FamilySearch Memories: a short record-story attached to a deceased ancestor's person page (gate)

Read 31 Oct 2026 (skills harvest). Free. It needs a FamilySearch account, and opening one is a new account, so it is a proposal that needs the project lead's GO. Nothing was created or uploaded.

What it is

FamilySearch's shared Family Tree is a single world tree. Anyone can attach "Memories" (photos, stories, documents, audio) to a deceased person's page. Tagging a person in a memory attaches it to that person's page, so everyone researching that ancestor sees it there (FamilySearch help pages, search snippets).

Numbers

• FamilySearch Company Facts, updated 6 Oct 2026 (read):
• 24.19 million monthly visits
• 1.96 billion people in the Family Tree
• 4.27 billion sources attached to the tree
• 16.93 billion searchable names in historical records
• 5.92 billion digital images
• FamilySearch 2019 Year in Review (read): users uploaded 8,751,822 photos and stories that year, taking Memories to 40,373,365 in total. I didn't find a newer total. The 2025 review page I read gives none.
• 2016 Year in Review (snippet): 14.5 million photos, 1.6 million documents and 1.1 million stories. Stories are much rarer than photos, so a well-sourced story on a person's page is less likely to be lost in a crowd.
• Upload limit: no cap, but more than 5,000 items can slow the account (help-centre snippet).

Rules that matter

• Licence (search snippets of the Terms of Use and the Content Submission Agreement, not read in full): uploading grants FamilySearch an "unrestricted, fully paid-up, royalty-free, worldwide, irrevocable, sublicensable, and perpetual" licence. So never upload the e-book, a chapter or a paid image. Upload only a short story we're happy to give away for good.
• Privacy: the tree treats a person as living until there is a death record, unless they were born more than 110 years ago or married more than 95 years ago (already in family-tree-page-living-privacy-proof-standard.md). Attach only to people who are clearly dead. Name no living person and no family holdings.
• Viewing: viewing the tree and memories needs a free sign-in (not checked from this box). The help pages returned 403 to the plain client and the Memories pages are rendered by JavaScript, so a real browser read is needed before any GO.
• Tree edits are shared and can be changed by anyone. Add a memory, not a contested change to the tree itself.

How to do it (after the project lead's GO)

1. A free FamilySearch account in the project lead's name, with no new account opened by an agent. Or skip this entirely.
2. Find the person page for the ancestor, for example a John Williams of Llandough/Leckwith who died in 1908. Confirm the identity on two attached sources first. If there's no person page, stop. Do not create people.
3. Add one Story memory of 150 to 300 words: - one verbatim record line with its catalogue ID; - one paragraph of context written as "our reading"; - one line reading "More records: cedwyn.bucklerfamily.estate/research/" (check whether the story editor allows a live link before relying on it; not checked).
4. Tag only that person. Title it with the place and year, for example "Great House, Llandough, 1891 census line".
5. Log it in the project workspace After 30 days, check the site referrals from familysearch.org (Cloudflare referrer and UTM).

How we apply it to Cedwyn

• This is the one free, permanent place where Williams cousins already look: the ancestor's own page. It works like cousin-bait (cousin-bait-ancestor-pages-52-ancestors-pedigree-notes.md) but inside the tree rather than on our site.
• What the project lead gets as a proposal: 1 story, 1 person, 0 spend, his own account. Kill rule: if there's no referral and no cousin contact in 60 days, add no more.
• Public-text rules apply: never name the project lead; no banned words; no insignia; no family holdings; Llandough Farm is not Great House Farm; the irrevocable licence means public-safe text only.

Sources

• familysearch.org (read, updated 6 Oct 2026)
• familysearch.org (read)
• familysearch.org (snippet)
• familysearch.org (snippet: tagging attaches the memory to the person page)
• articles.familysearch.org (snippet)
• familysearch.org ; familysearch.org (licence wording, snippets)
• familysearch.org (403 here; snippet)

Raw Markdown: familysearch-memories-story-on-deceased-ancestor-gate.md · version and changes: changelog · machine index: agents.json