Before you begin
- An owner or editor role
- Writing access (an active trial or plan)
Open the composer
Watch: Adding a first parent. The composer reads the outcome back before anything is saved. · 28s
Silent demonstration. Follow the written steps on this page at your own pace.
Step 1. In Family, choose Add someone at the top right. The composer opens anchored on the person in view, so the heading reads, for example, Add someone to Nora Marlowe’s family.
Step 2. Answer Who is this person to Nora? The common kinds are Parent, Child, Partner, Sibling and Half sibling; Someone further out reveals step-parents, step-siblings, cousins, grandparents, grandchildren, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews and step-children.
The composer asking who this person is to Nora, with Parent, Child, Partner and more
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Describe the person
Step 1. The form begins with a sentence such as This person will be recorded as Nora Marlowe’s parent. If the person already exists in the archive, choose Already in this story and pick them; otherwise stay on New person.
Step 2. Enter a First name. Middle names, family name, birth year and birth place are optional and can be added later.
The Add parent form filled in for Ruth Marlowe, born 1951 in Bristol
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Step 3. Set Sex, as recorded (Not recorded is a real answer) and Life status. Choose Life status unknown when you are unsure; unknown gets the same privacy protection as living.
Step 4. For a parent, say How did they come into the family? By birth, by adoption, fostered, under guardianship or not recorded. Adoptive parents draw as solid lines on the tree; only step, foster and guardian lines are dashed.
Step 5. Choose Add parent. The button explains itself when something is missing rather than staying silently disabled.
Keep going from the same panel
The composer after saving: Add another to Nora, Open their story, Done
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The panel stays open with three choices: Add another to Nora keeps the same relationship (five siblings are five names, not five trips), Open their story goes to the new person, and Done returns to the tree, where the new name lands in its generation with its thread drawn.
The tree after adding Ruth: two generations, with the descent thread from Ruth to Nora
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Reach further back
To add a grandparent, open the grandparent’s child first: click the parent on the tree so the composer anchors on them (the address bar shows `?focus=`), then choose Add someone and Parent. Repeat for each generation.
Adding Eleanor Marlowe, born 1921, died 2009, as David's parent
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Siblings, aunts and cousins open the same way once the connecting person exists.
With David's parents on record, Sibling is available in the composer
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Four generations of the Marlowe family on the tree
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Undo and remove
Adding a person can be undone for a few seconds from the toast that appears. Removing a connection later asks for confirmation and is also undoable for ten seconds. Removing a relationship never deletes the person or their memories.
Your next step
Help article by Our Story ·