Getting Started
Start building your family archive.
This guide explains what JFA is, what you need before installing it and the recommended path from an empty WordPress site to a useful private family archive.
What is JFA?
JFA is a WordPress plugin for creating a private, self-hosted family archive. It brings together photographs, albums, documents, stories, people and family relationships in one place.
The archive material is the centre of the experience. Genealogy provides context: it helps explain who people are, how they are related and why a photograph, document or story belongs in the archive.
JFA is not intended to replace dedicated genealogy software.
You can continue researching and maintaining a larger family tree in the genealogy application you prefer, then use GEDCOM to bring the relevant people and relationships into JFA.
A simple mental model
01
Material
Photographs, letters, records, PDFs, stories and albums are the things you are preserving.
02
People
People connect the material to the family members who created it, appear in it or are otherwise related to it.
03
Genealogy
Relationships provide navigation and context so the archive becomes easier to understand and explore.
What you need
Before installing JFA, make sure you have a WordPress installation that you control and an account allowed to install plugins.
WordPress
6.2 or later
JFA requires WordPress 6.2 or newer.
PHP
8.0 or later
JFA requires PHP 8.0 or newer.
For a private archive, infrastructure matters too.
Use HTTPS, keep regular backups and make sure the WordPress process can write to the storage it needs. JFA includes system and private-storage checks to help identify common configuration problems.
The recommended setup path
1
Install JFA
Download the release ZIP, install it through WordPress and activate the plugin.
2
Complete the first setup
A genuinely new JFA installation offers a first-install setup flow for the initial archive configuration.
3
Import genealogy
If you already maintain a family tree elsewhere, import the relevant people and relationships through GEDCOM.
4
Add archive material
Add photographs and documents, describe them and connect them to the people and context that make them meaningful.
5
Invite relatives when you are ready
Create family accounts and use the contribution workflow if relatives should be able to help add material.
Before importing real family material
- Make a backup of WordPress and its database.
- Check that JFA reports a healthy storage configuration.
- Decide whether JFA or your existing WordPress homepage should be the site homepage.
- Choose an initial visual profile for the archive.
- Keep the original GEDCOM and source files outside JFA as your own archival copies.
Installation →
Download JFA, install the plugin and verify that the new installation is ready for setup.