About us
Mission
Our mission is to connect the world on a single family tree that's free and accessible to everyone.
Vision
WikiTree is designed to balance privacy and collaboration so that living people can connect on one world tree to common ancestors.
We privately collaborate with our close family members on modern family history and recent connections. As we go back in time, the trust circles for person profiles grow wider and wider. Collaboration on deep ancestors is between distant cousins who are serious about genealogical research and careful about sources.
Because all the profiles are connected on the same system our collaboration is creating a single family tree that will eventually connect us all and thereby make it free and easy for anyone to discover their roots.
Community
WikiTree is open to everyone. We are creating The Free Family Tree. There are no "premium" memberships and nobody is charged for access to anything. Ever.
Although everyone is invited to enjoy the fruits of the tree, those who actively help grow the tree must agree with the mission and Honor Code. This is the foundation of our productive and enjoyable community. We hope you'll join us.
See Community Membership for more.
Organization
WikiTree was started by Chris Whitten and is hosted by Interesting.com, Inc.
The site first opened in 2008. It has been steadily growing and improving since then. The community improves the tree. Chris and the team improve the technical infrastructure and tools. We do this by working with community members to discover what they need to further our shared mission — and to have fun doing it.
We have made a pledge to keep WikiTree free. This is possible because we are a low-cost operation. By keeping costs low, we are able to cover the expenses of hosting the website through modest ads on public pages.