Sharing your tree lets you invite friends and family to view your tree or help build it by adding information, photos, and stories.

To view a tree you share, friends and family will need an Ancestry account. If they don't already have one, they can create a free Ancestry account. If they don’t want to create an account, you can still ask them for help filling in the details about people in your tree.

Sharing your tree

When you invite someone to your tree, you’ll be asked to choose what they can see and do by assigning them a role. 

Available roles:  

• Guest: can view and add comments. They can’t automatically view living people.
• Contributor: can view and add comments, photos, and stories. They can’t edit or remove existing tree content or automatically view living people.
• Editor: can automatically view living people, remove and edit existing content, and add people, records, comments, photos, and stories.

You can change or revoke the level of access you grant to your tree at any time. 

From the app

1. Open a tree you own.
2. In the top-right corner, tap the Share icon.
3. Choose a role, then tap Create link. 
4. Send the link to someone you want to invite.
   Each person needs their own link. 
   
   

From a browser

1. Go to a tree you own.
2. In the toolbar on the left, select More (three dots) then Invite.
3. Choose how you want to share your tree.
   • Invite link: creates a link you can share anywhere.
   • Email: sends an invitation to the email address you enter.
   • Display name: sends an email invitation using their Ancestry display name. You don't need to know their email address.
4. If you're creating an invite link, skip this step. Otherwise, enter the recipient's email address or display name.
   • To invite multiple people at once, click Add another email/user.
   • To invite a Family Group, click the Display name field and choose a family group to invite from the drop-down menu. If you see a list of saved logins instead of your list of family groups, click the display name field again.
5. In the Role menu, choose which role you want the person to have.
6. If you're sending a link, choose Invite link > Copy link. If you're sending an email, include a message (optional) and select Send Invites. Once someone accepts your invitation, your tree will appear under the Trees tab in their account.
   
   

Accepting a tree invitation

1. In your email invitation, click View tree. 
2. If prompted, sign in to your Ancestry account or create one for free. 
3. View the tree. The tree will now appear under your Trees tab.
   
   

Managing invited people

From the app

1. In the top-left corner, tap your profile icon (photo or letters).
2. Under Manage tree, tap the tree name.
3. Under Invitations, tap a name to change or revoke access. 
   • Change role or update access: swipe left or right and select a new role, then tap Update access.
   • Revoke access: tap Revoke access and confirm by selecting Revoke.  

From a browser

1. Go to the tree you’ve shared.
2. In the toolbar on the left, click More (three dots) and select Tree Settings.
3. Click the Invitations tab.
4. Edit someone's role or ability to see living people. To end someone’s access to your tree, click Remove.
5. Click Save Changes.
   
   

Removing a tree shared with you

Removing a shared tree only removes it from your account. The person who shared it isn’t notified, and their tree stays on their account.

From a browser

1. Click the Trees tab and select Create & Manage Trees.
2. Above your list of trees, click Trees Shared with Me.
3. In the row for the tree you want to remove, go to the Tools column on the far right and click Remove from list.
4. Click OK.
   
   

Frequently asked questions

Select a question below to view the answer. Select the question again to hide it.