How does the tree work?
The tree opens on one person. Parents sit above, a husband or wife beside, and brothers, sisters and children below. Tap anyone and the tree moves to them. So you can walk from your grandmother to her cousins' grandchildren without scrolling across one giant chart.
Tapping someone also opens a panel about them: portrait, dates, where they were born and lived, their story, the family around them, and their photos. On a computer it sits beside the tree. On a phone it slides up from the bottom. Your own face carries a small "you", so you never lose yourself.
What goes on each person's page?
- Their names, including a maiden name and a nickname.
- Dates as exact as you know them: a full date, a month, a year, or "circa" when it's a guess.
- Where they were born and where they lived, which also puts them on the family map.
- Their life story, in their own words or yours.
- Every photo they're in, gathered once their face is named.
- Their family as chips to tap: parents, children, brothers and sisters, marriages.
Real families aren't tidy, and the tree doesn't expect them to be. Someone can marry more than once, with children from each marriage. A child can have one known parent. For the living, birthdays are kept to the month, and a phone number or email address is only shown to members.
Why keep photos in the family tree?
A name and two dates tell you someone lived. A face at a wedding, a line about the shop they ran, a photo of them holding your father as a baby: that tells you who they were. Most families keep these in different places. The tree is in someone's notebook, the photos are in shoeboxes and phones, and the stories are in people's heads. Kumbaa puts them in one place, on the person they belong to.
Who fills it in?
Whoever starts the archive invites the family. Curators can edit everything. Anyone who is in the tree can edit their own corner of it: their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents, their brothers and sisters, everyone below them, and the people they married. So your cousin in another city adds her own children and grandchildren, and you don't have to chase anyone for dates.
Already have a tree on paper or in a document? Import it instead of typing it in. Curious how two people connect? "How are we related?" works on any two people in the tree.
Is it really private?
Yes. Your archive has its own address, and only the people you invite can see anything in it. It isn't a public tree shared with strangers, a records search, or a DNA test. More on that in a private family website. New to all this? Start with how to make a family tree.