Free software for family history societies

Family History is more than just one or two large websites. It’s each of us working together to bring to light the information about our ancestors.

As a genealogy or historical society, what you have is important to genealogists everywhere. We want to help you get your information online and simplify your technical needs.

Wouldn't it be great if you could...

Have your volunteers make records and images searchable on your website without involving your already-stretched technical staff?

Give your users a world-class search experience like Ancestry, MyHeritage, and FamilySearch?

Manage memberships and donations automatically online?

And wouldn’t it be even better if the software was free?

Make your site as easy to search as Ancestry.com

This free content management system makes it easy to create and manage databases on your website, automatically giving you a world-class search experience with soundex, wildcards, relatives, and event filters. Your search form (and search results!) will even work well on mobile devices.

Easily create and manage family history databases

Create categories & collections

Vital records, cemeteries, censuses, you name it...OurRoots was created by genealogists to meet the needs of family history societies.

Upload spreadsheets and images

Upload spreadsheets & assign search fields

Upload spreadsheets and images (if you want to include images), add them to a collection, and match up the search fields. It's really easy.

OurRoots search & search results page

Embed the search form on your site

OurRoots can be embedded in WordPress or any other site to give you a search form like Ancestry's that will search your collections.

Want to see how it works?

Give us your email and we'll send you more information.

About the OurRoots Team

Together, we have over 100 years of technology and genealogy experience.

  • Jim Ancona, MS in Computer Science from WPI, former System Architect at Constant Contact, 35 years as a software developer.
  • Judy Chiang, BA in Political Science from UCLA, front-end Web Developer
  • Robert Gardner, PhD in Physics from Stanford, past Director of Engineer at Google, over 25 years as a software engineer.
  • Heather Henderson, product manager and professional genealogist for over 20 years.
  • Dallan Quass, PhD in Computer Science from Stanford, past CTO at FamilySearch, and principal developer of WeRelate.org, GenGophers.com, RootsFinder.com, and co-founder of web search startups Junglee, FlipDog, and WhizBang Labs.
  • Solveig Quass, JD from BYU Law School, mother of five, avid family historian.