A Look At Crestleaf

Creastleaf is a free online resource that provides tools that allow you to build a family tree. It provides free space of up to 1 GB for family photos (more space is available for a fee) and also allows you to share the tree with other family members so they can add to it.

Really, from my view, Crestleaf is about capturing family stories. This is accomplished, presumably, by different family members adding their own perspectives to family events and their photos of the events.

My experience is that family photos get passed along, sometimes divided among siblings, when parents pass away. Often, these photos may end up collecting dust in a forgotten box. Consequently, one family branch may not know of nor ever have seen photos of great grandparents and past special family occasions. Using a online resource tool like Creastleaf might allow for better family sharing.

Creastleaf boasts in providing access to almost 90 million genealogy records. This is a reference to the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) and Crestleaf uses the June 22, 2011 version of the index containing almost 90 million names. Crestleaf is not a site to conduct a "reasonably exhaustive search" of records. Other than the SSDI, there are no other records available.

Crestleaf recently published a family relationship chart which they have kindly provided to me and gave me permission to share. The chart is available for printing on the Crestleaf blog.

The Crestleaf site is free and easy to use. I was able to set-up a free account and get started on a basic family tree in just a couple of minutes. If you are looking for a way to tell and share the stories of your family, presumably with other family members who may live some distance from you, using Crestleaf just might be a good means of connecting.