries of documented work on the first try; others need real research. FamilySearch publishes no typical figure, and any guide quoting you one made it up.
What a free account actually gets you
All of the following is included at no cost.
Historical records
Billions of searchable names and record images from more than 170 countries — 22.7 billion as of FamilySearch's January 2026 figures. Searching requires being signed in; it does not require paying.
The shared family tree
Roughly 1.8 billion people, with 3.9 billion attached sources. Whatever other people have already documented about your family is there waiting.
Memories
Upload photos, documents, written stories, and audio recordings, and attach them to the people they belong to. No cap on how many, up to 15 MB per file.
Tree views
Landscape, portrait, descendancy, and fan chart views. The fan chart shows up to seven generations; descendancy shows four.
Full-text search
AI search across handwritten documents, so a name buried in the body of a deed or probate file is findable — not just the indexed fields.
Discovery activities
Famous Relatives, Compare-A-Face, Relatives Around Me on the mobile app, and Relatives at RootsTech. FamilySearch describes these as fun activities rather than research tools.
FamilySearch centers, and paid sites for free
There are thousands of FamilySearch centers worldwide, plus affiliate libraries. At a center you can use partner subscription sites — Ancestry, MyHeritage, Findmypast and others — free of charge, and view record images that are restricted online. Some users also qualify for free at-home access to partner sites, though FamilySearch doesn’t currently publish who qualifies, and it makes no guarantee of free third-party access. Affiliate libraries offer whichever subscriptions that particular library has bought, so it varies.
What trips people up
None of these are reasons to avoid FamilySearch. They’re just the things worth knowing before you learn them the hard way.
Anyone can edit your ancestors
The tree is shared, so another user can change a date or a relationship you entered. Nothing is lost: every profile keeps a Latest Changes log, and any change can be restored. Use Follow on the people you care about to be notified, and leave a reason statement explaining your edits so others understand them.
Merges are powerful and mostly reversible
Combining duplicate profiles is how the tree stays clean, but a merge deletes one of the two records. There is an Undo Merge option for a limited window — after that a bad merge has to be untangled by hand. Go slowly on merges until you're confident.
Memories are public by default for deceased people
Anything you upload about a deceased ancestor is publicly viewable and potentially findable through search engines. If a photo includes living people, set it to private explicitly rather than assuming it is.
A death date makes someone public
Entering anything in a death or burial field flips a person from living to deceased, which moves them into the public tree. If you do it by mistake and someone else has already edited the profile, undoing it requires a support request.
Duplicate record hints are not duplicate profiles
Two hints pointing at the same person are normal — attach them both. Marking them Not a Match is a common beginner mistake, and that choice sticks.
FamilySearch vs Ancestry
They are different in kind, not just in price — and plenty of serious researchers use both.
| Aspect | FamilySearch | Ancestry |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free. One account type, no subscription tier, no credit card. | Subscription, billed monthly or annually. |
| Tree model | One shared tree. Every deceased person has a single profile that everyone edits together. | Private trees. Each subscriber keeps their own copy of the same ancestors. |
| Who owns your work | Contributions go into the common tree and stay there — including if you later close your account. | Your tree is yours, and disappears from view if you stop paying. |
| The advantage | You inherit everything others have already proven. A new tree can reach back centuries in an afternoon. | Nobody can alter your research, and hinting is tuned to your own tree. |
| The trade-off | Other people can change your ancestors' profiles. | You redo work that someone in your extended family has probably already done. |
Once your tree is connected
A tree on a screen is a starting point, not an ending. Here is what you can do with one.
Print it as a book
Your ancestors, laid out as a hardcover volume — built from the tree you just connected.
Read moreFind famous relatives
Search your confirmed lines against a catalog of more than 11,000 people from history.
Read moreCheck the Mayflower
All 38 passengers with living descendant lines, and how to tell whether one is yours.
Read moreFamilySearch questions, answered
Is FamilySearch really free?
Yes. FamilySearch is funded by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and provided free to everyone regardless of religion. There is only one kind of account — a free one. No credit card is requested at signup, and there is no paid tier to upgrade to.
Do I have to be a member of the Church to use FamilySearch?
No. Anyone can create an account and use the records, the tree, and Memories. Members of the Church can sign in with a Church account and see some additional temple-related features, but the genealogy side of the site is the same for everyone.
How do I create a FamilySearch account?
Go to familysearch.org, select Sign Up, and either continue with Google, Facebook, or Apple, or create your own username and password. You'll enter your name, birth date, and an email address, accept the terms, and verify through the email or text you receive. It takes a couple of minutes.
How old do you have to be to have a FamilySearch account?
Anyone 13 or older can sign up on their own. Children aged 8 to 12 can have an account with a parent's permission, which is granted through a consent code sent to the parent.
How do I connect to my deceased ancestors on FamilySearch?
Start by adding yourself, then your parents and grandparents. When you add a deceased relative, FamilySearch checks whether a profile for that person already exists in the shared tree. If it finds one and you confirm the match, your line links into everything other people have already documented above that person — which is how a tree with four names in it can suddenly reach back generations.
How far back will my tree go?
It depends entirely on how much other people have contributed for your families and regions. Some lines connect into centuries of documented work immediately; others, particularly those with less-digitized record coverage, need real research. FamilySearch doesn't publish a typical figure, and anyone who quotes you one is guessing.
Are living people visible to everyone on FamilySearch?
No. Living people sit in your private space and only you can see or change them. Deceased people are public in the shared tree. FamilySearch treats someone as living if they were born within the last 110 years and there's no death information recorded.
Can other people change my ancestors' information?
Yes, and this surprises people coming from Ancestry. The tree is collaborative, so a deceased person has one profile that everyone edits. Every change is logged and reversible, you can Follow profiles to be notified of edits, and reason statements let you explain why your version is right.
What's the difference between FamilySearch and Ancestry?
FamilySearch is free and built on one shared tree that everyone edits together. Ancestry is a paid subscription where each person keeps a private tree. The practical trade: FamilySearch gives you everyone else's research for nothing but lets them edit yours; Ancestry protects your work but makes you redo what relatives have already done. Plenty of people use both.
Can I get free access to Ancestry through FamilySearch?
Partner sites including Ancestry, MyHeritage, and Findmypast can be used free at FamilySearch centers, of which there are thousands worldwide. Some users also qualify for free at-home access to partner sites, though FamilySearch doesn't currently spell out that eligibility publicly, and it makes no guarantee of free third-party access.
Details on this page were checked against FamilySearch’s help center and newsroom in July 2026. FamilySearch is a service of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; Rememberkin is an independent product and is not affiliated with FamilySearch or Ancestry.
Have an account already? See what your tree can become.
Rememberkin reads the tree you just connected and lays it out as a printed book or wall chart — free to build and preview.