What does it mean to make a tree public?

• By allowing others to see your tree in the Public Member Trees section of Ancestry, you help them discover missing links in their own family trees.

• By default, other members can contact you anonymously about your tree (without seeing your email address). You can later change this setting in the My Account area of the site.

• OneWorldTree essentially merges information from various family trees into one big family tree that can save you a lot of time with your research. By comparing all of the information from many family trees at once, rather than reviewing them one-by-one, you can determine which information is most reliable.

• When you allow others to view your family tree information in OneWorldTree, you open the door to finding other Ancestry members who have dates, names and other information missing from your tree. We'll also let you know when we find members conducting similar research, so you can compare notes, ask questions and get answers.

• Information about living individuals will never be shown to others without your explicit permission. Additionally, you can choose to remove your tree information from OneWorldTree and your tree from the Public Member Trees section at any time. And remember, just because other members can see your tree information, they still can't make any edits to it. Only you can do that.

What if I don't make my tree public?

• When you choose not to share your tree, you potentially miss out on opportunities to collaborate with other members and grow your tree.

• Even if you don't share your tree, other members can still learn if a specific deceased individual is in your tree, in addition to the birth year and birthplace of the person and your username (but no personal information about you).

• They can then contact you anonymously through Ancestry's Connection Service to request more information. Keep in mind that members who want to learn from your tree may also have helpful information about your tree to offer you in exchange.

Last updated on October 11, 2007 by myfamily.com