ROOT·RECORDER
REC · APPLYING FOR FAMILYSEARCH API ACCESS

Every story
they tell is a
record waiting
to be kept.

RootRecorder guides a recorded conversation with a parent or grandparent, then turns what they say into sourced facts, relationships, and memories on FamilySearch Family Tree — reviewed and approved by you before anything is filed.

TRACK 01 · INTERVIEW04:12
GRANDMOTHER · BIRTHPLACEREC ●

Every year, stories disappear with the people who lived them. A village no one wrote down. A maiden name only she remembered. The real reason the family moved. Once it's gone, no record replaces it.

How it works

Four steps, tape to tree

Every step stays in your hands. Nothing reaches FamilySearch without your review.

STEP 01

Record

Sit down with a parent or grandparent and record a guided conversation, built around real life events — birth, marriage, migration, career.

STEP 02

Transcribe & extract

RootRecorder transcribes the recording and drafts candidate facts: names, relationships, dates, places, and events mentioned along the way.

STEP 03

Review & approve

You see every extracted fact before anything happens. Edit, correct, or discard — you decide what's accurate and what's ready to keep.

STEP 04

File to FamilySearch

Approved facts, relationships, and the recording itself are added to the person's profile in Family Tree as sourced, citable content.

Why RootRecorder

Most apps stop at the recording

Legacy-capture tools make a beautiful keepsake. RootRecorder makes that keepsake part of the record.

Typical legacy-capture app

A private audio file

Records a conversation and produces a polished keepsake — disconnected from any family tree or shared record. No one else can build on it.

RootRecorder

A sourced family record

Records the same conversation, but structures it into tree-ready facts and citations — approved by you — so it becomes part of the family's shared record.

Trust & transparency

AI drafts. You decide.

How we use AI, plainly

  • 01 AI transcribes recordings and drafts candidate facts — it never submits anything on its own.
  • 02 Every fact, relationship, and citation is reviewed and explicitly approved by you before it touches FamilySearch.
  • 03 The original recording is kept as the source citation behind every fact it produced.
FAQ

Common questions

Is RootRecorder affiliated with FamilySearch?

Not yet — we've applied to become a qualified FamilySearch Third-party Solution Provider, which allows approved apps to read and write Family Tree data. We'll update this page as that moves forward.

Do I need a FamilySearch account?

Yes. RootRecorder writes to your existing FamilySearch Family Tree — it doesn't replace it or require a separate tree.

What happens to the original recordings?

They're kept and attached to the relevant person's profile as a source citation and memory, so every fact they produced traces back to the conversation.

Who's building this?

RootRecorder is a project of CleverGhosts LLC, based in Lake County, California.

Want in on the first sessions?

We're building toward an early beta. Reach out and we'll keep you posted.

Contact us