How to Remove Your Information from FamilyTreeNow
FamilyTreeNow markets itself as a free genealogy and family-tree tool, but the listings it publishes look a lot more like a background check — home addresses, birthdates, phone numbers, and relatives, all searchable with nothing more than a name. Here's how to request removal, and what to do if it doesn't stick.
Quick overview
- FamilyTreeNow's "genealogy" framing hides how much background-check-style data it actually shows — here's what's really going on.
- The opt-out at familytreenow.com/optout is free and doesn't need an account — here's the process.
- BBB complaint records show requests denied by state of residence and listings reappearing — here's what we found.
- FamilyTreeNow is run by Family Tree Now LLC (Roseville/Sacramento, CA, founded 2014) — unlike most sites on this list, it isn't part of a larger data-broker network. More about the company.
What is FamilyTreeNow — and why the "genealogy" label is misleading
FamilyTreeNow.com is operated by Family Tree Now LLC, based in the Roseville/Sacramento, California area, founded in 2014. Its Better Business Bureau profile lists Dustin Weirich as CEO, and business records show no parent company — it appears to run independently rather than as part of a larger people-search network.
The site presents itself as a free family-tree and genealogy tool, which is exactly what catches people off guard.
In practice, a search returns the kind of detail you'd expect from a background-check site: home addresses, birthdates, phone numbers, and a list of relatives, all accessible with nothing more than a name and rough location — no account, no payment, no proof of identity required from whoever is searching. A 2016 San Francisco Chronicle profile on the site's founder described him as deliberately hard to reach publicly despite running an operation that makes other people's addresses trivially easy to find.
That gap — a friendly "build your family tree" pitch sitting on top of what functions as a public address-and-phone-number lookup — is the main reason people search for a removal process for FamilyTreeNow in the first place.
How to remove yourself from FamilyTreeNow
The opt-out request is free and doesn't require creating an account. Based on cross-checked third-party removal guides, the process runs through familytreenow.com/optout:
- 1
Start the opt-out procedure
Go to familytreenow.com/optout, enter your email address, complete the CAPTCHA, and click "Begin Opt Out Procedure."
- 2
Find your record
Search by your name, city, state, and birth year, then locate the correct listing among the results.
- 3
Submit the opt-out
Open your record's details and click the "Opt Out This Record" button.
- 4
Confirm by email
Click the verification link sent to your inbox to finalize the request. Without this step, the removal is not processed.
Processing times vary by source — FamilyTreeNow's own guidance points to up to 72 hours, while some independent write-ups report a removal disappearing within 24 hours and others suggest allowing 2–5 business days. We haven't found any paid tier tied to this process — the standard opt-out is free.
If a request is denied or a listing reappears
FamilyTreeNow's Better Business Bureau profile shows a B- rating (the business is not BBB accredited) with roughly 104–105 complaints filed over the past three years.
A recurring theme in those complaints: requesters say their removal was denied specifically because of the state they live in, and others describe the company asserting that certain "public records" fall outside its definition of personal information and therefore aren't eligible for removal — even after a request initially appeared to go through. These are complaint records rather than a confirmed, stated company policy, but the pattern shows up often enough to be worth expecting rather than being surprised by.
The other recurring complaint is reappearance: some consumers report that information they successfully had removed showed up again later, consistent with how FamilyTreeNow can regenerate a listing when new public records become available. A single opt-out is realistically not a permanent fix — treat it as something to recheck periodically.
We didn't find any FTC action or lawsuit specifically naming FamilyTreeNow in our research — the record here is BBB complaints and media criticism of the broader "genealogy site that behaves like a background-check site" model, not a confirmed regulatory or legal action against the company.
Common questions
Is FamilyTreeNow actually a genealogy site?
It markets itself as a free family-tree and genealogy tool, but the listings it surfaces look like a background-check site: home addresses, birthdates, phone numbers, and relatives' names, all searchable with just a name and rough location. That mismatch between the "genealogy" framing and the personal detail exposed is why people are caught off guard when they find themselves listed.
Why did FamilyTreeNow get so much media attention when it launched?
Local news outlets reported in 2016 that the site's free, no-login lookups were surfacing current home addresses — including, in some cases, those of law enforcement officers themselves, prompting internal warnings at several police departments. Domestic-violence advocates raised a similar alarm at the time, pointing out that the same instant, no-account access could let someone locate a victim in seconds, something most comparable sites require a payment or sign-up to do.
Does FamilyTreeNow charge a fee to opt out?
No — based on cross-checked third-party removal guides, the opt-out process at familytreenow.com/optout is free and doesn't require payment or creating an account. You just enter your email, complete a CAPTCHA, find your record, and confirm through a verification link sent to your inbox. No source we checked mentions any paid tier tied to this removal process.
Has FamilyTreeNow ever denied a removal request?
Its BBB complaint record shows a recurring pattern: multiple complainants say their removal request was denied because of the state they live in, and others say the company claims certain "public records" are excluded from its definition of personal information and therefore won't be removed. These are complaint records, not a confirmed company policy, but worth expecting.
Will my information come back after I opt out?
It can. Every source we checked agrees that FamilyTreeNow can regenerate a listing once new public records covering you become available, so a one-time opt-out isn't necessarily permanent. This matches a recurring complaint in FamilyTreeNow's BBB record, where consumers report information reappearing after a successful removal — treat periodic rechecking as the realistic long-term approach rather than a single fix.
Related
Also showing up on SearchPeopleFree or PeopleFinders? See our SearchPeopleFree or PeopleFinders removal guides, or the full Data Broker Removal service.
We know which "family tree" and genealogy-branded sites are really just address-and-phone lookups underneath — so you're not caught off guard by where your information turns up next, or left thinking one denied request is the end of the road.
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