Title: AP Family Archive
Author: ancestorpress
Published: <strong>August 30, 2026</strong>
Last modified: August 30, 2026

---

Search plugins

![](https://ps.w.org/ap-family-archive/assets/banner-772x250.png?rev=3672532)

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# AP Family Archive

 By [ancestorpress](https://profiles.wordpress.org/ancestorpress/)

[Download](https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/ap-family-archive.1.0.0.zip)

 * [Details](https://wordpress.org/plugins/ap-family-archive/#description)
 * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/plugins/ap-family-archive/#reviews)
 *  [Installation](https://wordpress.org/plugins/ap-family-archive/#installation)
 * [Development](https://wordpress.org/plugins/ap-family-archive/#developers)

 [Support](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/ap-family-archive/)

## Description

AP Family Archive turns your genealogy research into a complete, self-hosted family
history website: a person page for every ancestor, a family group page for every
couple, a surname index, and full search – cross-linked, with sources cited and 
living people protected automatically. Your data lives in your own WordPress database
and can always be exported in full as GEDCOM.

Built by [AncestorPress](https://ancestorpress.com) – family history tools, built
to last.

#### Free version

 * **GEDCOM import** (all standard GEDCOM 5.5 exporters)
 * **Person pages** – vitals exactly as recorded, a life timeline, parents, spouses
   and children
 * **Family group pages** – partners, marriage details, and children in birth order
 * **Surname index** with bearer counts and A-Z browse
 * **Full search** by name (sounds-like option), year range, and place
 * **Sources and citations** – source detail pages and per-fact citation markers
 * **Media on person and family pages** – portraits, galleries and listing thumbnails
 * **A family history hub** – headline stats, “what’s new”, anniversaries, a most-
   wanted list, and a place index
 * **Text reports** – Ahnentafel (ancestor) and d’Aboville (descendant) numbered
   reports
 * **Branch definitions** – describe family branches from the admin screen
 * **Living-person privacy that cannot be switched off** – never shown to visitors
 * **Full GEDCOM export** – take your complete data back at any time
 * **One-click pages** – the archive views are shortcodes on ordinary pages, created
   as drafts, so they work with any theme
 * **Support assistant** – answers locally on the AI provider set in WordPress (
   7.0+), or via the optional support service

#### Pro

The Pro package (a separate download for licence holders) adds:

 * **Tree-wide media index and document viewer** – browse every photo and document
   in the archive, with transcription display
 * **Cemeteries and headstones** – headstone images surfaced on person pages
 * **“Download this branch”** – let visitors export a privacy-filtered GEDCOM subset
   for a chosen person and generation depth
 * **Branch-scoped public display** – let visitors browse and filter the whole site
   by branch
 * **Relationship calculator** – “how are they related?”, with familiar cousin-and-
   removed wording
 * **Multiple trees on one site**, with a visitor tree switcher and per-tree page
   URLs
 * **Advanced search** – sex, event type, and name-match operators
 * **Saved reports and PDF output**
 * **Contributor workflow** – editor and contributor roles, a front-end “suggest
   a correction” box, and an audit trail
 * **TNG importer** – import a tree directly from an existing The Next Generation(
   TNG) database

#### More from AncestorPress

AP Family Archive is one of a small family of AncestorPress tools for publishing
family history research. Each works on its own, and all are free on WordPress.org:

 * [AP Family Trees](https://wordpress.org/plugins/ap-family-trees/) – beautiful,
   interactive family tree charts and member profiles on any page. Trees and Archive
   share one data core – install either or both; the same people appear in each 
   with no re-import.
 * [AP One-Name Studies](https://wordpress.org/plugins/ap-one-name-studies/) – give
   a one-name study a home on your own site: surname variants and deviants, a searchable
   occurrence index, and historic-county distribution maps.

#### Third-party libraries

 * [php-gedcom](https://github.com/mrkrstphr/php-gedcom) by Kristopher Wilson – 
   MIT licence. GEDCOM reading and writing.
 * [Freemius WordPress SDK](https://github.com/Freemius/wordpress-sdk) by Freemius–
   GPLv3. Licence management for the Pro plan; official 2.13.4 release with a one-
   line PHP 8 fix noted in vendor/freemius/start.php.

#### Privacy and data

Your family history data is stored exclusively in your own WordPress database: no
person, family, event, source or media record leaves your site, nor does the name
of the tree you publish. Nothing about your visitors is collected. Two optional 
services can receive limited non-genealogical information, only when you choose 
to use them – see External services below.

### External services

#### 1. Freemius (licensing, checkout and optional diagnostics)

AP Family Archive uses the Freemius SDK, from Freemius, Inc., for optional account
connection, licence administration, checkout and optional usage diagnostics. Updates
to this free package are supplied by WordPress.org. This free plugin does not download,
install or update the separately distributed Pro package.

When data may be transmitted: when you opt in to the activation flow, connect or
manage an account or licence, use checkout, or consent to optional usage diagnostics.

What may be transmitted: broad account and installation information such as the 
site URL, the administrator email address you provide, plugin and WordPress version
data, and licence identifiers. Opting in is optional – you can skip it and every
free feature keeps working.

Your genealogical data is never sent to Freemius: no person, family, event, source
or media record, and not the name of the tree you publish.

Terms of service: https://freemius.com/terms/
 Privacy policy: https://freemius.
com/privacy/

#### 2. AncestorPress Support Service (optional support assistant)

The Help button on the plugin’s admin screens opens a support assistant. Nothing
is sent until you open it and accept the privacy notice inside it.

With an AI provider set in WordPress, questions are answered locally on that provider:
your question and chat history stay on your site; the assistant only fetches product
documentation from the AncestorPress Support Service at bwtlsupport.com (operated
by Black and White Trading Ltd), sending your site address and plugin version. No
account, token or licence is needed for local answering.

When the support service answers instead (no local AI provider, or you connected
the service), it also receives your question and recent chat history, your site 
address and – where available – its licence installation identifier (for authorising
that service and fair-use limits), installed AncestorPress plugin versions, the 
admin screen identifier, and a short whitelist of non-sensitive settings, kept only
as aggregated statistics. Ordinary questions are processed transiently, not retained.

Your genealogical data is never sent on either path: no person, family, event, source
or media record leaves your site, nor the name of the tree you publish. Passwords
and API keys are never collected; the assistant is read-only.

Escalation: only “Send to support” transmits and retains the transcript, diagnostics
and the contact email you supply, so a support agent can reply.

Terms of service: https://ancestorpress.com/terms/
 Privacy policy: https://ancestorpress.
com/privacy-policy/

## Screenshots

[⌊A person page - vitals as recorded and cross-linked family, with a living relative
shown only as "Living".⌉⌊A person page - vitals as recorded and cross-linked family,
with a living relative shown only as "Living".⌉[

A person page – vitals as recorded and cross-linked family, with a living relative
shown only as “Living”.

[⌊The surname index with A-Z browse.⌉⌊The surname index with A-Z browse.⌉[

The surname index with A-Z browse.

[⌊Full search with the sounds-like option finding spelling variants.⌉⌊Full search
with the sounds-like option finding spelling variants.⌉[

Full search with the sounds-like option finding spelling variants.

[⌊The family history hub with headline statistics.⌉⌊The family history hub with 
headline statistics.⌉[

The family history hub with headline statistics.

[⌊The Import/Export screen.⌉⌊The Import/Export screen.⌉[

The Import/Export screen.

## Installation

 1. Install from **Plugins > Add New** and activate.
 2. Go to **AP Family Archive** and choose the tree to publish (or import a GEDCOM 
    first from the Import/Export screen).
 3. Click **“Make the pages for me”**, then review and publish the draft pages.

## FAQ

### Will living relatives appear on the site?

No. Anyone flagged as living or private is never rendered to visitors; family listings
show only a neutral “Living” placeholder. Enforced in the shared data core; cannot
be disabled from the admin screen.

### Will it change or “clean up” my data?

Never. Dates and places display exactly as recorded in your GEDCOM; standardised
values are used only for sorting and search, stored separately from your original
text.

### Is my family data stored on my own server?

Yes. All genealogical data stays in your WordPress database – no record is ever 
transmitted anywhere. The two optional services that can receive limited non-genealogical
information are itemised under External services below; neither is required.

### Can I export my data?

Yes. Full GEDCOM export is included in the free version – take your complete data
to any genealogy application at any time.

### Can I publish more than one tree?

The free version publishes one tree at a time (changeable at any point); Pro publishes
several trees together on one site.

### Does it work with AP Family Trees?

Yes – they share one data core: import in either plugin and both publish the same
people. Run Archive on its own or alongside Trees.

### Where do I get support?

Use the support forum here on WordPress.org, or the in-plugin Help assistant: with
an AI provider configured in WordPress it answers locally (no account or connection
needed); the optional support service can also answer and reach human support.

### How do I upgrade from Free to Pro?

Purchase a licence from the Upgrade tab, then download and install the Pro package(
premium features are not contained in this free plugin); settings and all genealogical
data are kept as the Pro build replaces the free one in place. This free plugin 
never downloads or installs the Pro package itself.

## Reviews

There are no reviews for this plugin.

## Contributors & Developers

“AP Family Archive” is open source software. The following people have contributed
to this plugin.

Contributors

 *   [ ancestorpress ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/ancestorpress/)

[Translate “AP Family Archive” into your language.](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/ap-family-archive)

### Interested in development?

[Browse the code](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/ap-family-archive/),
check out the [SVN repository](https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/ap-family-archive/),
or subscribe to the [development log](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/ap-family-archive/)
by [RSS](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/ap-family-archive/?limit=100&mode=stop_on_copy&format=rss).

## Changelog

Full history: see changelog.txt in the plugin folder.

#### 1.0.0

 * First WordPress.org release.
 * The support assistant answers locally on the AI provider set in WordPress (7.0
   +), no account or licence; the optional support service is consent-gated.
 * Every query is a placeholder-bound prepared statement; nonce checks on public
   filters and the admin tree switcher; extension-seam markup is sanitised to plain
   form controls.
 * GEDCOM parser hardening: imports log nothing under WP_DEBUG. Tested up to WordPress
   7.1.
 * Distinctive apfaar_ prefix on all code identifiers; options and shortcodes from
   earlier builds migrate on update.

## Meta

 *  Version **1.0.0**
 *  Last updated **18 hours ago**
 *  Active installations **Fewer than 10**
 *  WordPress version ** 6.2 or higher **
 *  Tested up to **7.1**
 *  PHP version ** 8.0 or higher **
 * Tags
 * [family history](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/family-history/)[family tree](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/family-tree/)
   [GEDCOM](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/gedcom/)[genealogy](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/genealogy/)
   [surname](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/surname/)
 *  [Advanced View](https://wordpress.org/plugins/ap-family-archive/advanced/)

## Ratings

No reviews have been submitted yet.

[Your review](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/ap-family-archive/reviews/#new-post)

[See all reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/ap-family-archive/reviews/)

## Contributors

 *   [ ancestorpress ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/ancestorpress/)

## Support

Got something to say? Need help?

 [View support forum](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/ap-family-archive/)