Using the Ancestry app, you can easily create and share slideshow stories by combining photos, records, text, and more. There are three types of slideshow stories available: Community stories, Story Suggestions, and Close family stories.

Community Stories

Community stories are stories about various subjects (like family vacations and famous ancestors) that are shared with everyone on Ancestry. Once published, your community stories are automatically saved to your tree's gallery.

Your community stories are featured for 24 hours in your story feed, located at the top of the discover tab, alongside stories from other members of the ancestry community.

Browsing community stories may spark ideas for other family stories you can create, share, and preserve for future generations. To discover community stories from other Ancestry members:

Open the Ancestry app and sign in.
Go to the Discover tab.
Scroll down to the Community stories section.
Select a subject category from the list, or tap See all.
Tap a story to view it. For tips on navigating stories, see Viewing and interacting with stories.

Story Suggestions

Story suggestions are stories we recommend you create about events for people in your tree. These story suggestions are visible only when we identify events in a person’s LifeStory that may benefit from additional information. Once published, these stories are saved to your tree’s gallery, the person’s gallery, and their LifeStory.

These stories follow the privacy settings of your tree.

Close Family

Close family stories are for creating narratives about people in your tree, their life experiences, challenges, triumphs, contributions, and more. Sharing these stories can preserve your family's history and help future generations better understand their heritage. Once published, these stories are saved to your tree’s gallery, the person’s gallery, and their LifeStory.

These stories follow the privacy settings of your tree.

Adding stories

At the top of the Discover tab, tap + Add Story.
Choose the type of story you’d like to create.
- Community Stories: pick a subject (like family vacations, famous ancestors, and more).
- Story suggestions: choose an event from your tree. Note: Story suggestions are only visible when we’ve identified events in a person’s LifeStory that may benefit from additional information.
- Close family: choose someone from the list or tap the plus sign + in a gray circle to search for another person in your tree.
Review and edit any slides that were automatically added. The following types of slides are added automatically based on the story type:
- Community stories: Photo and text slides.
- Story suggestions: Event and person slides.
- Close family: person slide.
For help editing slides, see slide types and editing options.
If you want to add more slides to your story, tap the plus sign + at the bottom of the screen and choose the slide type you want to add: Title, Person, Photo, Record, Event, or Text. You can add up to 12 slides in a single story.
Once you've added slides to your story, you can easily edit, delete, or change their order. To do this, select a slide you want to move or modify > in the bottom corner, tap the three dots > choose to Move right, Move left, Edit, or Delete. You can also tap and hold a slide to move it to a new position in your story.
When finished, tap Done.
Choose Publish or Save to gallery.

Managing your stories

Open the Ancestry app and sign in.
On the Discover tab, find Storymaker Studio and tap Explore.
To the right of Media gallery, tap See all.
Under Stories, select a story.
- Stories with solid circles have been published.
- Stories with dotted circles are unpublished story drafts.
In the top right, tap the three dots and choose Edit story, Share, Download, or Delete this story. Deleting a story is permanent and can’t be undone.

Slide types and editing options

Six types of story slides are available: Title, Person, Photo, Record, Event, and Text.

Editing options vary by slide type. When you’re done editing a slide, tap Save or Done (top right).

Title slide

Title slides introduce your story and give a title, location, and date.

To edit the text: tap the T icon or select the text field you want to edit.
To add or change icons: tap the square icon with a folded corner and select an icon.
To change the background color: tap the droplet icon and select a color.
To delete this slide: tap the trash can and choose Yes or Delete.

Person slide

Person slides automatically display information (like name and dates) from the selected person's profile in your tree.

To add or change the photo: tap the photo in this slide or the image icon in the toolbar at the bottom of your screen.
- If the photo is already in your gallery, select it from your gallery.
- If the photo is not in your gallery, tap the + sign in a green circle and choose Scan photos, Take photo, or Camera roll.
To edit text: tap the T icon or select the text field you want to edit. Changes made to names, dates, and relationships in this slide won't update your tree.
To change the background color: tap the droplet icon and select a color.
To delete this slide: tap the trash can and choose Yes or Delete.

Photo slide

Photo slides can bring your story to life by visually showcasing people, places, events, and more.

Add a photo:

If the photo is already in your gallery, select it from your gallery.
If the photo is not in your gallery, tap the + sign in a green circle and choose Scan photos, Take photo, or Camera roll.

Make changes:

To adjust (flip and rotate), colorize, sharpen, and filter: tap the pencil.
To add or edit text: tap the T icon or select the text field you want to edit. To reposition the text, tap the upward or downward arrow.
To add motion effects: tap the animation icon (a circle with movement lines) and choose one direction from the slide's toolbar for the photo to move in.
- None/stop.
- Move horizontally.
- Move vertically.
- Zoom in/out.
To delete this slide: tap the trash can and choose Yes or Delete.

Record slide

Record slides share records saved in your tree. Sharing these records can provide context and personalization and confirm your story's accuracy. Those viewing your story can tap the record to expand it or swipe up to view the document more closely.

To edit text: tap the T icon or select the text field you want to edit.
To delete this slide: tap the trash can and choose Yes or Delete.

Event slide

Event slides display information about a selected event (like birth) from a person's profile in your tree. The location of this event is pinned on a map to share in your story.

To edit text: tap the T icon or select the text field you want to edit.
To delete this slide: tap the trash can and choose Yes or Delete.

Text slide

Text slides allow you to tell the story you want to share by providing a place for you to enter up to 3,000 characters of your own text.

Tap the story field to add your story.

To edit text: tap the T icon or select the text field you want to edit.
To change the background color: tap the droplet icon and select a color.
To delete this slide: tap the trash can and choose Yes or Delete.

Viewing and interacting with stories

While viewing a story, you can skip forward, skip backward, pause, switch stories, and expand records.

To skip forward: tap the right side of your screen.
To skip backward: tap the left side of your screen.
To pause: Tap and hold the screen.
To switch stories: Swipe the screen right to go to the next story or left to go to the previous one.
To expand records: Tap Expand record or swipe up to view a document more closely.

You can also like a story, view and leave comments, and share stories.

To like a story: tap the heart. To unlike, tap the heart again.
To view and leave comments: tap the comment icon.
- To leave a comment, enter your comment and tap the ⬆ up arrow in a green circle.
- To edit or delete your comment, tap the three dots next to your message and choose Edit or Delete.
To share a story: tap the share icon and select a sharing method. This will send a link to this story. If the recipient has the Ancestry app, the story will open in the app; if they don’t, the story opens on the Ancestry site.

Frequently asked questions

Where are my stories saved?
Your stories are automatically saved on Ancestry in your tree's gallery. For Close family and Story Suggestions, they are also saved in the LifeStory and galleries of anyone who is tagged in the story. If you uninstall the app, your stories will still be accessible on the Ancestry website.

Who can see my stories?
Published Community stories are visible to everyone on Ancestry.

Story suggestions and Close family stories follow your tree's privacy settings:

If your tree is public, your stories are visible to other Ancestry members.
If your tree is private, your stories are visible only to those you’ve invited to your tree.

For help changing your tree’s privacy settings, see Family Tree Privacy.

Who can make changes to my stories?
Only a slideshow story's author (creator) can edit or delete it.

People you've invited as editors or contributors can create stories for your tree but can’t make changes to stories they didn’t create, and guests can view your stories but can't add any.

For help changing someone's role or their ability to see living people in your tree, see Sharing a Family Tree.

How many slides can I add?
You can add up to 12 slides for any slideshow story.

How accurate are Famous Ancestors?
Famous Ancestors suggestions are based on the information in your family tree and how it connects to other members’ trees. Because these suggestions rely on existing research, their accuracy can vary depending on the quality and completeness of the information available across those trees.

To help improve Famous Ancestors suggestions, we recommend reviewing sources, confirming relationships, and keeping your own tree up to date. For more tips, read Ensuring Your Tree is Accurate.

How do I report someone’s story?
Anything that violates our Terms and Conditions, Privacy Statement, or Community Guidelines should be reported. If you think someone’s story goes against any of these, please report it.

To report someone’s story:

From the story you want to report, tap the three dots (top right).
Choose Report an issue.
Select why you’re reporting this story and then tap Report.