Kinfold: how to use it

Kinfold is a family tree that stays on your device. Add your relatives and how they are related. See your ancestors and descendants, and ask how any two people are related. You get the answer in plain English, such as "second cousin once removed".

It's free. There is no account to create and nothing to download from an app store. It runs in your web browser, and you can install it on your phone, tablet or computer so that it opens like any other app, even without an internet connection.

Open Kinfold

Contents

1. Getting started
2. Adding people and family links
3. Looking at your tree
4. How are we related?
5. RelFinder and the Turtle Editor Viewer
6. Checking your tree for mistakes
7. Keeping your tree safe
8. Installing Kinfold as an app
9. Moving a tree from or to another program
10. Where your data goes
11. Questions
12. For the curious

1. Getting started

The first time you open Kinfold, it offers three ways in:

• Start with yourself: type your own name and dates, then add your parents, partner and children from there.
• Import a GEDCOM file: bring in a tree you already have in another program or website, such as Ancestry, FamilySearch, MyHeritage or Gramps. See section 9.
• Explore a sample family: load twenty-two invented people over seven generations, so you can try everything before typing in your own family. To remove them afterwards, use Erase everything in More.

Four tabs along the bottom take you around the app:

Tab	What it's for
People	Everyone in your tree, in surname order, with a search box. Tap anyone to open their page.
Tree	An ancestor chart or a descendant tree for anyone you choose.
Related?	Pick two people and see how they are related.
More	Backups, importing and exporting, the health check, installing, and this guide.

The arrow at the top left goes back, and so does your browser's Back button or your phone's back gesture.

Finding someone

Type in the search box at the top of the People tab. The list narrows as you type. It looks through names, birth and death dates, places, notes and sources.

• Words in any order: ashworth thomas finds Thomas Ashworth. Every word you type has to match, so add a word to narrow the list.
• Capitals and accents don't matter: zoe finds Zoë, and bronte finds Brontë.
• Exact phrases: put words in double quotes, such as "1911 census" or "st john", to find them together and in that order.
• Search in: once you start typing, buttons under the box let you choose where to look: All, Names, Dates, Places or Notes (notes and sources). For example, halifax with Places lists everyone born or died in Halifax, and skips people with Halifax only in a note.
• Why someone matched: when the match isn't in the name, a line under it shows where, such as Born in: Halifax, Yorkshire or the part of a note that matched.

The same search works wherever Kinfold asks you to pick a person, such as when you add a parent or choose two people to relate.

2. Adding people and family links

Adding someone

On the People tab, tap + Add person. Fill in as much as you know and tap Save. Only a name is needed.

• Surname at birth: use the surname someone was born with, such as a woman's maiden name. That keeps families together in the list.
• Dates: type them the way you have them: 3 Mar 1901, 1901, abt 1872, bef 1900. Kinfold keeps exactly what you type, because family history dates are often uncertain. It uses the year for ages and for the health check.
• Notes: anything else worth keeping, such as an occupation, an address or a family story.
• Suffix: Jr., Sr., III and the like, shown after the surname.
• Sources: where each fact came from, one per line, such as 1911 Census, Halifax or Parish register, St John's. Future you will be glad of them. There's a box for each kind:
  • Sources for the birth and Sources for the death belong to those facts. They need a date or a place to belong to, so Kinfold asks for one if it's missing.
  • Other sources are about the person in general.
  • Sources for family links, below those (tap to open it), have a box for each parent and partner. Put a birth certificate that names the parents there, or a marriage register.

On someone's page, each fact shows its sources underneath it, and the Sources card lists the rest. If a source was recorded for a date or place that has since changed, the card shows it under For facts that have changed since. Open Edit and save, and it moves to the current fact.

Linking family members

Open someone's page. Under Parents, Partners, Children and Siblings there are buttons to add each kind of relative. Each one lets you pick someone already in your tree, or tap + Someone new to add them on the spot.

• Children: when the person has one partner, Kinfold offers to make the child theirs too (Also … 's child). Untick it if the child had a different other parent.
• A second parent: Kinfold offers to record them as the first parent's partner too (Also … 's partner). Leave it ticked unless they weren't a couple. It keeps them together as one family when you export to other programs.
• Siblings: adding a brother or sister gives them the same parents. So you can add siblings only once someone has at least one parent in the tree. If you don't know the parents' names, add a parent as "Unknown" first.
• Half-brothers and half-sisters are worked out for you. Anyone who shares only one parent is marked (half).
• Someone can have at most two parents and any number of partners.

Changing and removing

• Tap Edit on someone's page to change their details.
• Tap the × beside a relative to remove that family link. Both people stay in the tree.
• Delete this person is at the bottom of the Edit screen. It removes them and all their family links, and it cannot be undone.

3. Looking at your tree

The Tree tab draws the tree for one person. Tap the name at the top to choose someone else.

• Ancestors shows parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and so on, as far back as you've added them, up to six generations at a time. Beside a parent you have added, a box saying unknown stands for the other parent, not added yet.
  • On a phone the chart is wider than the screen: swipe sideways to see the older generations.
  • On a computer a chart of five or more generations is wider than the window too. Use the Older › and ‹ Newer buttons under it, the arrow keys, or drag it with the mouse. The edges fade where there is more to see.
  • To go further back, tap or click the → beside anyone in the last column. The chart is drawn again from them, with a line saying how they are related to the person you started from.
  • To come back, tap or click the ← beside the person the chart now starts from, or Back to … 's tree in the line above the chart. Each step back returns one step, as your browser's Back button does.
• Descendants shows children, grandchildren and so on, with each person's partner beside them (m.).

Tap anyone in the tree to open their page. The Tree button on a person's page jumps straight to their tree.

4. How are we related?

On the Related? tab, choose two people. Kinfold answers in a sentence, such as "Emma Price is Claire Ashworth's third cousin", and shows the chain of people that connects them. Tap anyone in the chain to open their page, and Swap to ask the question the other way round. (Claire might be Mary's great-great-niece, and Mary is Claire's great-great-aunt.)

It names relationships at any distance:

• By blood: parents, grandparents and every generation beyond (from three "greats" it says 3rd great-grandfather, as genealogists do), children and grandchildren, brothers and sisters, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews, and cousins of every degree, however many times "removed". It spots half relations (half-brother, half-aunt) and double cousins, whose parents were two siblings who married two siblings.
• By marriage: husbands and wives; step-parents, stepchildren, step-grandchildren and stepbrothers and stepsisters; parents-, children-, brothers- and sisters-in-law, grandparents-in-law and grandchildren-in-law; aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews by marriage.
• Anything else connected: Kinfold describes the chain, such as "your wife's brother's wife", and gives its name if it has one (co-sister-in-law, co-father-in-law).

When two people are related in more than one way, which happens when cousins marry, Kinfold says so. Kinfold picks the closest relationship and mentions the others.

A quicker way in: open someone's page and tap Relate. They become the first person, and you only need to choose the second.

5. RelFinder and the Turtle Editor Viewer

Two other free Semantechs tools can show your tree in new ways. Both work the same way: Kinfold saves your tree as a file (a Turtle file, ending .ttl), and you open that file in the tool. The tool reads it inside your browser, so your tree still isn't uploaded anywhere.

• The file holds your whole tree, like a backup. Delete it when you've finished, especially on a shared computer.
• It works as a backup too. Restore backup (section 7) reads it. You can even change something in the Turtle Editor Viewer, save the file, and bring the tree back into Kinfold.
• The tools forget the file when you close or reload their tab. Next time, open the file again, or save a fresh one if your tree has changed.

Every link, in RelFinder

How are we related? gives you the closest connection. Families are rarely that tidy, though. Two people can be cousins through one line and in-laws through another, and a big tree hides links you'd never think to ask about. RelFinder, another free Semantechs tool, finds every path between two or more people and draws them as a picture. You can drag the picture around, filter it, and follow a path to see who is on it.

1. Choose two people on the Related? tab and tap Every link, in RelFinder. Or, to choose the people inside RelFinder, use See links in RelFinder in More.
2. Tap Save the tree as a Turtle file. Your browser asks where to save it, or puts it in your Downloads folder.
3. Tap Open RelFinder. It opens in a new tab with your two people already filled in.
4. In RelFinder, open the Sources tab and drop the file onto the Local store box, or tap the box and choose the file.
5. Go back to RelFinder's Find tab and press Find.

RelFinder's own guide explains how to read and filter the picture. Giving one person twice shows everyone linked to them.

• Keep RelFinder on its local store. Kinfold opens RelFinder with only the Local store switched on. RelFinder can also search public websites such as Wikipedia's DBpedia and Wikidata. If you switched those on while your family was loaded, the names you typed would be sent to them to look up. Leave them off.
• How far it looks: RelFinder follows at most six links. Each step from parent to child, or between partners, is one link. So first cousins are four links apart, second cousins six, and third cousins eight, which is too far. If two people are too far apart, Kinfold tells you.

Your tree as linked data, in the Turtle Editor Viewer

Kinfold stores your tree as linked data (section 12 explains what that means). The Turtle Editor Viewer lets you look at it that way: the statements themselves, a diagram of who links to whom, and questions you can ask in the SPARQL query language. It's a good way to see how Kinfold works, or to learn linked data using a family you know.

1. In More, tap Open in the Turtle Editor Viewer.
2. Tap Save the tree as a Turtle file, then Open the Turtle Editor Viewer.
3. In the editor, use Open File and choose the file.
4. Click people in the list beside it to draw them in the diagram (hold Ctrl or Shift to pick several), or press Get All.

Its own guide explains the rest. Everything happens inside your browser. Changes you make there don't come back into Kinfold.

6. Checking your tree for mistakes

Typing errors creep into every family tree. Tree health check in More looks for things that can't be right, or probably aren't. The number beside it shows how many it found.

• Someone who died before they were born
• Someone who lived more than 110 years
• A parent under 12, or born after their child
• A parent who died more than a year before the child was born
• Someone with more than two parents
• Someone who is their own ancestor (a loop in the tree, usually a child added as a parent by mistake)
• Someone with no name
• Someone with a source recorded for a date or place that has since changed (open them, then Edit and save to attach it to the current fact)

Tap a name to go to that person and put it right. Some will be genuine (a father can die before his child is born), so treat the list as a prompt, not a verdict.

7. Keeping your tree safe

Backing up

In More, tap Back up, then Save file. In Chrome and Edge you choose where the file goes. Other browsers put it in your Downloads folder. The file is named with the date, such as kinfold-backup-2026-11-14.nt.

Kinfold reminds you. If you've made changes and haven't backed up for a week, a Back up your tree banner appears on the People tab. Back up now saves a backup straight away, and Later hides the banner for three days. More always shows when you last backed up.

Restoring a backup

In More, tap Restore backup, choose your backup file and tap Import. That can be a Kinfold backup (.nt) or a Turtle file (.ttl), such as the one Kinfold saves for RelFinder and the Turtle Editor Viewer. Replace my current tree is ticked, so the backup replaces whatever is in Kinfold now. Untick it to add the backup to the current tree instead.

Asking the browser to keep it

When a device runs low on space, some browsers clear data from websites. More shows whether your tree is protected from this. If it isn't, tap Protect it. Some browsers agree straight away, some ask you, and most agree once Kinfold is installed (next section).

iPhone and iPad

Safari may delete data from websites you haven't visited for a few weeks. Adding Kinfold to your Home Screen stops this, so do that first if you use an iPhone or iPad.

Using another device

Kinfold doesn't sync between devices. To move your tree, back it up on the old device, send the file to the new one (by email, cloud storage or a cable), open Kinfold there, and use Restore backup. After that the two copies are separate, so keep working on one of them.

8. Installing Kinfold as an app

Installing puts Kinfold on your home screen or desktop, in its own window, like any other app. It's still the same Kinfold, with the same tree, and it doesn't come from an app store.

• Android phones and tablets, and Chrome or Edge on a computer: tap Install Kinfold in More. If it isn't there, use the install icon in the browser's address bar, or the browser's menu (Install app or Add to Home screen).
• iPhone and iPad: open Kinfold in Safari, tap the Share button, then Add to Home Screen.

Working offline: once you've opened Kinfold once, it opens without an internet connection too, installed or not.

Opening files: on a Windows, Mac or Linux computer with Kinfold installed from Chrome or Edge, you can open GEDCOM and backup files with Kinfold straight from your files. Kinfold takes you to the import screen.

When a new version of Kinfold comes out, it arrives by itself the next time you open Kinfold while connected to the internet.

9. Moving a tree from or to another program

GEDCOM is the standard file format that family tree programs and websites use to swap trees. Look for Export or Download GEDCOM in Ancestry, FamilySearch, MyHeritage, Findmypast, Gramps, Family Tree Maker and most others.

• To bring a tree in: Import GEDCOM in More, choose the .ged file and tap Import. The people are added to your current tree. Tick Replace my current tree to start afresh instead. Kinfold brings in names (with suffixes), gender, birth and death dates and places (christening and burial when those are all there is), notes, parents, partners and sources. Each source stays on the fact it was recorded for: a source under a birth stays with the birth, and one on a marriage stays on the partner link. Old files in other character sets, such as ANSEL and Windows, are read correctly.
• To take a tree out: Export GEDCOM in More, then Save file. You can open the file in any other family tree program.
• To share with a relative: send them the GEDCOM file. They can open it in Kinfold or in whatever they use. Their copy is their own, and changes don't pass between you.

Kinfold's own backup file keeps everything exactly. GEDCOM is for moving to and from other programs, which may each read it slightly differently. A date that isn't in the standard form, such as 1076 or 1088, goes out exactly as you wrote it.

What Kinfold doesn't keep from a GEDCOM file yet: marriage dates and places, divorces, other events (occupations, residences and the like), photos, alternative names, godparents and other associations, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ordinance records. It also loses whether a child was adopted, fostered or sealed to their parents: such a child gets all their parents, and the health check points out anyone with more than two. Brothers and sisters recorded with no parents at all aren't linked, because Kinfold knows siblings through their parents.

10. Where your data goes

• Nowhere. Your tree is stored in your browser, on your device, and every search of it happens there too. Kinfold has no server that receives it.
• No account, no tracking. Kinfold doesn't use cookies, adverts or analytics, and it doesn't load anything from other websites.
• Files go where you put them. Backups and exports are saved where you choose. Anyone who has a copy of one can read your tree, so keep backups somewhere private.
• RelFinder and the Turtle Editor Viewer also read your tree inside your browser. See section 5, including the one RelFinder setting to watch.
• The address of the website is the only thing the Semantechs server sees, as it does for any web page. It sends Kinfold to your browser and receives nothing back.

11. Questions

My tree has disappeared. Can I get it back?

Only from a backup file. Use Restore backup in More. Check that you are using the same browser on the same device as before, and not a private window. An installed Kinfold and the same browser share one tree.

Can I use Kinfold on my phone and my computer?

Yes, but each has its own copy. Move the tree between them with a backup, as described in section 7.

Can two of us work on the same tree?

Not at the same time. Kinfold has no shared online copy. One person can keep the main tree and send backups or GEDCOM files to the others.

Is there a limit to how many people I can add?

No fixed limit. Trees of several thousand people work well. The space comes from your device, and More shows how much the tree uses.

What does "HOLOS" in the top bar mean?

It's the name of the engine that searches your tree, inside the page. If the badge says JS engine instead, Kinfold is using its simpler backup engine. Everything still works.

Why is there no photo or document upload?

Not yet. Kinfold keeps names, dates, places, notes and sources for now.

How much does it cost?

Nothing. Kinfold is free to use.

12. For the curious

Kinfold stores your tree as linked data: small statements such as Thomas Ashworth was born in Halifax, written in the RDF standard using the shared schema.org vocabulary for people. It searches them with the SPARQL query language, using the HOLOS database, which runs inside your browser as WebAssembly. RelFinder and the Turtle Editor Viewer run on HOLOS too. Both of Kinfold's files are standard linked data that any such tool can read: the backup (.nt, N-Triples) and the Turtle file (.ttl) from section 5, which HOLOS writes.

Sources on individual facts use the newest version of the standard, RDF 1.2, which can make statements about statements. "Thomas was born about 1872" is one statement. "That statement comes from the 1911 Census" is a second statement, about the first. Older linked-data tools that only know RDF 1.1 can't read those second statements, but the Semantechs tools can. To learn the techniques yourself, Semantechs has free courses.