How it works

Everyone has cousins — we find them. Here is the whole thing, start to finish.

1. You start with one name. A grandparent or great-grandparent who has died — that's all. Or, if you already have a family tree file, you bring it.
2. We follow the links. Parent to child, one step at a time, from you to the people who share your ancestors.
3. We grade every link. Each step gets one of four honest labels (below), based on what records actually back it up.
4. You get an answer in one word. One of five — coloured, shaped, and said in plain English — plus how you two are related (“fourth cousin, once removed”) and the shakiest link in the chain. The number is still there if you want it, under “Show the arithmetic.”
5. Your family gets its own site. Only signed-in relatives can see it. You invite your cousins with a link, and the tree fills in.

The five answers

We used to show a percentage. A number on its own doesn't tell you much, so now every answer lands on one of five words — each with its own colour and its own shape, so you can tell them apart even if the colours all look the same to you.

The four labels behind every link

Each step in the connection — one parent to one child — sits on one of four rungs, so you always know how solid the ground is. The answer above is only ever as strong as its weakest rung.

1. Proved. A record names both people, and it's been read.
2. Documented. Real records back it up.
3. Index only. A name-and-date match in an index; no record read yet.
4. Family story. Passed down, or copied from another tree; no record found so far.

Every card names its weakest link. A weak link is still a result.

What it costs

Joining, searching, and browsing your family's site are free. The one paid thing is asking us to chase down the record behind a weak link — and you see the price before anything runs. That record search is paid for with prepaid credit, starting at $10.00. It is done by an AI agent, reading only sources we allow, and it cites every record it uses by URL. A finding that comes with a record URL and a clear rung of evidence is added to your tree automatically; anything less certain waits for your family's owner to decide.

Learn About Your Cousins, Publish Your Cousins

Your family site is more than a tree. Under Learn About Your Cousins, any relative can write a family story — a memory, a tradition, the tale behind a name — and, once it's ready, share it with a link that opens without anyone signing in. Under Publish Your Cousins, the family's owner or moderator compiles the whole tree, its stories, and its sources into one keepsake PDF — a family book you can print, save, or hand to a relative who isn't online. Living relatives are protected the same way everywhere on the site: never named in anything shared outside the family.