Your family tree, privately.
Import your GEDCOM and photos, invite the people you choose, and browse, edit, and print reports from anywhere - self-hosted, and never public.
What it is
A self-hosted, multi-user, multi-tree genealogy app. Import a GEDCOM file and its photos from your existing genealogy software, and access an editable family tree in your browser, on a desktop, tablet, or phone - nothing to install. It functions on any Operating System platform and any device with a web browser. Updates and enhancements are pushed seamlessly.
Every tree is private by default. Nobody sees it unless you invite them, and you choose whether they can just browse or also edit.
If your research already lives in another genealogy program, Rootsgen doesn't ask you to start over or give anything up: import the GEDCOM and photo folder you already have, and everyone who matters can reach the same tree from a browser - no per-seat software licence, no syncing files between laptops, no waiting for one person to email round an updated .ged.
Browse and edit a person's details, photos, and family - side by side, on desktop or tablet.
Why self-hosted
Public tree sites make their money by keeping your data on their servers, and by other members finding your ancestors in their search results. Rootsgen works the other way round: your tree lives on a server you (or someone you trust) control, is never crawled or indexed, and is visible only to the people you personally invite.
That matters practically, not just philosophically. Any service you don't control can change its pricing, its terms, or simply shut down, whenever it likes - and if your family history only exists inside someone else's platform, you're at the mercy of that decision. A GEDCOM sitting on your own disk, in a format every genealogy program on earth can read, never depends on anyone else's roadmap.
Exporting your tree to share more widely, or with someone outside the family? Rootsgen's export can automatically mask every living person's name, dates, and photos first - built specifically for GDPR and similar privacy rules, not bolted on as an afterthought.
What you can do
- Import & merge - bring in a GEDCOM and its photos, and later merge in an updated export without starting over
- Browse & edit - a clean two-pane browsing and editing view, fully usable on desktop, tablet, and phone
- 13 report types - family group sheets, pedigree and descendant charts, a relationship calculator, and more, exportable as PDF
- Photos with face tagging - tag who's in a photo, and find every photo someone appears in
- Sources & citations - back up facts with real sources, per field
- Search & filter - find anyone instantly by name or record number, or build a saved multi-criteria search (surname, dates, places, even relationship to someone - e.g. "descendants of X") and export the results
- Invite people you trust - as viewers or editors, per tree, entirely your call. They will need to register first (anyone can, for free) before you can invite them. As the owner of the tree, it is your data and you control access and take backups
- Backups - export to GEDCOM and media at any time, for use in other genealogy software, and separately take a complete backup of the tree itself that restores directly back into this app, no other software needed
See every feature explained with screenshots in the feature guide.
One of several interactive charts - click anyone to re-center the tree on them.
Who it's for
- The person who ended up as "the keeper of the tree" - you have the GEDCOM, the scanned certificates, and the photo folder, and you're tired of being the only way anyone else in the family can see any of it
- A family spread across countries or generations - siblings, cousins, or grandchildren who all have something to add, but shouldn't all need the same desktop software installed
- Anyone doing parish-register or civil-registration research - reliable place and date fields, source citations per fact, and reports built for exactly this kind of record-heavy work
- Someone who's outgrown a spreadsheet or a single offline file - and wants their tree reachable from whatever device is actually in front of them
How it works
- Register with a passkey - just a username, no email address or password to create
- Straight after registering you are shown a recovery code, once only - save it securely and keep it private. It lets you back into your account if you ever lose access to every device with a passkey on it. See passkeys and your recovery code. If you ever have to use it, a new code is issued automatically, since the old one can only be used once
- Create a tree, and either import your GEDCOM and media files/photos, or in the case of an entirely new tree, enter your information. Large imports are supported - up to 10GB for a single upload, and up to 20GB of media in total per tree. If your own collection is bigger than that, get in touch and we can raise the limit for your account
- Test the app to ensure it has imported exactly as you expect, and make any changes needed to verify everything works as you'd expect
- The tree is totally private. You can invite family as viewers or editors, once they have registered
- Browse, edit, and print reports and create PDF files at any time
- Take backups - either in GEDCOM format if you plan to export to another GEDCOM compatible product or take full tree backups that you can use to restore the tree at any time
- If at a later time, you decide to cease using the app, you are requested to download your data to GEDCOM format and delete your tree to conserve server disk space
User roles and permissions
| Item | Viewer | Editor | Co-owner | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tree statistics… | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Query tree… (incl. CSV export) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Reports… | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Validate tree… | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Manage access… | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Tree settings… | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Import GEDCOM/media… | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Merge/Compare GEDCOM… | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Export GEDCOM/media… | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Backup tree (.db) | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Restore from backup… | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Delete this tree… | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
A co-owner is a trusted deputy, not a full peer - only the tree's actual owner can delete it, or grant/revoke the owner or co-owner role itself. See how sharing and roles work.
Frequently asked
Do I need to be technical to use this? No - using it is exactly like using any other website: sign in, click around, edit a record. Setting up the server the first time does take someone comfortable with basic hosting, the same as any self-hosted app.
Can I import from the genealogy software I already use? Yes - Rootsgen imports a standard GEDCOM file (the format every mainstream genealogy program can export to) plus the media folder that goes with it, and can bring in an updated export later without duplicating everything you've already entered.
Is my family's information ever public? No. There's no public search, no directory, and nothing about your tree is visible to anyone you haven't personally invited - not even to other Rootsgen users on a different tree.
What if I want to stop using it? Export your whole tree to GEDCOM and its original media at any time, in a format any other genealogy software can open. Nothing is held hostage.
Explore the features
Getting started
- Get started with Rootsgen: register with a passkey and create your first treeCreate a Rootsgen account with just a username and a passkey - no email address, no password - save your recovery code, and start your first family tree.
- Use Rootsgen on a phone or iPad: browse, edit and print your family tree anywhereRootsgen works in the browser on phones and tablets as well as computers, with a Browse/Edit switch, full editing, charts and print-to-PDF reports on iPad.
Working with your tree
- Browse your family tree: parents, spouses, children and photos in one viewMove through your family tree by clicking. See a person with their parents, spouse, children and photos in one two-pane view, and jump to anyone with instant search.
- Edit people and facts: dates, places, notes and occupations in your family treeAdd or change a person's name, sex, occupation, birth, baptism, death and burial, write formatted notes, and rely on edit-conflict protection when several people work on one tree.
- Add parents, spouses, children and siblings to your family treeGrow your Rootsgen tree by adding relatives: link someone already in the tree or create a new person, order marriages, and unlink people wrongly connected.
- Protect living people's privacy: masked GEDCOM and CSV exportsRootsgen can mask living relatives when you export or share, replacing given names with "Living" and removing dates, places, notes and photos, to help with privacy law such as GDPR.
Photos, sources and places
- Photos and documents: attach, rotate, caption and share pictures on your family treeAttach portraits, group photos, certificates and PDFs to people in Rootsgen. Caption them, rotate a sideways photo in one click, and keep every original file.
- Face tagging: identify who is in a family photo and find every picture of a personDraw a box around a face in any Rootsgen photo and link it to a person. Tag people you cannot identify yet as unknown, and see every photo someone appears in.
- Sources and citations: record where every fact in your family tree came fromAttach source citations to births, baptisms, deaths, burials and marriages in Rootsgen, rate their reliability, and print a bibliography of every source.
- Places and maps: locate every birthplace and burial on your family treeSee where events in your family tree happened. Pin places on an OpenStreetMap map, correct coordinates by hand, and explore every event at a place with the Places Report.
Charts and reports
- Ancestor and descendant charts: explore your family tree visuallyInteractive Rootsgen charts show a person's ancestors or descendants as a clickable tree. Follow a line back generation by generation, with every spouse shown.
- Family Group Sheet: print a couple, their marriage and their childrenThe Family Group Sheet puts one couple, their marriage details and all their children with birth, death and marriage facts on a single printable page.
- Individual Summary: everything known about one person on a pageThe Individual Summary report gathers one person's facts, family, notes and photos into a single printable page.
- Pedigree Chart: a numbered list of a person's ancestorsThe Pedigree Chart report lists a person's ancestors generation by generation with standard ancestor numbers, ready to print or save as PDF.
- Fan Chart: a half-circle chart of your ancestors, colored by family lineThe Fan Chart draws a person's ancestors as a half-circle, one ring per generation, colored by family line, with a printer-friendly black and white option.
- Ancestor Report: a person's ancestors as an indented outlineThe Ancestor Report walks back through a person's father and mother lines as an indented outline, showing where each line ends.
- Descendant Report: everyone descended from a person, as an indented outlineThe Descendant Report lists a person's children, grandchildren and further descendants as an indented outline, with every spouse shown on their own line.
- Register Report: a numbered narrative of a family, generation by generationThe Register Report writes a family's descendants as numbered narrative paragraphs in the style used by genealogy journals, with a "continued as No." cross-reference.
- Individual Timeline: a person's life in date order, with age at each eventThe Individual Timeline merges a person's events with their relatives' births, marriages and deaths into one chronological list with their age at each.
- Relationship Calculator: work out how any two people in your tree are relatedPick two people and Rootsgen tells you how they are related - such as second cousin once removed - using their common ancestor, and close in-law relationships.
- Places Report: every event recorded at a place in your family treeThe Places Report lets you search a place name and expand it to see every birth, marriage, death and other event recorded there, with the people involved.
- Source / Bibliography Report: every source in your tree and what cites itThe Source / Bibliography Report lists every source in your family tree with each fact that cites it, its page detail and evidence quality, ready to print.
- Surname Index: find everyone in your tree with a given surnameThe Surname Index lets you search a surname and expand it to list every person who carries it, with life years and links to their pages.
- Custom List Report: print any saved search as a reportThe Custom List Report prints the result of any Query tree search - by name, place, date, event or relationship - as a tidy printable table.
Tree options explained
- The Tree options menu explained: what every item doesA guide to every item in the Rootsgen Tree options menu - switching trees, statistics, search, reports, sharing, import, merge, export, backup and restore.
- Create a new family tree and switch between treesCreate a family tree in Rootsgen in two steps - name it, then optionally import a GEDCOM and photos - and switch between all the trees you own or share.
- Family tree statistics: people, families, dates and surnames at a glanceSee how many people, families, photos and notes your Rootsgen family tree holds, the years it covers, the living/deceased split and its most common surnames.
- Query tree: search your family tree by name, date, place, event or relationshipSearch a Rootsgen family tree by name, sex, living status, birth and death years, place, events and relationships, combine searches, save them and export to CSV.
- Family tree reports: print charts, sheets and lists to PDFThirteen printable Rootsgen family tree reports - family group sheets, pedigree, fan and descendant charts, timelines, place and surname reports - saved as PDF.
- Validate your family tree: find impossible dates, duplicates and missing filesRun a read-only data check on your Rootsgen family tree to find impossible dates, broken family links, duplicate-looking people, orphaned records and missing photos.
- Share your family tree: invite family as viewers, editors or co-ownersChoose exactly who can see or edit your Rootsgen family tree. Invite relatives as viewers, editors or a trusted co-owner, and change or remove access at any time.
- Tree settings: choose which person your family tree opens toSet the default person your Rootsgen family tree opens to, so everyone you share it with lands on the right starting point.
Import, merge and export
- Import a GEDCOM file and your photos into a new family treeBring a GEDCOM family tree and its photos into Rootsgen in a few steps. Works with a file from any genealogy program, then adds your media folder as a zip.
- Merge an updated GEDCOM into your family treeBring an updated GEDCOM export into a tree that already has data. Compare first, review every conflict, then commit - nothing is written until you say so.
- Export your family tree as GEDCOM with photos, with living people maskedDownload your Rootsgen family tree as a GEDCOM file plus your photos under their original names, and optionally mask living people to protect their privacy.
Backup, restore and delete
- Back up your whole family tree: the complete, restorable .db backupDownload a complete copy of your Rootsgen family tree - every person, fact, photo, face tag and setting - that you can restore exactly if anything goes wrong.
- Restore a family tree from a backup, safelyPut a Rootsgen family tree back to the state in a saved backup. A safety backup of the current tree is required first, then you confirm by typing the tree name.
- Delete a family tree permanentlyPermanently remove a Rootsgen family tree and its photos. You see exactly what will go, are offered an export first, and must type the tree name to confirm.
Your account
- Your account menu: preferences, feedback and sign outThe round button at the top right of Rootsgen opens your account menu - your name, Preferences, Report a bug or suggest a feature, and Sign out.
- Preferences: set up Rootsgen the way you like itEvery setting on the Rootsgen Preferences page - passkeys, recovery code, display name, colors, names, date formats, default tree and reopening where you left off.
- Passkeys and your recovery code: how signing in worksHow Rootsgen’s passwordless sign-in works: registering a passkey on each of your devices, and using your recovery code if you ever lose access to all of them.
- Display preferences: date formats, UPPER CASE surnames and colorsMake Rootsgen read the way you write: choose date formats, show surnames in UPPER CASE, and change the label and card colors in the family view.
- Report a bug or suggest a featureTell the people who run Rootsgen about a problem or an idea in a few seconds. The page you were on and your browser details are included automatically.
- Delete your Rootsgen account and see what happens to your treesClose your Rootsgen account yourself. A co-owner takes over any tree that has one, other trees are deleted, and you see exactly what will happen first.