Free online tree storage

If during the last few weeks or months you’ve found time to investigate your family’s roots – or add to what you already know about them – you may be thinking, “Now what do I do with all this?”  Alternatively, if you’ve recorded your findings on paper, why not consider backing up your research somewhere it will always be available, no matter where you go or what happens to your paperwork?

There are plenty of free options for storing your family tree online.  Many allow you to either build your tree one name at a time, or to import it from another software package.

A recent discovery of mine is Rootsfinder.  Owned by genealogy site FindMyPast, it’s attractive and intuitive, but rather sadly hampered by its slow-loading pages once you’ve added your tree.  Mine doesn’t contain tens of thousands of names, but Rootsfinder really took its time to search it and find hints, for example.  Once it did, these were in the form of useful links to external sites like American Ancestors, FamilySearch and, of course, FindMyPast.

RootsWeb (now owned by Ancestry.com) operates the WorldConnect Project which lets you upload a GEDCOM file and then edit or add to your tree, as well as share it if you choose.  It’s a plain, uncomplicated place to store your tree and has been around for a long time.

Family Echo is another basic platform allowing you to input your tree by hand or import your data files.

Genes Reunited (also owned by FindMyPast) offered me a free e-book download to get started when I opened an account with them. The book has lots of great tips and ideas for growing your tree, but naturally, most of them involve moving up to a paid level of access.  This includes being able to communicate with potential relatives, so if you’d rather not be tortured by hints you can’t access without paying, maybe this isn’t the package for you.

Other large genealogy subscription companies also offer free accounts that include tree storage 'in the cloud' – of course they hope that you will spend some money by purchasing a subscription with them, but you don’t have to in order to make use of their basic service.  They include

• Ancestry 

• MyHeritage 

All of these trees give you the option to make your tree either private or public, but there are some websites whose tree hosting works on the principles of co-operation and collaboration.

One of these is WikiTree where 'you control who can access and edit each individual profile page'.  This service is unique in that it encourages you to credit others’ research and cite your sources.  It provides a lot of useful tools to help you evaluate your tree when you sign up to the site's 'Honor Code'.

The information you add to FamilySearch’s Family Tree forms what it describes as ‘a social network that connects people with their ancestors’, and other users can edit or add to a record you’ve created. It also provides storage space for you to upload photographs and sound files.  These can only be changed by you, but they can be accessed by anyone with a FamilySearch account.  All its genealogical records, however, are free to search and view.

My tip, if you’re uncertain which provider you should choose, would be to try out a couple.  Give them a test drive by adding the details of just a few relatives, and then see if you like how it looks and works.  Most of these sites will allow you to delete a tree if you no longer wish to use the account.