Welcome to Roots

What is Roots?

Roots is a family tree generator. It's intended to be collaborative. Anyone who knows your access code can update your tree.

Ready to get started?

Login with your access code

Don't have an access code?

Create an access code

Access code allow others to collaborate on your family tree. Choose an access code that is hard to guess, but that you wouldn't mind sharing with other collaborators. (E.g. "jonesfamily2013") Must be 10-20 characters.

Email address is optional, but if I have to take down the site or you forget your access code, you're out of luck!

More FAQs

Can I see a sample first?

Sure!

I noticed that I can add more than two parents to a child. Why?

There is no such thing as a "traditional" family anymore. In order to handle step-parents, I went with an "it takes a village" approach. Add as many parents for each child as you like. If you'd like to specify details about those relationships, I suggest adding notes to the nodes. Similarly, I do not handle step- or half-siblings in any special manner. You are all one big (hopefully) happy family.

Can I move nodes around?

Sorry, there are algorithms built into this program that lay out the tree in a certain fashion and cannot be overridden.

How can customize the appearance of the tree?

I may add that in the future. But for now, you can download a PDF of your tree and import it into a program like Illustrator. Then customize away!

Will my data ever be deleted?

Unlikely. But this is a beta site. I will not delete data without contacting users first.

Will you spam me?

No. Promise. Use a fake address if you'd like. It only means I won't be able to contact you if I need to take the site down.

I forgot my access code!

Send me your email address through the feedback form below and I'll dig it up.

How do I provide feedback?

Hey, this is really cool. How can I repay you?

Since this is a beta site, I'd just appreciate any feedback for now. Feel free to spread the word!