How to Remove Yourself from FamilyTreeNow (2026 Guide)

Quick answer: Go to https://www.familytreenow.com/optout, click “Begin” and search for your record, then open the record’s detail page and click the big red “Opt Out” button. Free, about 10 minutes. Listings usually come down within 48 hours.

What is FamilyTreeNow?

FamilyTreeNow presents itself as a free genealogy site, but its ancestry tools sit right next to a full people search. Look up a living person and you can see their age, current and past addresses, phone numbers, and a list of “possible relatives” and associates. No account needed. That relatives list is the part families should worry about most. It is exactly what grandparent-scam callers use to drop a real grandchild’s name into the call. Pair that with the age, address, and phone number shown on the same page, and a stranger has a ready-made profile for targeting an older person.

Before you start

The opt-out is free. Never pay a broker or a middleman to take down a listing you can remove yourself. All you need is a web browser and enough detail to recognize the right record: name, city or state, and rough age. This site does not even ask for an email address.

Doing this for a parent? Go ahead. The flow asks you to confirm the record is yours, but there is no identity check, so you can click through it with their OK, together or on your own. Ten minutes here means fewer scam calls that open with a grandchild’s real name, and one less site handing out their home address to anyone who types it in.

FamilyTreeNow is a single stop on a route that runs through twenty-some broker sites, each with its own quirks. At least this one keeps the walk short.

How to opt out of FamilyTreeNow

1. Go to https://www.familytreenow.com/optout and read the short instructions at the top.
2. The site runs an automated security check when the page opens (confirmed live in July 2026: a Cloudflare “performing security verification” screen appears first). Let it finish, then click the “Begin” button to reach the search page. If an email prompt appears, complete it and continue.
3. Search for the name, find the right person in the results, and click through to the record detail page. Check the age, cities, and relatives so you are sure it is the right record and not a stranger with the same name.
4. Click the big red “Opt Out” button on the record page. That is the whole submission. There is no confirmation email to wait for.
5. If more than one record exists (old addresses and maiden names often create extras), repeat steps 2 through 4 for each one.
6. Found the listing through Google instead? Open that exact record, copy the URL from your browser’s address bar, and submit it through the site’s contact page. FamilyTreeNow asks for this so it can clear search-engine copies too.

How long it takes

FamilyTreeNow says to allow up to 48 hours for a request to be processed. Once processed, the record is removed everywhere on the site. Check back after two days. If the listing is still live, run the opt-out again from step 1.

Check back in a few months

Opting out removes today’s records, not the pipeline behind them. A new deed, a move, or a fresh batch of public data can create a brand-new listing that your old opt-out never touched. Set a 90-day reminder to search the site for yourself and your parent, and repeat the process whenever something new appears. KinKeeper’s Data Removal does this automatically across dozens of broker sites and re-checks every 90 days.