3 questions on how to share memories and leave a documented shared family legacy
I'm so glad that the Family Group Trees now are generally available on Familysearch.
I am keen to connect with the saviour by saving memories privately with my family group even after I die.
I have as an example added a photo of my living mother in her memories Tab (se picture below, she has agreed that I share it here).
Previously only public memories are saved after I die and private visability meant the memories was saved but unaccessible for everyone after I die, right?
As you know Family Group Trees allow you to share memories in a protected space, ensuring that sensitive information is not publicly accessible. This feature helps create a shared family legacy that is preserved for future generations. See: What's new on Familysearch (8 march 2025)The slides linked above mentions that the value of Family Group Trees is: - Share memories and milestones in a protected space- Leave a documented shared family legacy.
The current guides doesn't clearly show step by step how to leave this legacy. I have not found any online seminars on RootsTech and cannot find any old online Family Group Tree Feedback, instructions or discussions on this specific topic.
So I have 3 questions:
1 - Private individual Memories in Family Group Trees:
Is it only to pick the private family group instead of the public Familysearch Tree in the left top corner - and all the memories I add with my mothers person page will stay in the family group only after I die?
Although the above photo would be OK to share publicly in the tree after my mother passes on, many important memories are better to save with the family group only
FamilySearch's documentation does not explicitly state what happens to private memories linked to a family group after the contributor's death, but they generally remain in the system.
2 - Gallery Memories in Family Groups:
As you may know you can add public memories using the Memories and the Gallery menu. There you can make them private and add them to a Family Group Tree. I have then noticed that unless I tag the memory to an individual, then the other group members cannot see it except with an direct url or by inserting that Gallery image in the Group feed.
Are also these memories visible only this limited way after I die and can my relatives tag these images so they are seen as tagged private individual Memories after I die?
This instruction doesn't seem to explain all steps to share the Gallery memories fully and doesn't mention the important point if the memories are saved after I die or not:
"… 9. To share a memory with one or more family groups, your memory must first be set to Private. Then click Choose Group to select one or several family groups where the memory will be made visible." (see Steps to change memory visibility (website))
Memories added through the general Memories Gallery can be saved privately and also linked to a family group. However, specific details about their storage after the contributor's death are not clearly outlined in FamilySearch's current documentation.
3 - Family Group Feed Posts:
Also when writing and adding posts linked to the Family Group feed, all memories attached from google photos or uploaded from the device are stored as Public in the Gallery Memories. Are the feed private and the attachments inside the feed stored public and are both the feed and its attachement stored after i die, but with different visibility?
Summing up
It is not clear what memories are saved after I die or where they are accessable. I think it is possible to simplify how to use private memories linked or not linked to a Family Group tree of living or decesed people so they are a little more visible and easily accessible but safe after the person who added them die. Simplification would in the same time make it safer and more used. Also the documentation could focus on the key benefits of leaving a legacy when documenting how to access memories from or share memories to other family group members when they are accessed using different techniques. For example some policies aim to not share them and others to share them with the family group, see Private memories , Protect the privacy of living people by making memories private and Can I share private memories with other family members? Perhaps Familysearch can add simple everyday stories of people connecting to their families and the savior by leaving a legacy on familysearch.
Comentários
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And now some ideas:
Perhaps if all memories turn Private by default when added in the Gallery or as attachments in Family Group Feed post would make it the same as when added in the individual gallery. Parhaps memories can be added in more ways but if they always turn Private - it would be simpler and thus safer. Also I noticed the @ Tag is simple but could be used to connect the post as a "Feed post" memory to each individual tagged.
A more drastic simplification would be to impove the Gally Memory view so it is not possible to add memories without tagging them to individuals. Perhaps the gallery memory could be replaced with a Family Memory instad of only individual Memory page. Gallery is such a technical perspecitve - but Family is more of a legacy perspective.0 -
After watching the wonderful Familysearch Global and Tech Forum 2025 session online at Rootstech, it's exciting to hear that when adding to the feed using Together, the memories attached will be connected to individuals in the future.
This works very simple using Stories, but not the same when using Flow.4. Legacy of Memories attached with the Together
When attaching memories using the Together and Stories, I noticed the attachments now always are added private and with checkboxes to choos wich family group tree to add the story to. Everyting is added privately and to the choosen tree. Attached photos and the Story is stored separately in memory. When I add the same information using the Together and Flow tab, no story is saved in the Gallery Memory and the attached file is stored as Public. The Flow input to Gallery in Stories work the same as the Flow input to Gallery in the Family Group.
As I already mentioned, it may be simpler to always make everyting Private also using Together Flow input. I realise memories cannot easily be stored to families. Only to individuals works. But some memories are not individual but family related. How would this need be adressed?0 -
@Mattias Renman mod note: Community is a public online forum. Your post was edited to protect the privacy of living people. Please see the CommunityCode of Conduct for more details.
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@Mattias Renman You have raised some good questions. There is no explicit explanation as you have stated, but the answers for #1 & #2 are the same. Whatever privacy the submitter has set for the memory remains its privacy after the submitter has died. So, you can add that lovely picture of your mother, link it to her in any family group tree that she is in, as well as your own living portion of the FamilySearch Tree. Family members who see it in the family group tree can also link it to their copy of your mother in their own private, living portion of the FamilySearch Tree. However, if that picture is set to private, viewable only by members of that single family group, then where ever it is linked only the members of that group will be able to see that image. As the submitter of that memory, when you die (not when mamma dies), it will be locked to that particular setting. No one else can change the privacy settings. More people would be able to view it by adding them to the family group that it was shared to.
Understand that you can attach these limited access photos to any deceased profile in the FamilySearch Tree and they will still only be viewable by the members of the family group. So if you wanted to add a 5-generation photo but only great-great-grandma has died, you can attach it to her deceased profile as well as the great-grandmother, grandmother, mother and daughter's profiles in the family group tree, but only the members of the family group will see it on great-great-grandma's deceased profile.
Part of #2 is how do other members of the family group see images that I lock to viewable only by the group, but do not tag to a profile in the family group tree. Every member of that family group could still see the image but would have a difficult time finding the image. This has been brought up before and the product team is considering ways for the group to have its own album or link to see all memories that are viewable by that particular family group. Keep watch for future developments!
For #3, I've reached out to someone else for an answer.
#4 Using the Together by FamilySearch tool.
- Pictures have always been added to your Memories Gallery separately from the stories they are attached to. It is just like tagging them to a person's tree profile, the image is held in your Memories Gallery and linked to a story, which is also held in your Memories Gallery. If you delete the images, they will be deleted from your stories as well. If having both photos and stories clutter up your gallery, you can move the images to your Archive.
- Yes the Flow or Feed tab only posts your text to the feed. The photos are added to your gallery. That is because the Feed can be used in multiple ways, not just to share stories and images with your family. You could share new research on a family member, you could send a message about a new database available to a Contact list of friends that are researching in the same area as you. You could send a message to any of the family groups that you have joined. You could post a message to everyone that you have marked as a Friend in FamilySearch. or even share publicly to any FamilySearch member. (I've never tried this one, but it is listed.) If you want to share a story, you will need to copy the link to the story and then post the link in your text. You can use the @ symbol to get attention of your family members.
I hope this helps clarify how Together and Memories work with family group trees and the FamilySearch Tree. Please feel free to ask further questions.
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@Mattias Renman To answer your question #3, the photos coming from the Google photos should still have the option to make Public or Private as you are importing them. If you are not seeing that, could you send me a screenshot of the overlay that shows only Public. Also, include what operating system and browser you are using to import the images. This information will help us to track down any errors in the process.
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Thank you for explaining #1-4. Regarding #3, I use Chromebook and Chrome webbrowser. Here are the screenshots showing that when I add a post in the family group feed and then verifying the public visibility in the gallery app of the google photo picture attached to that feed.
I am so glad for the church that helps med connect to the saviour through my family history.
Kind regards
Mattias Renman0 -
In my previous example i mismatched #4 with #3, but please note that the memories goes public in both #4 and #3 when I add a post in the Family Group Tree feed using both google photo or local image attachments:
First i click create a post in the Family Group Tree feed mentioned in #3 and then in this example I add a memory from my local computer but the same thing happens from google photo:Unlike the Together Feed mentioned in #4, the post is by default created in the living Family Group Tree.
When clicking add a post using #4 in The Together Feed defaults with "My Friends" so in the Together Feed I choose the living Family Group Tree manually, but this feed shows the living family group tree feed in the background as seen on the following image. It may be confusing to see one feed but default to another feed when adding memories:
Then when I check the visibility of that memory in the Memory Gallery
You may see in the "Info" Tab it defaults to Public. Also this may be confusing as rest of the post in the living Family Group Tree Feed and Together Feed does not get public by default and the memories shared there need oftent some protection as they are about living people.
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