Editor's Review
Genealogy software normally splits into two camps: private databases you own outright, and shared trees that everyone edits together. FamilySearch Tree belongs firmly to the second. The app is the mobile face of FamilySearch, the free genealogy service run by a nonprofit arm of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and everything you enter joins one worldwide tree rather than a private copy of your own.
That design decides most of what the app is good and bad at. Because the tree is shared, adding a great-grandparent often connects you to branches other researchers have already documented, sometimes reaching back several centuries in a single afternoon. Record hints surface census entries, parish registers and other indexed documents that match a person, and you can attach a source, upload a scanned photograph, or record an audio story against an ancestor's profile. A fan chart view makes gaps in a line easy to see, and the memories section keeps documents and recordings together instead of scattered across a hard drive.
The flip side is that a shared tree can be edited by strangers. Another user can merge, rename or re-parent someone you researched, and while every change is logged and reversible, watching your work quietly rewritten is a common frustration. Accuracy in the older branches also varies widely, because early entries were often submitted without sources and then copied onward as fact. Treat unsourced ancestors as leads rather than conclusions and the app rewards you; treat it as a private archive and it will disappoint. A free account is required before anything can be viewed or saved.
Features
One shared worldwide tree instead of a private database
Record hints matching indexed historical documents to a person
Fan chart and pedigree views for spotting gaps in a line
Photo, document and audio memories attached to ancestor profiles
Source attachment so a claim can be traced back to a record
Change history showing who edited a profile and when
Search across the indexed record collections behind the tree
Pros
Free to use, with no paid tier gating the core tree
Connecting to an existing branch can save months of solo research
Sources, photographs and recordings stay attached to the person they describe
Every edit is logged, so a bad change can be traced and undone
Cons
Anyone can edit your ancestors, including merging them incorrectly
Older branches contain unsourced entries repeated as though verified
Nothing can be viewed or saved without creating an account first
Questions people ask
Do I need an account to use it?
Yes. FamilySearch requires a free registered account before the tree can be viewed or edited, because every contribution is attributed to a named user.
Does it cost anything?
No. The service is funded by a nonprofit organisation rather than by subscriptions, so record search, the tree itself and memories storage carry no charge.
Can another user change my research?
Yes, and this is the biggest adjustment for anyone arriving from private genealogy software. The tree is communal, so others can merge or edit profiles you built. Changes are recorded in a person's history and can be reverted.
