What happens to your family tree when you die.

It depends on where your tree lives. Ancestry lets you name a legacy contact. MyHeritage can transfer an account to a close relative or legal heir. FamilySearch keeps what you added to its shared tree, but nobody can inherit your account. Files on your computer last only if someone knows they're there. So download a copy now, and tell one person where it is.

Where it lives decides what happens.

	After you're gone	What to do now
Ancestry	Your trees stay in your account. Family can ask for access by writing from your email address, or with a death certificate and legal papers	Name a legacy contact in Account Settings. It's one person, at least 18, and they don't need an account
MyHeritage	A spouse, sibling, parent, child or legal heir can ask to take over or close the account, with a death certificate	Tell them the account exists and which email address it uses
FamilySearch	Once FamilySearch has proof, it disables the account, and family can't inherit it. Your public contributions stay. Private memories can't be found by anyone	Tag your memories to people and give them titles, and don't leave anything you want found set to private
Your computer	Nothing happens until someone turns it on and knows what they're looking at	Keep a copy somewhere else, and write down where
Boxes and binders	They go wherever the person clearing the house decides	Label what matters, and say who should have it

Six things to do this week.

Download your file. A GEDCOM file holds your names, dates, places and relationships, and other family tree programs can open it. It's text only, and Ancestry says pictures aren't included, so keep yours separately. Our free tool will open and check the file.
Choose one person, and ask them. They don't need to be a genealogist or even the closest relative. They need to care, and to know you're counting on them.
Write one page. Which sites you use, where the files and boxes are, how to find your passwords, and what matters most. Keep it with your will or other papers. Don't put passwords on the page itself.
Set up the legacy tools. Ancestry's legacy contact, Apple's Legacy Contact and Google's Inactive Account Manager each take a few minutes.
Say what you want in writing. Genealogists call this a genealogical codicil: a note asking your family not to throw your research away for a set time, and saying who should get it. Here's one example. If you want it to be legally binding, ask an estate lawyer.
Leave copies with other people. Give the file to two or three relatives now. A local society or library may want your research too, but ask before you plan on it, because many can't take everything.

What gets lost first.

A file says what you concluded. It rarely says why, or which family you ruled out. Write down your reasoning for the hardest cases. Then do the same for the people in your old photos, because you may be the last one who can name them.

If you're the one holding the boxes.

Don't throw anything out yet. Take a few weeks to see what you have, and ask the relatives who might want it.
Look for the logins. Email is the key to most of these accounts, so keep it open while you sort things out.
Check for subscriptions. A paid membership may keep renewing until someone cancels it.

Keeping your family with us.

With Ancestral Fire, you can download your whole family as a GEDCOM file at any time. We don't have a legacy contact yet, so keep your own copy and tell someone where it is.

Or just ask.

Tell Ancestral Fire one name, and it reads your tree, searches FamilySearch Family Tree once you connect it, and tells you what it found, with the source behind each fact. A real answer:

(The published Kennedy file, brought in from the first screen.)

The tree at a glance: 208 people · 75 families · born 1728–1984. Commonest surnames: Kennedy, Bouvier, Caulfield, Mahoney, Skakel, Fitzgerald.

What Ancestral Fire showed seconds after the Kennedy family's published GEDCOM was brought in.

Do it now: check your file in the free GEDCOM viewer so the next person can open it.

See a whole conversation on How it works, or what it finds in one family: The Kennedy family tree, from Wexford to Dallas.

Keep reading.

Storyworth alternatives for a family gift. The main alternatives to Storyworth are Remento, which turns spoken answers into a book, and Ancestral Fire, which starts from the family already on record so nobody has to write.
Free alternatives to Ancestry. The best free alternative to Ancestry is FamilySearch, which has a huge free record collection and one shared family tree.

Connect your tree