Free Family Tree, Calendar and Albums

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Family Tree and Profile

How do I add parents, spouse or children to my family tree?

Mouse over a person in your family tree and then click icon to add father, mother, spouse, siblings or children.

When I add my mother and father to the tree, it automatically makes them spouses. My parents are separated, how do I add them both without adding spousal relationships among them?

When you add 2nd parent of a child and if no spouse is associated with first parent then tree will automatically link two parents as spouses. This can be changed from profile page.
Click on Profile icon () on either parent. On profile page click on "Delete a Relation" button and then select spousal relationship to delete. Finally make sure to click "Save" button on profile page for changes to take effect.

How do I add stepfather?

Goto mother's profile page (click Profile icon in family tree), and click on "Spouse" link to add current spouse.
To change current spouse, first delete the current spousal relationship (use "Delete a Relation" button) and then add the new person. Uncheck the "extend relationships" checkbox and finally make sure to click "Save" on profile page.

How do I fix relations in my family tree?

To add new members to your tree refer "How do I add parents, spouse or children to my family tree?" question above.
To delete an inadvertently added relation, goto profile page for one of the persons in the relation you would like to delete. On profile page click on "Delete a Relation" button and then select the relationship to delete. Finally make sure to click "Save" button on profile page for changes to take effect.

I added a person twice in the tree. How do I remove one of them?

Mouse over the node you would like to remove from your family tree and then click profile icon () to goto profile page.
Click "Delete profile" button towards the bottom of the page to delete the profile.

How do I change photo of a person in my family tree?

On profile page, click on "Click here to change photo" link just below the main profile photo and select a picture from already uploaded once or upload a new picture.
Make sure to click "Save" button for changes to take effect.

What is a core family member?

Core family members are just that - members of your core or nuclear family. All core members of a family share the same family account. They all can upload albums, add blogs, make changes to the content, add new members as core or non-core in the family, make changes to the profile information of family members, and perform other similar tasks.
Some larger families may want to include many people as core members, for example, parents, spouse, brothers, sisters, children, grand parents, and many more. Some other families may want to include only a very small set of people as core members, for example, spouse and children.

How do I create account for other family members?

To create an account for your family members, click on "Invite" link under "My Network" in top menu bar. Then select the radio button labeled "Create a Sign-in username for a Family Member". Complete the form and submit to create the account for the selected member. You can give the login information to the selected member yourself, or Kincafe can send the information via email.

What is "extend relationship" checkbox on profile page?

Using extend relationship, we can automatically extend your relationship to other family members when you save your profile. For example, if you added father and your father has an already defined spouse, we will add your father's spouse as your mother. Thus, you do not have to add each and every relationship manually.

What is the icon on top of individuals in family tree?

The on the tree is displayed for individuals when all relationships are not visible in the current tree view. For example, if you are seeing the "Family View" of the tree of an individual, his or her spouse' side of the family is not visible in that view. You can click on this icon above the spouse' name to navigate to the spouse' side of the family.

Family Settings

How do I change my Family name displayed on top right corner?

You can change name of your family on the Settings page. From top menu bar, go to "Settings --> Family Settings".

How do I add my family photos?

You can add family photos on the Settings page. From top menu bar, go to "Settings --> Family Settings".

What are Sharing Permissions?

Sharing permissions give you control over who can see your family's content. You set different permissions for various types of content such as Albums, Blogs, Profile information such as date of birth, email and phone contact information etc. You can allow your friends and relatives, friends of friends and relatives, everyone, or no one outside your family to see your family's content.

Upon sign up Kincafe assigns default permissions for your family. You can change these permissions on "settings" page.

You can also set content-level permissions on a specific content for any exceptions. As an example, you can allow a particular album to be visible to everyone, while all of your other albums are visible to friends of friends and relatives only. The content-level permissions for a specific content supersede the default permissions for the family.

My Network - Sharing, Invitation, Family and friends network

How do I share my Albums and blogs with others?

You can invite your relatives and friends to join your network. Once they accept the invitation they will be able to view your albums and blogs, and you will be able to view their content.

Alternatively, you can send an email to share Albums, Blogs or Family Tree pages. Click on the "Email" button on Album or Blog or Family Tree page.

What are invitations?

Invitations allow you to share and connect to other people, and expand your tree. You can invite a relative to start his or her own family on Kincafe, or you can invite a family friend to share albums, blogs and more with your family. To send an invitation, click on "Invite" link under "My Network", and select the appropriate radio button. Complete the information and submit. An email will be sent to the invited person. Once the invited person accepts the invitation, you will see their family in your Network list.

Why do you ask to select family members when sending an invitation?

When you send an invitation to a relative to expand your tree and start his or her own family on Kincafe, some family members may be common between two families. If so, you can list common members in the invitation, so the invited person can include them in his or her family as well. Then, both of you will be able to update information for these common members' profiles.

Albums

How do I create an Album?

You can create an album directly from your photos on your hard drive or camera memory stick. From top menu go to Albums -> Upload Photos, select photos from your computer or camera memory that you want to put in the album, select the radio button "Create a new Album", and give a title for your album. Click on the "Upload Photos" button. Your album is ready.

Alternatively, if you have previously uploaded photos, you can go from top menu to Albums page and then click on the "New Album" button. Here you can give a title for your album, select a theme for the background of the album, and click on the "Next Step" button. This will take you to the first page of the album, where you can select a layout as you want to arrange your photos on the page, and then drag photos from the photobar on the right to the page. Click on the "Save" button after you are done with the page. Click on "Add Page" to add another page at the end of the album. Thus, you can add as many pages as you want to the album.

How do I add, delete or change photos in my Album?

On Album page click on the "Edit" button. Now you are in the edit mode. To change a photo, drag a new photo from the photobar on your right on to the old photo. To add a new page at the end of the album, click on the "Add Page" button. To insert a page before the current page, click on the "Insert Page" button. You can delete the page by clicking on the "Delete" button.

How do I change themes or layouts in my Album?

Themes for the Album allow you to customize and choose the background that works best for your album. You can try different themes to find one that looks best for a particular album. To change the theme, go to the My Family -> Albums page and click on the desired album. Then click on the "Edit" button to edit the album, and then click on the "More" button. Then you can select the theme you like and click on "Save". Your album has the new theme.

To change the layout for an album page, open the page in edit mode. Click on the layout tab on the photobar on right side to bring up a choice of layouts. Drag the layout that you want and drop it on the page. Your existing photos will re-arrange in the new layout. Click on "Save" to save the page with the new layout.

Can I add comments or text along with the photos in the Album?

Yes, most Album layouts support writing small comments along with photos. Open the page in the edit mode, click on the text area to invoke the editor, and enter anything you like. You can use various formatting options available in the editor. Close the editor to apply changes, and click "Save" on the page.

Can I do advanced photo editing on the photos in the Album?

Open the album page in edit mode, and right-click on the photo. You will see a set of options that allow you to position the photo, rotate, resize and zoom to arrange the photo to your liking. Please note that for position changes it must be unlocked first (right click on photo --> unlock position.)

What are "unarranged photos"?

At Kincafe you organize your photos in albums. The photos that you have uploaded, but not yet added to any album are "unarranged" photos. To see the list of unarranged photos, go to My Family -> Albums page and click on the "Arrange" button.

The unarranged photos are also available along with the photos from your albums in the photobar on the right in the edit mode when you are working on albums, blogs etc.

How do I delete unarranged photos?

Go to Albums page. Click on the "Arrange" button. If there are any loose photos, you will see them here. If you want to delete any of these photos, you can select them and click on the "Delete selected Photos" button.

How do I delete an Album?

If you want to delete the album completely including all pages in the album, go to Albums page. Click on the album you want to delete, then click on "Edit" button, and then click on the "More" button. Now you can click on the "Delete" button to delete the album.

What are tags? How are tags used?

You can enter tags for your album or blogs. Tags allow other people to search for your albums easily and with better results. For example, if you enter names of people on the album whose photos are in the album, someone searching for a person will be able to find the album.

In the People tags, you should enter names of people who are members on Kincafe and are part of your family network.

In the Places tags, you can enter the names of places, cities, historical monuments, etc.

Everything else should be entered in the "Other" tags, including people who are not members on Kincafe.

Blogs and Announcements

What is a blog?

A blog is a web page where multiple entries (posts) are made and displayed in a reverse chronological order. Blogs often provide write-ups or news on a particular subject, such as travel, food, family traditions, family secrets, current events, mini-essays etc. to name a few. Blogs are also great communication tool for families and often easier to follow than email chains and discussion forums.

How do I create a new blog?

From the top menu, go to Stories and Blogs page. Click on the "New Blog" button in the top right corner of the page.

How do I change the title of the blog?

From the top menu, go to Stories and Blogs page where you will see the list of the blogs. Click on the desired blog title to first view the blog, and then click on the "More" button in the top right corner. There you would be able to change the title of the blog.

How do I edit an existing blog or post?

You can edit existing posts in the blog, or you can add more posts to it. To edit a post in the blog, from the top menu go to Stories and Blogs page where you see the list of the blogs. Click on the desired blog title to first view the blog, and then click on the "edit this post" link on the desired post that you want to edit.

How do I add more posts to an existing blog?

You can edit existing posts in the blog, or you can add more posts to it. To add a new post to the blog, from the top menu go to Stories and Blogs page where you see the list of the blogs. Click on the plus () sign next to the blog. Alternatively, you can click on the blog title to first view the blog, and then click on the "Add Post" button in the top right corner of the page.

How do I delete a blog, or a post from the blog?

To delete a particular post from the blog, from the top menu go to Stories and Blogs page where you see the list of the blogs. Click on the desired blog title to first view the blog, and then click on the "edit this post" link on the desired post that you want to delete. Then click on the "Delete" button above the editor.

To delete the complete blog with all its posts, goto Stories and Blogs page where you see the list of the blogs. Click on the desired blog title to first view the blog, and then click on the "More" button in the top right corner of the page. Then click on the "Delete" button in the top right corner of the page to delete the complete blog.

What is an announcement?

An announcement is just that - an announcement that you would like to make to your loved ones, relatives, friends and family etc., may be it is a about welcoming a new born baby in your family, or about a birthday party, or about your plans to organize a hiking trip to Half Dome, or just about anything. You can make announcements and send to the members in your network and other people as well. Just like blogs, Announcement will also show on the blogs page, and on the home pages of the members in your network.

Upload Photos

What is Bulk Uploader?

How do I upload several photos at a time?

The Upload Photos page allows only a limited (10) photos to be loaded at a time. If you want to upload a lot of photos, you can use Bulk Uploader instead. Bulk Uploader can be invoked by clicking on the "Bulk Uploader" button on the Upload Photos page. Bulk Uploader will allow you to select and upload a large number of photos with ease.

Bulk Uploader is based on Active-X for Windows IE platform and Java Applet for other platforms. If you have disabled the ActiveX, you may get a yellow warning browser bar. If you want to use the Bulk Uploader, you should click on this bar and permit running of Bulk Uploader. If you do not want to permit Bulk Uploader, you can use the standard photo upload that allows you to upload a maximum of 10 photos at a time.

Make sure the checkbox on each photo is checked in the Bulk Uploader. You can use "Select All" button, or click on the checkbox on selected pictures to select the photos. Then click on the "Upload" button to load the selected photos.

Can I rotate pictures while uploading?

You can rotate pictures while uploading if you are using Bulk Uploader. Make sure you see the thumbnails in the right pane (If you don't see the thumbnails but instead see the lists or icons of picture files, right click in the right pane and select the Thumbnail view. Other views may not have rotate functionality). Now if you place mouse on the picture, you will see icons appearing on the picture that allow you to rotate the photo.

Why do I get a security warning when I try to use Bulk Uploader?

Bulk Uploader is based on Active-X for Windows IE platform and on Java Applet for other platforms. Some browsers may give warning before allowing an Active-X or Java Applet depending on your browser configuration.

The Bulk Uploader we use is from Aurigma, Inc. which is a very robust and widely used commercial software for bulk photo upload. Please click here for more information about this product.

Security and Privacy

How Secure is my family's data?

Who all can see my profile data, albums, and other content?

How do I change permissions on my content?

Kincafe is built using state of the art Security Technologies. You get comprehensive set of options to control access to your family's content. You decide whether to allow your friends and relatives, friends of friends and relatives, everyone, or no one outside your family to see your family's content. You can set these permissions at the content level for a specific content such as a specific Album, or change the default family level settings to set permissions for all family content not marked for content-level permissions.

To change family level permissions, from the top menu go to Settings -> Family Settings page.

To change content-level permissions, for example, an Album, go from top menu to Albums page. Click on the album you want to change permissions for. Then click edit button, and then click more button. Here, you can change the permissions by selecting the appropriate level from the Share With drop-down list. Default means the family level permissions apply.

If you allow "Update profiles and family tree" privileges to your network families then core members of those families will also be able to edit profiles and update relationships of all the members you add in the tree. If those families further allow other families in their network to also be able to "Update profiles and family tree" then those families will also be able to edit the profiles and relationships.

My friends cannot see my albums. What do I do?

Make sure that your family level permissions for the album are set to a level that includes the person you want to share it with. For example, if the person is at the level of friends of friends and relatives, your permissions should be set to allow friends of friends and relatives, or to allow everyone.

Make sure there are no content level permissions set at the album (see the above question), or the content level permissions at the album include the person you want to share it with. If content-level permission is set for a particular album, it supersedes the family level permission for albums.

Why do you ask for my email address?

The Kincafe is about connecting with your family, relatives and friends. Your friends and family can contact you on Kincafe only if we know your email. We will never disclose your email to people who are not connected in your friends or family network without your consent.

Birthday and anniversary reminders, notification for latest albums and blogs posts within your network are sent via email.

We may need to contact you by email to send you important information about your account, for example, if you forget your password. If we do not have your email, we cannot send you a new password.

We recommend that use your email address as the user name to register and login to Kincafe.

We do not sell or rent your email address under any circumstances. We will not use your email to send you spam. Please Click here to read our Privacy Policy.

Why I cannot share my full Year of Birth, Email, Phone numbers with everyone?

For security reasons, we limit access to personal information such as full date of birth including year, phone numbers, email etc. only to the people who are in some way connected to you. For that reason, sharing of such information is permitted only up to the level of friends of friends and relatives.

Login and Password Problems

I forgot my password. What should I do?

From the home page, click on the member sign-in link in the top right corner. Then click on the "Forgot Password" button. You need to provide either the correct username or the email address on your profile. The profile should have a valid email address. We will generate a new temporary password and send you by email given on your profile.

How do I change my password?

Change Password link is under "Settings" menu on top bar.

Calendar

How do I add events to my Calendar?

Birthdays and anniversaries as you enter on profile details of family members are automatically added to your calendar view. To add other events, click on a date cell on which you want to add a new event and complete "Add new event" form.

How do I add external calendar feeds?

Click on "Add public calendar" link from your calendar view and enter name and URL of external iCal feed. Make sure to click save.

General Questions

How do I go to the Getting Started page?

Click here to go to Getting Started Page.

I cannot find buttons to create or edit albums, blogs, etc. Why?

Make sure you are looking at your own family. If you are looking at the contents of someone else's family, you will not have permission to modify their content. Only core members of a family can modify the content.

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