Questions
Frequently asked questions
The questions people ask before they start, and while they build. Still stuck? Use the message form at the bottom of the page.
Getting started
- What is TLC Family?
- A private place to build your own family tree. You enter the people your family already knows about, with their dates and places, and the tree draws itself around them. There is nothing to install and nothing to search.
- What does it cost?
- Nothing at present. If that changes, we will tell you by email before it applies to your account, and you can decide then. An existing account will not start being charged without notice.
- How do I sign up?
- Choose “Start your family tree”. Enter your email address and a password of at least 8 characters, tick the box to accept the terms and the privacy policy, and wait for the quick check that you are not a robot. Then press Create my account. We email you a link: open it to finish setting up your account. If it does not arrive within a few minutes, please look in your spam or junk folder.
- What do I need to use it?
- Any current web browser, on a computer, a tablet or a phone. There is nothing to install. The text is set larger than on most websites, and you can enlarge it further in your browser without the page breaking.A family tree grows wider with every generation, so for building and exploring a tree of any size, a computer or laptop gives by far the clearest view. The circular view in particular needs a large screen: on a phone the circle is bigger than the screen and has to be scrolled around, and the outer rings become too small to read comfortably. A tablet suits a smaller tree. On a phone, TLC Family works best for looking up one person or following one branch: open a person and choose to view their tree, and the view rebuilds around them.
- Will TLC Family find my ancestors for me?
- No. There are no historical records to search, no DNA testing and no automatic matches. You enter the people, and the tree shows you what you have entered. What it is good at is following a family down through the generations, from an ancestor to everyone after them.
Building your tree
- Where do I start?
- After you sign in, type a name for your tree under “Start a new family tree” and press Create. Then add the first person. Begin with yourself, or with anyone you know well; a name is all you need, and dates and places can come later.
- How do I add parents, partners and children?
- Click a person to open their details, then press Edit. You can then add their parents, add a partner, and add children, either with a particular partner or for this parent alone. Press Done when you have finished.
- What if I do not know the exact dates?
- Enter what you know. A birth date can be just a month and a year, or a year on its own, and anything can be left blank and added later. On the timeline, someone with no birth year is placed at an estimated position, drawn with a dashed outline, and never shown with a made-up date.
- How do I put brothers and sisters in the right order?
- Years decide the order. A rough birth year is enough to place a child correctly among their brothers and sisters. Children with no year at all appear in the order they were added.
- Can I record a second marriage, a partner who was not married, or an adopted child?
- Yes. A person can have more than one partner, and each partnership keeps its own children. A partnership can be a marriage, a partnership or a civil union, with its date and a status such as married or divorced. A child can be recorded as biological, adopted, step or foster.
- How do I correct or remove someone?
- Open their details and press Edit. Edit details changes their name, dates, places and notes. Beside a parent, Wrong person or Remove fixes that link. Delete this person removes them from the tree, after asking you to confirm, and it cannot be undone.
- How do I rename or delete a family tree?
- On your dashboard, choose Rename or delete beside the tree. Renaming changes only the name. Deleting asks you to type the tree’s name exactly before the button will work, and it cannot be undone.
Viewing your tree
- What are the three views?
- Switch between them at the top of your tree:
- Circular Tree: one person at the centre, each ring a further generation. The quickest way to see the shape of a whole family.
- Traditional Tree: the familiar chart, with parents above and children below. The one to use when you want to trace a single line carefully.
- Timeline: every life laid out against the years, so you can see which generation lived through what, and who overlapped with whom.
- How do I follow one branch of the family?
- Click a person, then press the button to view this person’s tree (or circular tree, or family timeline). The whole view rebuilds around them, so you can follow one line at a time.
- How do I find someone in a big tree?
- Use the search box at the top of your tree. You can search by name or by birth place, and narrow it to a range of years.
Privacy and your data
- Who can see my tree?
- You, and nobody else. Each tree belongs to the account that created it, and the database enforces that on every single read, not just in the interface. There is no public directory, no way to browse other people’s trees, and no sharing feature. Your tree is also excluded from search engines.
- Can I share my tree with my family?
- Not yet. At the moment each tree is private to the account that created it, and there is no way to share it.
- Can anyone at TLC read my tree?
- We can technically reach the data because we run the service, and we may do so to fix a fault or to restore a backup. We do not read family trees otherwise, and we never sell or share your information with anyone else.
- Is my tree backed up?
- Yes. Backups are taken so that the service can be restored after a failure.
- Should I record details about living relatives?
- A family tree usually contains details about relatives who are still alive and who have not agreed to anything. Please think about that before you record a living person’s date of birth or address, and before you print or send a copy to anyone.
- How do I close my account?
- You can ask us to delete your account and everything in it. Write to info@time-linecontinuum.com and we will confirm when it is done.
Not available yet
- Can I add photographs?
- Not yet. Photographs are not part of TLC Family yet.
- Can I print or download my tree, or bring in a family tree file from another program?
- Not yet. There is no way to print or download a tree, or to import a family tree file, at the moment.
Getting help
- How do I contact you?
- Use the message form at the bottom of any page, or write to info@time-linecontinuum.com. We will reply by email.