Inviting Your Family to Build It Together

Once you start building a family tree, you soon run into things you don't know: your grandmother's maiden name, the name of a great-uncle, your parents' wedding anniversary. For things like these, asking your family is the quickest way.

With Family Storage, you can invite your family to join the same family tree. Your father can record his side, your mother her own family, and your brothers and sisters their own families. When you share the work of keeping records, your family tree grows much faster and much richer.

In this part, we explain how to invite your family and the steps for those who receive an invitation to join.

Two Ways to Invite

• From the “Family Data” page — invite from the “Family Sharing (Invite)” section
• From a card on the Family Map — press “Invite This Person” on the card of the person you want to invite

Either way, an invitation email is sent automatically to the email address of the person you want to invite.

Inviting from the “Family Data” Page

1. Open “Family Data” on My Page and go to the “Family Sharing (Invite)” section
2. Under “Who would you like to invite?”, choose the person to invite from those registered in your family tree (you can also invite without choosing, by selecting “Not specified”)
3. Enter “The email address of the person you are inviting”
4. Press “Issue Invitation Link”

You're done when “The invitation email has been sent.” appears.

If you choose which person in your family tree you are inviting, an “Invited” mark appears on that person's card on the Family Map. You can see at a glance whom you have reached out to.

Inviting from a Card on the Family Map

1. On the Family Map, tap the card of the person you want to invite
2. Press “Invite This Person”
3. Enter that person's email address and send the invitation

While building your family tree, whenever you think “I'd like this person to join too,” you can invite them right then and there.

The Invitation Email and Link Expiry

The person you invite will receive an email from the Family Storage Office with the subject “[Family Storage] An invitation to your family's records”. They can join from the link in the email.

The link is valid for 7 days from when it is issued. If it has expired, please issue the invitation link again.

If the email doesn't arrive, you can also “Copy” the link from your list of issued invitations and send it by LINE or another app.

Steps for the Person Receiving an Invitation

1. Open the link in the invitation email
2. If you are not yet a Family Storage member, sign up. If you are already a member, log in
3. When “You have joined the family.” appears, you have finished joining

If the joining screen doesn't appear after you sign up or log in, please open the link in the invitation email again.

Just one thing to note. An invitation is issued to the email address it was sent to. If you sign up or log in with a different email address, you will see “This invitation was issued to a different email address.” and won't be able to join. Please sign up or log in with the address the invitation email was sent to.

If the link has expired, you will see “This invitation is invalid or has expired.” In that case, please ask the person who invited you to issue it again.

After Joining

Family members who join can view the same family tree and keep records together with you.

• The “Invited” mark is removed from their card on the Family Map, and the invitation list shows “Joined”
• Family members who join will also receive anniversary notices, so the whole family can share birthdays and death anniversaries

Canceling an Invitation

Invitations that haven't been accepted yet can be canceled with “Cancel” in the invitation list. A canceled link can no longer be used. If you sent an invitation to the wrong address, cancel it and then issue a new one to the correct address.

Whom Should You Invite?

• Parents and grandparents — they are the best storytellers of your family tree. They know the names of relatives from long ago and the stories behind names
• Brothers and sisters — they can register their own families (spouses and children) themselves
• Cousins, uncles and aunts — they may have records and photos from another branch of the family

For grandparents who aren't comfortable with smartphones, we also recommend sitting beside them, looking at the screen together, and entering things as you listen to their stories. You can also have records read aloud to them with the AI Storyteller's “Read Aloud” feature (explained in Part 8).

Protecting Important Information

Your family tree and records are not shown to anyone other than the family members you invite who have joined. Invitation email addresses are also stored encrypted.

Say a Word Before You Invite

If an invitation email arrives out of the blue, it may be overlooked as mail from an unfamiliar sender or mistaken for spam. Before inviting someone, let them know by phone or LINE, for example, “You'll get an email from Family Storage inviting you to our family tree,” and joining will go smoothly.

Create Their Card Before You Invite

We recommend creating a card on the Family Map for the person you want to invite beforehand. You will then be able to select them under “Who would you like to invite?”, and an “Invited” mark will appear on their card. Once they have joined, you can look at the same family tree and keep records together.

Tips for Sharing the Work as a Family

• Ask your father about his side and your mother about hers — each knows their own family best
• Ask brothers and sisters about their own families — when they tell you about their spouses, children and grandchildren, your family tree grows
• Photos go to whoever has them — ask the person who has the albums to add the photos to the photo gallery
• Choose one coordinator — having someone who fixes discrepancies in maiden names or dates of birth when they notice them keeps your family tree in order
• A PDF for relatives far away — for those who find it hard to join, sending a printed family tree or a PDF is another option (Part 4)

After you invite someone, try asking, “Were you able to join?” If the invitation list shows “Joined,” they have finished joining. If it still says “Invited,” the email may not have reached them. Please lend a hand, for example by copying the link and sending it to them.

Frequently Asked Questions

I was told the invitation email didn't arrive

Please ask them to check their spam folder. If they can't find it, copy the link from the invitation list and send it by LINE or another app.

I see “This invitation was issued to a different email address”

You are logged in with an address different from the one that was invited. Please log in with the address the invitation email was sent to.

Can the family members I invite add to the records too?

Yes. Family members who join can view the same family tree and keep records together with you. They can also add family members and register photos.

The invitation link doesn't work

The link can no longer be used once 7 days have passed since it was issued. Please ask the person who invited you to issue it again.

Next Time: The AI Storyteller and Chatbot

Why not ask questions of the records your whole family has kept? In the next part, we explain how to use the AI Storyteller and the help chatbot.

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In this series, "How to Use Family Storage," we introduce the features one at a time so that even first-time users can use them with confidence.