Skip to main content

What is the difference between an Account, a Family Site, and a Family tree?

Updated over 4 months ago

Accounts
​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

What is my MyHeritage Account?
​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

At MyHeritage, your account is your personal gateway to our platform. It's created with the email address you used when you registered.
​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Your account includes:
​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

  • Your login credentials (email, password and account number)

  • Your billing information

  • Access to create and manage all your family sites

  • Privacy settings and preferences
    ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Your account can contain multiple family sites, and each site can host one or more family trees—creating a structured hierarchy for organizing your genealogical research:



Family Sites
​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

What is a Family Site?
​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

A family site is your dedicated space for exploring and preserving your family's history. You can have multiple family sites under one account. Each site can have its own privacy settings and subscription level. With a family site you can:
​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

  • Manage multiple family trees

  • Invite members to view or edit your family tree

  • Access specific features based on each site's subscription level
    ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Why would I need multiple family sites?
​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Multiple family sites are useful when you want to:

  • Research completely separate family lines with different privacy needs

  • Maintain different subscription levels for different research projects

  • ​​Collaborate with different groups of people on separate research interests
    ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Family Trees
​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

What is a family tree?
​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

A family tree is the actual genealogical chart showing relationships between individuals. Within each family site, you can create multiple trees to organize your research in different ways.
​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Why would I need multiple family trees in one family site?
​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Multiple trees are helpful when you want to:

  • Separate maternal and paternal lines

  • Create hypothesis trees to test different theories

  • Build separate trees for different branches of extended family

  • Maintain a simplified tree for sharing while keeping a detailed research tree
    ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Key Takeaways:
​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Account: Your personal hub with login and billing.
​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Family Site: A site for your family history, can have multiple family sites under one account.
​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Family Tree: A visual representation of your ancestry, can have multiple trees under one family site.
​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Did this answer your question?