Written by Generation Archives. We sell a private tree, so we have a view, but this guide is meant to help you decide for any service. It is not legal advice.

Family tree privacy: public, private, or invite-only, and who you are protecting against

Published by Generation Archives on November 5, 2026.

Most advice about family-tree privacy says "be careful" and stops there. This guide takes a more useful approach: it asks who you are actually trying to protect against, and then looks at which setting handles that. Our companion guide, a private family tree you share with relatives, explains how sharing works in Generation Archives. This one is about the reasoning behind the choice.

Start with the question: private from whom?

"Privacy" is not one thing. A tree that is safe from strangers may be fully exposed to relatives. A tree that is private to you may be useless to your cousins. Consider the people who might see a tree and what each could do.

Audience	What they might want	What could go wrong
Strangers on the internet	Curiosity, research, or copying names	A scammer builds a profile of a family. A stranger copies photos. Names and dates appear in other people's trees
Search engines	To index whatever is public	A living relative's name, birth date, and parents are searchable
Distant relatives	Information, photos, connection	They share it further, or disagree with what is written
Close relatives you invited	Seeing and helping	A well-meaning relative forwards a link or screenshots a page
Former relatives or estranged family	They might not want to be found, or might be looking	A listing exposes someone who has chosen to keep their distance
The service itself	Operating the tree	Policy changes, breaches, or the service closing
Future you	A clean, accurate record	You forget what you wrote in a note years ago

Write down which of these matter to your tree. For a tree of long-dead ancestors, only a few apply. For a tree of living siblings and their children, nearly all apply.

The three models

Public

A public tree can be seen by anyone, with or without an account. Some public trees can be found by search engines, and some are visible only to people who have the link. Check which kind you have.

Good for: long-dead ancestors, historical research, fictional families, a family history you want strangers to find, and cousins you have not met yet.

The risk: you cannot take it back. What has been public may be copied, cached, or shared. Living people can be exposed.

The rule of thumb: put nothing on a public tree that you would not want read aloud at a reunion by someone who does not like you.

Private

A private tree is visible only to you, or only to you and the people you choose.

Good for: trees that include living people, recent family, photographs, and stories.

The risk: a private tree is only as private as the least careful person who can see it. A private tree can still be copied.

Invite-only (private with collaborators)

This is a private tree where you name the people who can see or change it. In Generation Archives, trees are private by default, and you invite relatives by email with view or edit access. You can remove a collaborator at any time from tree settings. You can also turn on a public link, which is a separate choice.

Good for: families who want to work on one archive together.

The risk: each person you add is a person who can copy, forward, or misuse what they see. Choosing between view and edit matters. An editor can change or delete what you wrote.

Comparing the models

	Public	Private (you only)	Invite-only
Strangers can see it	Yes	No	No
Search engines can index it	Possibly	No	No
Relatives can help	Only if they have access	No	Yes
Good for living people	Rarely	Yes	Yes, with care
Easy to undo	No	Yes	Partly. Copies already made remain
Effort to manage	Low	Low	Medium. You manage invites

A threat model, step by step

You do not need to be a security specialist. Four questions are enough.

What am I protecting? Names and birth dates of living people? Photos of children? Addresses? Stories that are not mine to tell? Make a short list.
Who might get it, and how? Walk through the audience list above. For each, ask how they would reach the tree. A link, a search, a forwarded email, a relative's phone.
What would happen if they did? Be realistic. A stranger reading your great-great-grandmother's birthplace is not a disaster. A stranger finding your niece's name, school, and photo is.
What is the simplest change that reduces the risk? Often it is leaving a detail off. It can also be a different setting.

Fixes that cost nothing

Leave off details that serve nobody. Home addresses, phone numbers, and children's full birth dates rarely help the tree. See what to record about living people.
Use years instead of full dates for anyone born in the last few decades.
Use initials or "private" for living people on anything that leaves the family.
Invite fewer people. Add the people who will help, not everyone who is curious.
Use view access by default and edit access for those you trust.
Separate the trees. If one branch is public-friendly and another is not, keep them as two trees. In Generation Archives you can keep several trees under one account.
Check the settings now and again. Settings drift, and the person who invited a cousin in 2023 may not remember.

What each model does not protect

Private does not protect against a copy. If someone can see it, they can screenshot it.
A password does not protect against a forwarded link. A link that gives access is the key, so treat it like one.
Deleting a post does not delete a copy. Once something has been public, assume it still exists.
Free services do not make privacy free. Read the privacy policy for what the service stores and who can read it. Ours is on the privacy policy page.

Shared world trees are a different model

Some services run one tree for everyone, where profiles of the deceased are public and editable by anyone with an account. That has benefits, such as pooling work with cousins, but it works differently from a private family archive. See Generation Archives vs FamilySearch for how that model compares, and free family tree websites compared for more.

Which model for which situation

A tree of ancestors who died long ago, which you want strangers to find: public may be fine.
A tree that includes living family: invite-only.
A tree for a book, a game, or a story: public is often fine, since the people are fictional.
A tree for a reunion: invite-only, with a printed or PDF version for people who are not on the tree. See family tree for a reunion or obituary.
A tree you are not sure about: private to you until you decide.

Frequently asked questions

Is a private tree safe?

It is safer than a public one, and still depends on the people you invite and how careful they are. No setting can stop a trusted person from copying what they can see.

Can search engines find my tree?

Only if the service makes it public. In Generation Archives, trees are private by default, and a public link is something you turn on. Check the setting rather than assuming.

Should I put living people in a tree at all?

Often yes, with care. A tree without living people is less useful, and a tree with too much detail is risky. What to record about living people is a good place to start.

What should I do if I shared too much?

Remove the details, change the setting, tell the people who may have copied it, and ask them to delete what they saved. You cannot guarantee it is gone, which is why the smaller version should come first.

How do I let relatives see the tree without an account?

Some families use a PDF or image of the tree. In Generation Archives you can export a PDF, PNG, or JPEG image. See how to share a family tree safely.

Try the demo Sample tree Create a free account

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