Help

Asking questions

You can ask the assistant questions about recorded family members, dates, relationships, and how to use Kivalio.

Type a name in the search box directly under the timeline at the top of the gallery to find matching people as you type, or submit a question to open a conversation.

• The assistant reads existing records and cannot add, edit, or delete information.
• The assistant answers only from saved family records, so an unlisted detail simply means nobody entered it yet.
• If several people share the same name, the assistant asks you to clarify who you mean.
• Sources beneath an answer link directly to the records or help articles used.
• Closing the conversation window clears your chat history because Kivalio does not store conversations.

Confirm relationships

Confirm or decline pending family links to control access to your hidden details.

When another member links you as a spouse or child, Kivalio holds the connection until you review it. The “Confirm relationships” item in the account menu (the person icon in the top right corner) displays the number of pending links waiting for your decision. Open it to accept or decline each link.

Family digest and downloads

You can check upcoming events, print mailing labels, and download family records using the gallery tools.

Open the account menu (the person icon in the top right corner of the gallery) to find these features:

• “Family digest”: View birthdays and anniversaries across a chosen date range, along with recent contact updates.
• “Generate Labels & Download Records”: Print mailing labels or download an export of the family records you have permission to view.

Checking addresses

Below the download choices, “Addresses” lists any address that is incomplete for mailing labels and anyone with no address recorded. When an address has parts typed into the wrong box, such as a whole address in the street line, “Auto-fix addresses” moves each part into its own box and fills in a blank country from the state, province or postal code. It changes only records you can edit. Anything it can’t complete stays listed so you can fill it in yourself.

Leave a family or delete your account

You can leave a family or delete your Kivalio account through your account settings.

To reach these controls, open the person icon menu in the top right corner, select “Family settings” (or “Manage Family” for owners and managers), and choose “Ownership & deletion” in the left-hand category list.

• “Leave family”: Ends your membership in this family while keeping your recorded details in the family tree.
• “Delete account”: Closes your account across all families while preserving the family records where you appear. If you own a family, you must appoint another owner or delete the family before deleting your account.

If you stopped during registration and need help removing an unfinished account, email support@kivalio.app.

Privacy and analytics

You can turn off usage analytics and review data protection practices in your privacy settings.

To manage your preferences, open the person icon menu in the top right corner and choose “Privacy & security”. You can also change this setting on the public “Privacy choices” page, linked in the footer at the bottom of public pages. Browser privacy signals such as Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control turn analytics off automatically.

Kivalio analytics tracks basic interface usage while excluding family records, search terms, and typed text. Choose “Help & policies” in the person icon menu in the top right corner to read the complete privacy policy. For specific privacy questions or requests, email support@kivalio.app.

Things an owner or manager does

Ask an owner or manager when you need to make changes outside your own branch.

Owners and managers coordinate family-wide updates that members cannot perform directly:

• Inviting new members to the family.
• Editing records outside your branch, including existing relationships and wedding dates.
• Removing a person from the family tree.
• Updating member roles, which only owners can do.

Update my info

You can edit your personal details and manage members in your branch using the family editor.

To begin, select the pencil icon on your personal card or open the person menu (the person icon in the top right corner) and choose “Update my info”. This opens your branch, which includes you, your spouse, and your descendants.

• Edits save automatically as you type, without requiring a manual save button.
• Undo and redo controls appear at the top of the editor and remain available until you reload the page.
• Address entries use separate fields for street, unit, city, region, postal code, and country, which together supply the location shown on cards.
• The “Partial / unsure” option records incomplete birthdays while preserving your exact level of certainty.
• Select “Add child” to create a child under yourself or a descendant, or choose “Add relationship” to add a spouse or partner to your branch.
• Open “Manage relationships” to remove your own spouse link or a link to your child without deleting the people from the family.

You can edit your own record and records in your branch that you have permission to change. If you need to modify relationships outside your branch, ask an owner or manager.

Who can see my information

You control who can see each detail on your record by setting its visibility level.

Change visibility for any recorded fact, such as a phone number, email address, mailing address, or birthday, using the control beside that field in the editor.

• “Hidden”: Restricts visibility to you, your recorded parents, your spouse, your children, and authorized guardians. Owners and managers have no extra viewing access to hidden details.
• “Family”: Allows every active member of your family to see the detail.
• “Connected families”: Allows active family members and directly connected families to see the detail.

Birth years include a separate setting, allowing you to share your birth month and day with the family while keeping the year private.

Any field without an explicit setting inherits the family default, followed by Kivalio's built-in default. Your individual choice always overrides inherited defaults.

Access history

You can audit family activity, review record edits, and restore earlier values using Access history.

To view the activity log, open Manage Family from the person icon menu in the top right corner, then select “Access history” in the left-hand category list. The log lists membership updates and record edits that you have permission to view, displaying previous and updated values alongside filter options to narrow your search.

You can use Revert to restore an earlier value whenever a field still retains the value from that edit. Kivalio records each reverted change as a new entry in Access history.

Edit family records

Managers and owners can update facts, modify relationships, and add people across the family tree.

To begin, open the person icon menu in the top right corner of the gallery and select “Edit family records”. All person cards become editable. Select any person to update their facts, assign parents or spouses, and record wedding dates. Edits save automatically as you type, and undo and redo controls remain available at the top of the screen.

Select “Add person” to create a new family record. When you finish your updates, select “Done editing” to return to browsing mode. Closing an individual card keeps edit mode active so you can update another person immediately.

• Members who have claimed their accounts control their own personal details. Only the member, their recorded parents, or authorized guardians can edit those details, although managers can still adjust their relationships and wedding dates.
• Details marked as Hidden remain private from managers and owners, who hold no special viewing privileges for hidden facts.

Invite people to the family

Managers and owners can invite relatives to join the family using their personal email addresses.

To manage invitations, open the person menu (the person icon in the top right corner), choose “Manage Family”, and select “Invitations” in the left-hand category list.

1. Under “Who to invite”, choose an existing person from the tree or add a new relative as a spouse or child.
2. Enter the email address the invitee will use to sign in. If the person has a personal contact email on file, Kivalio populates it automatically for your review.
3. Send the invitation, then track its delivery status directly within the row.

You can manage active invitations as needed:

• Select “Resend email” to deliver a fresh invitation message.
• Choose “Correct email” or “Replace invitation” to update an email address or change the invited relative.
• Remove an invitation to revoke pending access before the recipient accepts.

Invited relatives join the family by signing in with their invited email address and confirming their own identity.

Remove a person

You can permanently delete a person and their recorded details from the family tree after reviewing the impact.

To delete a record, open Manage Family from the person icon menu in the top right corner, then select “Remove a person”. Choose the individual you want to delete and select “Review removal”. Review the list of affected relationships, confirm your choice, and remove the record.

Removing a record completely deletes that profile from the family tree. When members leave a family on their own, their historical records remain preserved.

Review missing records

You can audit and complete family records in one place using the record review tool.

To start, open Manage Family from the person icon menu in the top right corner, then select “Review missing records”, then choose “Open record review”. Use the Missing filter to find unrecorded birthdays and wedding dates, or select All to review and confirm existing entries.

Select Missing parents to list everyone with no parents recorded. Choose a person, pick one or two parents from the lists, and the change saves when you move on.

When you enter partial or uncertain dates, Kivalio preserves the exact precision you provide. Date confirmations apply only to your active review session.

Delete the family

Family owners can schedule the permanent deletion of a family and its records with a seven-day recovery window.

Download a copy of your family records before scheduling deletion if you want to keep your data.

To start the deletion process, open Manage Family from the person icon menu in the top right corner, select “Ownership & deletion” in the left-hand category list, and choose “Schedule deletion”. Member access ends immediately once deletion is scheduled.

You have seven days to reverse this action by selecting “Cancel deletion”. After seven days, Kivalio removes the family records permanently.

Roles and ownership

Family owners manage member permissions, appoint managers, and invite co-owners to help run the family.

Families can include multiple owners and managers with distinct responsibilities:

• Managers invite members, edit records across the family, and manage dates.
• Owners hold all manager abilities, along with permission to reassign roles, configure connected families, and schedule family deletion.

To update member permissions, open Manage Family from the person icon menu in the top right corner and select “Members” in the left-hand category list, then adjust the member's role to Manager or Member. Only owners can change roles.

To add an owner, select “Offer ownership”. The member becomes an owner after accepting the offer.

Every family requires at least one active owner. The original creator cannot be demoted by other owners, though they can voluntarily choose “Step down as owner”. Stepping down as an owner removes your personal connections profile and closes any family connections tied to it.