Coming soon to iPhone
Know where you come from.
Start with four surnames. Lineal shows where each side of your family came from, then tells you the history of your own people, one short read a day.
Check your inbox. Tap the link in our email to confirm, and you're on the list.
- Every fact has a source. Marked documented or tradition.
- Guesses look like guesses. A surname is a clue until you confirm it.
- Private to your family. No ads, no selling your data.
How it works
Three minutes to your heritage
Your grandparents' surnames
Each one suggests where that family came from. Confirm what you know; blanks are fine.
See where you come from
Your heritage, line by line, and how far back each line is traced.
Keep going back
Ask a relative one question, confirm what surnames suggest, and read a little each day.
Your lineage
See where you come from, line by line
Not a vague percentage from a test tube. Lineal follows the people you come from: which side, which generation, and how sure we are.
- Solid for what's confirmed, striped for surname guesses
- How far back each line is traced
- What's still unknown, and who might know
One read a day
The history of your own people
A short piece each day about something your people made or did: a cup, a song, a custom. Four minutes, with where it comes from.
- Written for your lines, not a general history
- Objects from museums, credited
- A practice to go with it, if you want one
Honest by design
A guess stays a guess until you confirm it
A surname points to a place; it doesn't prove one. Lineal asks you, one person at a time, and your heritage updates as you answer.
- Yes, somewhere else, or not sure
- Say how you know: family, a record, or DNA
- Undo anything
Ask your family
One question to the right person
The people who know are often not on any app. Send one question by text; they answer on a simple web page, and it lands in your tree.
- No app or account for them
- Only you see what they say
- You read their answer before anything in your tree changes
Pricing
Your heritage is free
We'll never charge you to find out who you are. Plus is for going deeper, where the research costs us something too.
Free
$0
- Your tree, as far back as you can take it
- Your heritage, line by line
- Today's read
- Ask your family
Lineal Plus
$59.99 a year
or $8.99 a month
- Record search: parish and civil records, searched for you
- Every story and practice for your lines
- The Historian: ask anything about where you come from
Prices in US dollars at launch. Plus is sold through the App Store; cancel anytime in Settings.
Is this a DNA test?
No. Lineal starts from what you and your family know: names, places, dates. If you've already done a DNA test, you'll be able to add it as evidence, but you never need one.
Where does the history come from?
From museums, archives and published scholarship. Every read names its source, and anything that rests on family tradition rather than documents is marked as tradition.
Which heritages does Lineal cover?
Lineal recognises about 260,000 European surnames, from open records, national registers and public-domain surname dictionaries, and places them on 25 lines, from Scottish and Irish to Polish and Greek. A surname is always shown as an estimate until you confirm it. The stories are written and checked line by line: Scottish and Finnish first, with Irish, German, English, Italian, Norwegian and Swedish being written now. If we don't know your surname, we note it and a researcher looks into it.
I don't know my grandparents' names. Can I still use it?
Yes, most people start there. Lineal helps you ask the right person one question, and your tree fills in as answers come back.
Who can see my family tree?
Only you, and family members you invite. Relatives who answer a question see only that question. We don't sell data or show ads. Privacy
When is it out, and on what?
Lineal is coming to iPhone first. Join the waitlist and we'll email you once, the day it's out.
Your people are waiting to be known.
Check your inbox. Tap the link in our email to confirm, and you're on the list.