Native African · Powered by My African Dream (Pty) Ltd
My Family Tree
Designed in Africa, for African families as they really are. Houses, wives, relation words and naming traditions built in from the start, and every child in the family on the tree. Private to your family, in your family's own words.
Native African, made for how we live
Our families are big, our elders matter, and a marriage joins two families. My Family Tree was designed around that.
Houses and wives, as our families are
A household head with more than one wife, each wife's house and children kept together, and co-parents named for what they are. Polygamy is part of African culture, and the tree shows it plainly.
Our words for our people
Rakgadi, Malome, Mamogolo, Ntatemogolo: every relative in your family's own language, Sesotho first, and the family can add its own words.
Named after our elders
Names Cloud shows the names that run through the family and the children who carry an elder's name, as African families have always done.
Surnames that change
A surname at birth, a surname from marriage, a name taken back: each person's names over the years, with when and why.
Both sides of the family
Marriage joins two families. Everyone gets the full tree, their father's side and their mother's side, and the roots of their own birth surname.
Remembering those who passed on
Year of death even when the exact date is not known, the burial date, and the elders' stories kept for the children.
Founder's vision
Our families remember. Now our families keep.
For generations our history lived in the voices of our elders: who married whom, which house a child belongs to, the names carried from a grandmother to a granddaughter.
Every time an elder passes on, a library closes. My Family Tree is how we keep those libraries open.
It is built in Africa, for African families. Houses and wives, lobola and customary unions, both sides of every child, and the words our own languages use for each other. Not translated in afterwards. Built in from the start.
It belongs to the family. The family decides who sees it, who looks after it, and what is true. Every change is shown, explained and can be undone.
We want every child to be able to say where they come from, and name the people who made them. Start with what you know. Ask the elders what you don't. Add it before it is lost.
Zuko Leonard Rabotapi, aka Dibosto Dibosto
Founder, My African Dream (Pty) Ltd · hello@myafricandream.net
Families as they really are
Every child belongs on the tree
Most family trees only know a husband, a wife and their children. Ours knows the families we actually live in: mothers who are the root of their household, fathers of children with several mothers, step-families, adopted and fostered children, and two mothers or two fathers. Recorded truthfully, without shame, so no child loses their place in the family's memory.
When the mother is the root
Her children with her, whoever their fathers, and a father who is not known left blank, never guessed. Her surname stays theirs, and her household can have a tree of its own.
Fathers of many children
Every child of every mother on the tree, each mother's children as their own house, and each relationship named for what it was: married, customary, partners or co-parents.
Step-families and half-siblings
A mother who marries later, a stepfather and his children, half-brothers and half-sisters: shown as they are, on dotted lines where they belong.
Adoption, fostering and those who raised us
Adopted, fostered, raised by a grandmother or an aunt as her own, or by a guardian: each parent says how they are a parent, and the birth parents stay on the tree too.
Two mothers or two fathers
A couple of two women or two men is a couple like any other, and their child shows both parents side by side.
Truth, with care
A blank is better than a wrong father. Paternity stays private, papers stay in the encrypted File cabinet, and everyone keeps their POPIA rights.
Everyone keeps it honest
Every correction shows who, when, why and how we know. Anyone can dispute it, and anything can be rolled back.
Yours to keep
Your family owns its tree. Download all of it at any time, with its pictures and records.
Private by design
Each family has its own separate database. Certificates are encrypted, and every time one is opened is recorded.
Every feature, in every tier
Three tiers, every feature in each. The tier sets how many people your trees hold, all your trees together, and how many devices.
Your place in the tree
- ✓My Tag (This is Me): tag yourself and the tree opens on your own family
- ✓Three trees for everyone: Full, Paternal and Maternal
- ✓Your Roots: the family of your own birth surname
- ✓How are we related? Any two people, in your family's words
Ways to see the family
- ✓Family view with Up one family, Down one family and Go to Root
- ✓Houses, Generations and My direct line
- ✓Traditional tree and the ancestors fan
- ✓Table view that opens in Excel
- ✓Find anyone in the family
Our people, our way
- ✓Families of every shape: mothers as the root, fathers of many children, adoption and fostering, two mothers or two fathers
- ✓Wives and houses, co-parents, step-parents and step-brothers and sisters
- ✓Names Cloud: the names that run through the family and who carries an elder's name
- ✓Names over the years: birth surname, marriage and other changes, with dates and reasons
- ✓Family words: relation words in your language, the family's own words on top
Dates and memories
- ✓Birthdays and dates, with reminders as they come up
- ✓Full dates where known, a year where that is all the family remembers
- ✓Year of death and burial date
- ✓Family album, shared with the family, with a custodian lock and hide
Kept safe and correct
- ✓Every change shows who, when, why and how we know, and can be rolled back
- ✓Review changes and What's missing for the family's curators
- ✓File cabinet: ID and birth certificates encrypted, every opening recorded
- ✓Your own private tree beside the family's
Yours to keep
- ✓Your family's own coat of arms or logo and colours
- ✓Download everything at any time, including a standard GEDCOM file
- ✓Sign in with one MAD-ID
- ✓The free African family knowledge centre
Is your family here?
Trees whose custodians have chosen to be listed. Only the family name and where they come from show here; nobody's details do.
The Mampe family of Sebokeng: the family of Yvonne Dinkeng Mampe, for her daughters Dimpho and Letlotlo
This may be my familyLightweight, Middleweight, Heavyweight
You fill in your family history first, the family's custodian approves you, and then you choose your tier inside the tree. Move up or down at any time.
- ✓Up to 500 people across all your trees
- ✓2 devices: a computer and a phone
- ✓Every feature
- ✓Up to 2,000 people across all your trees
- ✓2 devices: a computer and a phone
- ✓MAD-Family: 3 people, you included (for example a couple and a child)
- ✓Every feature
- ✓No limit on people
- ✓3 devices for each person
- ✓MAD-Family: 6 people, you included; the people you add never pay
- ✓Every feature
- Every package is priced and charged in South African rand (ZAR). The rand price is the price.
- Dollar prices are a guide, on R99 = $10, so you can compare from anywhere.
- Paying with a card from outside South Africa, your bank changes the rand into your money at its rate on the day, and may add its own foreign transaction fee.
- So your bank statement can differ a little from the dollar guide, and from month to month, while the rand price stays the same.
- Invoices, refunds and credits are always in rand.
Host your family's tree
Dollar prices are approximate: every package is charged in rand, at the exchange rate on the day.
Up to 150 people is free. Start now, or take a bigger plan.
Help building your tree
Build it yourselves with guidance, or have us build it for you. Prices include VAT.
R1 500 per session
Family tree consultation
Two hours online with Chere Solomon Rabotapi (Apostle King Sol), MAD's Chief of Families and Culture: an independent consultant to My African Dream, and a family and community counsellor with the Ubuntu Reclamation Movement. Where to begin, which elders to ask, houses and generations, and keeping the tree alive.
R5 000, meetings not included
We build your family tree
You fill in our Excel template and share a cloud folder (Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud or Nextcloud) with everyone's pictures. We build the tree, check it with you and hand it over, with you as its owner.
Quoted for what you need
Technical help
Bringing in a GEDCOM or MyHeritage file, joining trees, clearing duplicates, photos in bulk. Tell us what you need; we quote before any work starts.
Ask and pay inside the app: Help building your tree (sign in with MAD-ID).