Not long ago, I taught a couple of genealogy classes for beginners and I’m always surprised by the answer to one of my questions:

What genealogy software program do you use to record your family history?

I’d run out of fingers long before I tallied up one of the responses, which is always an online website such as Ancestry or FamilySearch.

I always have to re-explain that while both of these websites offer some fabulous record collections, NEITHER ONE is a genealogy software program.

From these responses comes the topic for today’s post. How – and where – do you save your family tree because it really is a double pronged question.

I believe the number #1 rule in family history research is to KEEP CONTROL of you work. That rule has many facets to it, from recording vital facts to saving images and documents to citing sources in genealogy software housed on your own computer.

There are a number of popular programs from which to choose – Ancestral Quest, Family Historian, Family Tree Maker, Heredis, Legacy, RootsMagic and for just Macs, Mac Family Tree or Reunion.

Today, however, let’s focus on how and where your share that information.

First, what is wrong with sharing your tree on a genealogy website? Absolutely nothing! In fact, it’s exactly the right action to take to get hints to online documents and locating distant cousins researching the same ancestors.

However, the key word here is SHARING. All genealogy research should be recorded in a software program on your own computer. That data can then either be synced to Ancestry, My Heritage, etc. (through Family Tree Maker or Roots Magic) or a GEDCOM can be created from the software and then uploaded to post in online trees.

Where should you share your family tree?

That depends on your objectives. If you live in North America and you’re looking for hints and distant cousins, then Ancestry is likely your first choice. It’s free to upload your tree and there are reportedly billions of people in family trees on the website. You’ll get hundreds of hints about the people in your tree, too. Just remember that you will need a subscription to access most of those hints AND be sure to download, save and rename any documents or images to your own computer. Then attach them manually to people in your software program. If you only save images to your Ancestry tree, you only have access to them for as long as you have a paid subscription. Ancestry syncs with both RootsMagic and Family Tree Maker software programs.

If you are most interested in connecting with distant European cousins, My Heritage should be where you share your family tree. There are also billions of names in users’ family trees there, too. However, and this is a drawback – My Heritage offers free tree uploads limited to 250 profiles or else you need a subscription for larger tree sharing. If your European family branch is under the 250 profile limit, then create a GEDCOM for just that small portion of your family tree and upload it.

There is also a newer kid on the block if you have lots of colonial New England ancestors. American Ancestors now offers American AncesTREES where you can upload and share your family tree. A free guest account is needed. It appears that if you don’t add media to your trees – just facts – posting your tree is free and up to 2GB of media (which isn’t a lot since photos take a lot of memory) is included for free. There is a detailed chart of various options and features available with free/paid plans.

Geneanet, based in France, is owned by Ancestry and provides a European connection. There are over a billion names in its database. Uploading a tree is free with 1GB of media included. More than that requires a subscription. However, being owned by Ancestry means that an ancestry search might include hits from Geneanet trees, which is very helpful.

For those with heavy United Kingdom ancestry, Find My Past is an excellent choice for sharing your tree. As with the other genealogy companies, uploading a tree is free, but access to hints is by subscription.

The five companies just mentioned offer the ability to share a personalized family tree where you maintain control of the information.

There are other free options for sharing your tree on what is called a universal, or shared, family tree. By definition, a universal family tree is collaborative, meaning anyone can add, change or delete information. If changes made to the tree are positive – new information is added or old data is updated – all is well. However, it is also very possible that someone will change correct information to WRONG information. In my own personal experience, a woman added a new husband to a grandmother. The problem was the marriage took place five years after this grandmother died! I contacted the researcher and asked how they came to add this husband. Her reply was that the bride had the same name as the grandmother and lived in Texas, so she figured it was the same person. Since the grandmother’s information was publicly accessible in the tree (she was deceased, after all), the researcher never bothered to read what information was already entered and never noticed that the bride would have been 95 years old!

As long as the limitations of a single collaborative tree are understood, these trees are still great options for sharing information and finding distant cousins. They also are excellent resources for finding photos and documents that others have added to ancestral stories.

The FamilySearch Family Tree is, by far, the largest and best known of these trees. Not only are facts, photos and documents found – and able to be saved and downloaded for free – but people often add family stories, newspaper clippings and information found in professional journals.

Unfortunately, because it is a single tree, GEDCOMS can’t be uploaded and shared to the tree because it would create millions of duplicate persons. Information needs to be added manually. However, the tree has grown so much in the last few years, that it is very possible that someone has already entered information about your parents, grandparents or great grandparents. I’ve never personally added any individual to the FS family tree, but my maternal grandparents have been added by someone else, complete with my deceased mother and a deceased aunt!

Another well known universal tree is WikiTree. It is free to use, but like FamilySearch, a GEDCOM can’t be uploaded for the same reason – it can cause many person duplications. Each user needs to sign the honor code, but then he/she can add persons, photos and documents to the tree.

Geni is a third collaborative tree that is owned by MyHeritage. It has a strong European presence, so like MyHeritage, is a great place for sharing a family tree with strong European components. It is free to upload a tree and allows a meager 1GB of media with it. To get tree matches, a subscription is needed. However, remember that while you might just have a free tree there, someone else, like European cousins, who has a subscription WILL be able to pursue tree matches and can contact you. That essentially means that a free subscriber is a passive member and can’t really do much except hope that a paid member contacts you. Still, it’s a free way to share your tree with others.

The newest collaborative tree, WeRelate, is sponsored by the Foundation for On-Line Genealogy. Unlike the other collaborative trees, it does allow a GEDCOM upload, but it may not contain more than 5000 names. If you have a larger tree, it looks like you can create smaller GEDCOMS and upload more than one. On the negative side, comments on the right of the home page are dated 2021 and it no longer partners with Allen County Public Library. Still, for free . . . you never know where that elusive contact will appear – you know, the one who has the family Bible or a document you really, really need!

This post has covered the main options for U.S. users sharing family trees online. I don’t have any experience with websites offering international options, but I know there are companies that do target, say French Canada, Germany, France, the Netherlands and other countries.

If you have genealogy interests in those locations, do a quick search to see what is available.