Lineage is a private family-tree and storytelling application. It helps a family record relatives, relationships, important life events, photographs, sources, and memories in one shared archive.

It is for individuals, households, clans, and extended families who want an organised record they can build together. You can begin with only a few known relatives and expand over time.

The dashboard unlocks when you sign in or refresh your approval status. You can build your first tree, add relatives, invite family members, create timeline events, and preserve stories.

No. A profile represents a relative in the family record; an account is only needed when someone wants to sign in and participate. Never create shared login credentials for a group.

The one-time unlock discourages automated or disposable signups and supports operation of the private family archive. Payment is manually matched to the submitted M-Pesa transaction code before access is approved.

No. The current access model is a one-time KES 500 account unlock, not a monthly subscription.

Choose Send Money in M-Pesa, send exactly KES 500 to 254113245740, then enter the transaction code in the form above. Do not submit your PIN or the full confirmation message.

Yes. Enter the optional payer phone number with the transaction code so the administrator can match the payment. The Lineage account remains attached to your own email address.

Approval is manual, so timing depends on administrator availability and whether the submitted details match the M-Pesa payment. Use “Check approval status” above; you do not need to pay again while a valid submission is pending.

The rejection reason appears on this screen. Check the transaction code and payer number, then submit the corrected details. A rejection does not require another payment when the original payment was valid.

No. Lineage does not need your M-Pesa PIN, email password, banking password, or one-time verification codes. Anyone requesting them is not following the official process.

No. Every participating relative should use their own account and join through an invitation. Sharing the creator's password removes accountability and puts private family records at risk.

An owner or administrator creates an invitation for the relative's email address and selects a role. The relative signs in or creates an account through that invitation.

Viewers read permitted records. Contributors can add family content. Administrators manage access and shared records. Owners have full administration and can transfer ownership. Privacy rules still apply at every role.

Yes. One account can belong to multiple family trees, and you can switch the active family from the dashboard.

The owner should transfer ownership to another existing member before deleting their account. Lineage prevents deletion when shared families still require an ownership transfer.

No. Family records require an approved account and membership in that family. Lineage is not a public people-search directory.

Living-person controls can limit profile details for lower-access members. The same restrictions apply to timeline events, stories, direct links, and exports so sensitive information is not revealed indirectly.

Yes. Profile visibility can be restricted, and private content remains subject to creator and administrator controls. Contributors cannot use a private profile they are not allowed to manage.

No. Current media is stored privately and delivered through authenticated family access. A photograph attached to a protected profile is not exposed as a public file.

No. Family-tree and archive exports are filtered using the requesting member's permissions. Information they cannot view in the application should not appear in their export.

Do not store passwords, M-Pesa PINs, banking details, national-ID images, or unnecessary medical and financial information. Ask permission before adding sensitive details or photographs of living people.

You can record parents, children, spouses, siblings, grandparents, grandchildren, cousins, aunts or uncles, nieces or nephews, and custom relatives.

Timeline events include births, education, marriage, work, migration, milestones, deaths, places, approximate dates, descriptions, and optional source links.

Stories are long-form memories in the family journal. They can include a date and place, tag relevant relatives, use controlled visibility, and receive comments from permitted family members.

Permitted contributors can edit records. Duplicate detection helps identify repeated people, while merge controls consolidate records. Deleted people can be restored from the recycle bin before permanent removal.

Yes. Lineage supports an Excel family-tree export, a privacy-filtered JSON family archive, and a personal account-data export. GEDCOM and printed-book generation are not currently available.

Yes. The tree, timeline, stories, account controls, payment screen, and editors are responsive on modern phones, tablets, and desktop browsers.

Email verification protects account recovery and helps ensure payment approval is attached to a reachable account. Use the resend button above if the original message did not arrive.

Your session may have expired. Sign in again and refresh the page. If login briefly succeeds and then ends, allow cookies for the site and retry without private-browsing restrictions.

Use “Forgot your password?” on the sign-in screen. The emailed recovery link is single-use and expires for security; request a new one if necessary.

Yes, from Privacy & account after approval. Shared-family owners must transfer ownership first. Account deletion requires your password and an explicit confirmation phrase.

No. Keep copies of irreplaceable photographs and source documents. Use the available exports regularly; automated user-managed backup and GEDCOM workflows are not yet available.

Payment alone does not unlock the account. Submit the M-Pesa transaction code, wait for manual verification, then use “Check approval status”. Do not submit repeated payments for the same account.