About Nha Roots
Nhà is the Vietnamese word for home, and for the family that lives there. Nha Roots (nharoots.com) is our family's private home online: one place to trace where we come from, keep our photos and recordings safe, and pass our stories on to the next generation.
Getting started
- Go to My settings and choose “This is me in the tree.” If you aren't in the tree yet, add yourself from the People page.
- Open your profile and use the Add a parent, Add a spouse or partner, Add a child and Add a brother or sister buttons.
- Click any name to keep going — add their parents, children, and partners. The tree grows from there.
Adding relatives and in-laws
Everyone is connected through just two kinds of links: parent and child, and partners. The site works out everything else for you — grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles, and in-laws.
To add an in-law, add them as a partner (for example, your sister's husband is added as a partner on your sister's profile). Then add their parents and siblings from their profile. They'll appear as “Parents-in-law” and “Siblings-in-law” automatically.
Before adding someone new, check whether they're already in the tree — the “Choose someone already in the tree” option avoids duplicates.
Typing dates
Type dates the way you know them. All of these work: 1950, Mar 1950, 3 Mar 1950, 1950-03-03, 03/03/1950, Abt 1890, Before 1900.
Photos and files
You can upload photos, PDF documents (certificates, letters), audio recordings, and short videos. Photos are automatically resized, and hidden location data (GPS) from phone cameras is removed. Please tag the people in each photo and add a short description.
Privacy
Only family members approved by an administrator can see anything on this site. Search engines are blocked. A profile can be set to “Only administrators and the person who added it” for anyone who wants extra privacy. When the tree is exported to a GEDCOM file, details of living people are left out unless an administrator chooses otherwise.
Accessibility
We want everyone in the family to be able to use this site. It is designed to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2, level AA:
- Everything works with a keyboard alone. A “Skip to main content” link appears when you press Tab.
- Works with screen readers (VoiceOver, NVDA, JAWS, TalkBack). Family trees are also shown as lists you can read in order.
- Text size and high-contrast colors can be changed in My settings. Browser zoom up to 400% is supported.
- Every photo has a text description; audio and video can have transcripts.
- Forms explain mistakes in words, next to the field, and list them at the top.
- There are no time limits for filling in forms.
If something is hard to use, please tell a family administrator so it can be fixed.