Make a genealogy in minutes

1Open Start a genealogy

On the home page, under Make your genealogy online, with the whole family, press Start a genealogy. The Create a genealogy button on the big picture at the top does the same. Every page of the wizard lists the four steps across the top and ticks off the ones you have done.

You can stop half way. Press Start a genealogy again, find yours under Genealogies you have started, press carry on, and you are back at the step where you left off.

2Make an account

Fill in a Display name, your Email and a Password of at least 8 characters, typed again under Confirm password, and press Next. Your account is made and you are signed in. Registering means you agree to the site's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy; both are linked on the form if you want to read them first.

The display name is what your relatives see, and it is the name shown as the creator in the home page's list of genealogies: your own name, or something like "Chen Ming of the third branch". If you already have an account, use Log in under the form and you come straight back to the wizard.

3The genealogy

A genealogy here belongs to one village and one surname. Fill in the Surname, the Village and the County / city: for example 陈, 示范村 and 台山.

The Tree code (generated) underneath is worked out as you type (here taishan-shifan-chen). It becomes part of the genealogy's web address and cannot be changed once the genealogy exists. A Name (Chinese) is suggested from the county, the village and the surname (here 台山示范陈氏族谱); keep it or write your own. Press Next and the genealogy is made, with you as its administrator.

4The founder

The founder is the earliest ancestor this genealogy records. His Generation is already filled in as 1; if your genealogy starts at a later generation, put that one instead. Give his Name and his Sex. Courtesy names, art names and titles are folded away under Courtesy, art and honorary names: open it if you know them, or leave it. Press Next and he is in the genealogy.

Everybody else is added later, from him downwards a generation at a time: on a person's page, press + Add a child under Children, and the generation counts itself.

5Invite the family

Your genealogy already has a family code, six random lower-case letters. Allow access to the recent generations by code is ticked. Allow additions and corrections by code is not: whether relatives may add and correct with the code is your decision. If you want them to, tick it.

You can also change the code to something the family will remember: 4 to 16 letters or digits, not case-sensitive, and never the same as a log-in password. Then press Save.

The Invitation below is written from what you saved, with the genealogy's name, its link and the code. With only the first box ticked it invites relatives to read; with both, it asks them to help continue the genealogy. Press Copy the invitation and paste it into your family's WeChat group. In the picture both boxes are ticked and the code has been changed to chen2025. Then press Next.

How relatives fill it in with the code, and how you review what they send, is in The whole family helps.

6Done

Your genealogy is ready! It is already on the home page's list of genealogies. The page lists what you might do next: add the founder's children, look at the genealogy, write its introduction and choose what needs review under Genealogy admin, and enter its generation characters.