Kinship — User manual

Who this is for

People who use a family website or the Kinship mobile app to work with their family tree. It is not for Toughblue operators who run the Family Hub.

What Kinship is

Kinship is one shared brand for many families. Each family has:

• its own website and own database
• the same mobile app (Kinship)
• accounts (username + password) that live only in that family's system

A central Family Hub decides whether a family may sign in (paid, trial, or suspended). The hub does not store your member password.

Before you start

You need:

1. Your family name (for example Ssemadali)
2. A place if another family could share that name (for example Mugongo or Masaka)
3. A username and password created by your family administrator

If your family is not on Kinship yet, see <a href="#new-family">new-family</a>.

This manual is also on the hub website (no login): https://stage.hub.toughblue.com/docs/user

Sign in on the phone (Kinship app)

1. Open the Kinship app.
2. If a family is already selected, tap Change to clear it when you need another family.
3. Enter:

* Family — the family display name Place — required when two families share a name; leave blank only if the name is unique Username — your personal account for that family (not the family name) Password*

1. Tap Sign in.

Important rules

• The app never shows a list of matching families. One typed name+place must resolve to exactly one family.
• If the name is shared and you omit the place, sign-in is refused. Add the place.
• Username and password are checked only against the one family that matched. Credentials from another family will not open the wrong family's data.
• After you are signed in, the drawer shows your family label. Use Switch family to leave that family and pick another.

Apply for a new family from the phone

On the login screen, tap Apply for a family account. That opens the hub website application form in your browser. Applying does not create a member login by itself. After the family is approved and live, a family admin creates usernames.

Apply for a new family (website)

Public form (stage): https://stage.hub.toughblue.com/apply

1. Fill in family name, place/burial ground, region, contact details, and preferred plan.
2. Submit. You receive a private follow-up link — save it. Anyone with the link can update the application.
3. You also get email (when mail is configured): application received, questions, approvals, and when the family is live.
4. Use the follow-up page to:

keep Application details up to date (Save details) reply in the Messages chat when the platform team asks something

Statuses you may see: submitted, inquiry, changes requested, approved, provisioning, live, rejected, cancelled.

Sign in on the family website

Each family has its own URL, for example:

• https://family.toughblue.com/ (Ssemadali on stage/production naming)
• https://munyaani.toughblue.com/ (Munyaani)

Use the username and password for that site. The same account works in the mobile app once that family is selected.

If the family is suspended or past due, the site and app will refuse sign-in (even if you were already logged in, access ends within a few minutes).

What you can do after sign-in

Depending on your role (viewer, manager, admin — exact labels may vary by family):

• Browse people, tree, events, gallery, timeline
• Edit members and photos if your role allows
• Admins manage users, settings, and (on the family site) activity logs

Ask your family administrator for role changes or a password reset.

Trial and payment (what members see)

• New families usually start with a 7-day trial.
• After the trial, the family must be marked paid on the hub or sign-in pauses.
• Paying at the start still gives the free week first; paid coverage begins after the trial ends.
• If access stops, contact your family contact person or the platform team — members cannot re-activate a family from the app.

Troubleshooting

Privacy note

• Member passwords stay on each family server.
• The hub stores family registry data, billing status, usage counts, and error alerts from family servers — not your tree records.