Q. How much does it cost to use the website?

A. Basic membership is absolutely free. This includes all searches for ancestors and the ability to record your own ancestors and associate yourself as a descendant of any ancestor. Full membership requires payment of a small annual fee (£7.99 for a year in the UK). This will allow you to also email other members and to obtain additional information that we hold about some ancestors but which is not visible to basic members (this includes information such as occupation or other people associated with the ancestor e.g. who they lived with).

Q. What details about my ancestor do I need for a search?

A. You need to know at least their surname and approximately when they were born (the exact year is not required, just a range of years). For more common surnames you will also need to know their first name, initial, middle name, approximately when they died or places which they were associated with (i.e. were born, lived or died). The more you know then the easier it will be to find them. If you don’t know much information you may still be able to find them by searching through lots of ancestors looking for a likely match. If you do not provide sufficient information in a search then you will be asked to provide more information. This can happen when too many ancestors would be returned by the search or when the search would take too long to carry out (the limit is currently set at 30 seconds but we may vary this depending on the current load on the system). Generally searches which don’t provide a name are the ones most likely to exceed the time limit e.g. if you just provide a place name.

Q. Can I do wildcard searches (alternatively called a fuzzy match)?

A. Yes, the wildcard character to use is a % which represents any number of characters e.g. if you thought your ancestor was called ‘Hitchen’ but could be ‘Hitchon’ or ‘Hitcher’ then you could supply ‘Hitch%’. Wildcard characters can be used in both the names and places. Note: You should supply as much of the name as possible. In the above example if you just supplied ‘H%’ you are likely to get too many matches.

Q. How does searching using place names work?

A. You may supply a single place name or multiple place names separated by commas. If you supply a single place name then any ancestors associated with that place (and matching the other criteria you have supplied) will be returned. If you supply multiple place names then any ancestors associated with at least one of these places (and matching the other criteria) will be returned. Note that place names are present at multiple levels e.g. England, Lancashire, Blackpool. If you include England in your place search then you will find all ancestors associated with England even though you may also have included say, London. If you just want ancestors associated with ‘London’ then you will need to supply just the single place name, ‘London’. Also note that it is advisable to also include abbreviations e.g. for England supply ‘England, Eng’ or ‘Eng%’, for Texas supply ‘Texas, TX’.

Q. How can I be sure that a particular ancestor is related to me?

A. You can look at all the details we hold for this ancestor including names, when born/died and places with which they were associated. You can also view the names of any other descendants already associated with the ancestor and in turn you can view ancestors of these descendants and so on. This information will often be sufficient for you to confirm with a reasonable level of certainty that this is your ancestor. If you are a full member you also have the option of emailing any descendant or of viewing any additional information. However, if after all this you are still in doubt as to whether a particular ancestor is your relative then you can associate yourself anyway – if information is later recorded which makes you doubt that this is your ancestor then you can always dissociate yourself again.

Q. Can I change the details of any ancestor that I find?

A. No, ancestors are normally ‘owned’ by the member who first recorded them as a new ancestor (and became the first descendant recorded for that ancestor) and only this member may change their details. However it is possible for an ancestor to be recorded who does not have any associated descendants. This will happen for any ancestors pre-loaded by www.linkmyfamilytree.com. In this case the first member to associate himself or herself with the ancestor will automatically take ‘ownership’ and will be able to change the details for that ancestor. If you think that the details of an ancestor are incorrect and you do not own that ancestor then you can either email the owning member to inform them of the problem (providing you are a full member) or alternatively you can email info@linkmyfamilytree.com and we will deal with the discrepancy for you.

Q. I have recorded a new ancestor but have later realised that this ancestor already existed on the database. How do I get rid of my duplicate ancestor?

A. A delete option is provided on the ‘Show Ancestors’ page. You can only delete an ancestor which you own (see previous FAQ) and with which no other descendants have associated. If other descendants have associated and you wish to inform them of the problem then you can email them directly (full members only) or send an email to info@linkmyfamilytree.com and we will inform them for you.

Q. How is this website related to census websites such as the UK 1901 census website www.censushelpdesk.co.uk?

A. You can use the census website to obtain information about your ancestors. You can then input this information to www.linkmyfamilytree.com in order to do further research including extending your family tree further backwards and outwards and to find out about and contact your current day relatives.

Q. Where do you expect me to obtain the information about my ancestors (born pre-1931) that I need to input to www.linkmyfamilytree.com?

A. From your older relatives still alive today and from other sources of genealogy research such as the UK 1901 census website www.censushelpdesk.co.uk

Q. How many ancestors are there on the www.linkmyfamilytree.com database?

A. We have pre-loaded details of 6,000,000 ancestors from various sources in order to give the database a head start. We expect this figure to grow exponentially as members join and start adding details of new ancestors. We will also be continuing to load more ancestors in the background, whilst ensuring that we don’t create duplicates. So the chances of you extending your family tree will grow as time goes on.

Q. Do I have to become a member to use the website?

A. Yes, this is necessary so that we can identify you and email you when new descendants associate themselves with your ancestors. However basic membership of the website is completely free. Also we guarantee never to divulge your email address to any other organisation. You also have the option of never receiving emails from us regarding new facilities or other services we provide (this option can be selected when you register as a new member). However, by registering, you will be liable to receive emails from other full members who wish to contact you.

Q. What if I do not wish to receive emails from you when new descendants are associated with my ancestors?

A. This is an option that can be selected individually for each of your ancestors. So you can decide to never be emailed or just to be emailed for selected ancestors.

Q. Can I find my ancestors from other countries?

A. Yes, www.linkmyfamilytree.com is intended to be a global resource. The pre-loaded ancestors are mainly from US, UK and Germany but new ancestors are being continually created.

Q. Can I guarantee that all the information on the website is correct?

A. As with any massive shared resource such as this there is no way that this can be guaranteed. We expect most of the data to be accurate but you need to remember that there are a great number of people involved in maintaining this data (all the members) and there are bound to be some errors. We hope that members will communicate with us and with other members to ensure that errors are corrected.

Q. After registering as a new member what would be the first thing I should do with the website?

A. After registering as a new member you should find out as much as possible about your ancestors born before 1931. You can do this by asking your living relatives (e.g. parents and grandparents), looking at old documents you already possess or by visiting other genealogy sites such as the 1901 census at www.censushelpdesk.co.uk. Find out as much as you can about your ancestors, particularly their full names, approximately when they lived and where they were born, lived and died. Armed with this information log onto www.linkmyfamilytree.com and click on ‘Find Ancestor’ to check whether your ancestors have already been recorded by us or by another member. If they are already recorded then associate yourself with them otherwise click on ‘Add Ancestor’ to add their details to the database. Once you have added ancestors to the database you can view details of these ancestors by clicking ‘My Ancestors’.

Q. I am unsure of my exact relationship to an ancestor. What relationship should I select when adding a new ancestor or associating myself with an existing ancestor?

A. ‘Cousin’ should generally be selected to denote some distant relationship where you do not know the exact relationship. Cousin is not meant to denote first cousin (generally unlikely for your relationship to an ancestor born pre-1931) but any level of cousin e.g. (third cousin fourth removed would also be denoted as a cousin). If you do select an incorrect relationship you can always amend it later (just click on the ‘Associate’ button again and you can change the relationship). Note: If you do happen to know your exact relationship to this ancestor (e.g. is third cousin fourth removed) then you can always enter this information in the comments box if you wish.

Q. I cannot see all the details on the screen and have to scroll horizontally to read the text on some of the pages. What is wrong?

A. LinkMyFamilyTree has been designed to fit a screen resolution of 1024 by 768 pixels and higher. At lower resolutions, not all of the text can fit on the screen. Your computer may be running at a resolution of 800 by 600. Most computers bought since 1997 should be capable of running at higher screen resolutions. Try changing this:- make sure all your programs are minimised, or preferably none are running and right-click on the desktop. Select properties from the menu which appears. Then select the tab entitled 'Settings'. Within the frame titled 'Screen area', you should see a slider bar indicating the range of resolutions supported by your computer's graphics card. Try and move this to a greater value and click 'OK'. You can always set this back to it's orginal value if you have any problems.

Q. I like what I have read above and wish to become a member now. I understand that this is completely free. What must I do next?

A. Click here to register.