Help & Glossary

A guide to using Ebiwawa, the words we use, and answers to common questions. If something on this page is unclear, write to us at support@ebiwawa.com — we'd rather rewrite a confusing line than have you puzzle over it.

What is Ebiwawa?

Ebiwawa is a place for African families and the diaspora to come together to discover, share, and preserve the family history — in the practice of storytelling. The product is built around your family tree: a living record of the people you're related to, the relationships between them, and the stories tied to each.

Today we're in an invite-only beta. If you're here, someone in your family invited you. Welcome home.

Glossary

Family tree

The graph of people you're connected to. Each family tree has a creator — the person who started it — and members, who are the people added to it. Most members are family; some may be close friends or chosen family.

The Family Tree view lets you switch perspective (see relationships labelled from your card, or from the creator's), toggle between Focused view and Full view (see just your immediate neighbourhood or the whole tree), and switch between multiple trees you're on. See the entries below for each.

Person

A record of a single individual on a family tree. A Person has a name, optional birth and death details, optional photo, optional biography. A Person isn't necessarily a user of Ebiwawa — you can add deceased ancestors, distant cousins who haven't joined, anyone you want recorded.

User

You. An account on Ebiwawa, tied to an email address. Every User can be linked to a Person on their own family tree. Multiple Users can be on the same tree.

User vs. Person

This is the distinction that confuses people most often. A User is a sign-in account; a Person is a node on the family tree. Most of the time they're paired up — your User represents one Person — but they're separate concepts because a tree can hold many Persons who never sign in (ancestors, young children, relatives who aren't online).

Connection request

The way you ask another User on Ebiwawa to add you to their family tree (or vice versa). When you fill out a search and tap "Send request," they get a notification in their Family & Connections inbox; they can accept or decline. Connection requests are how the platform stays opt-in: nobody is added to your tree without your approval.

Tree member / Member of tree

Once a connection request is accepted, the requesting User's Person is added to the accepting User's family tree as a member. They can be seen by other tree members, can have relationships defined to other Persons on the tree, and inherit the privacy posture of the tree as a whole.

Pending acceptance

When you've sent a connection request and the other side hasn't responded yet. While pending, you'll see a "Waiting for acceptance" screen with the request listed. You can also start your own tree from this screen while you wait.

Trust Score

A signal that a Person's details (birth year, birth place, relationships, etc.) have been verified by other members of the tree. Higher scores mean more agreement. Trust Score = (verifications / family members in the tree) × 100. Editing a Person's details clears their existing verifications — changing the data means it needs to be re-verified.

Claimed profile

A Person on the tree that's linked to a User account. When you sign up, the Person representing you is claimed by your User — that's how the platform knows which card in the tree is you. Only the claimant can edit their own profile details and their own privacy setting.

Floater (unconnected member)

A Person who's on the tree but doesn't have any defined relationships to other Persons yet. The Family Tree view marks them with a dashed border. If you have a profile of your own on the tree, floaters show a + Connect to me pill — tap it to open the Add Relationship modal pre-filled with you as one side and the floater as the other, so placing them is one step.

YOU pill

A small orange badge on your own card in the Family Tree view. Tells you at a glance which Person on the tree is you.

Perspective toggle (My perspective / Tree creator's view)

Family relationships are relative. In the Family Tree view, the perspective toggle in the top-right lets you switch between:

• My perspective (default) — relationships labelled from your card. Your parents show as Mother/Father, your siblings as Sister/Brother, and so on.
• Tree creator's view — same tree, but relationships labelled from the tree creator's card. Useful when the creator is telling you about their family and you want to follow along in their frame.

The toggle is hidden when you are the tree creator (both perspectives would render the same thing).

Focused view vs. Full view

Also in the top-right of the Family Tree. Controls how much of the tree renders.

• Focused view (default when your profile is claimed) — shows you and everyone within two family "hops" of you (parents, children, spouses, siblings, in-laws, and grandparents). This keeps wide trees readable when you're browsing.
• Full view — shows the whole tree, even distant relatives who don't connect to you directly.

Focused view is disabled until you have a claimed profile on the tree (with no anchor to focus around, there's nothing to filter to).

Multi-tree picker

If you're on more than one family tree, the tree name at the top of the Family Tree view becomes a dropdown. Tap to switch between trees. The last tree you were on is the one that opens by default.

Rename tree

The tree creator can rename their tree at any time — hover the tree name in the Family Tree view and tap the small pencil that appears. The rename applies immediately across every surface that shows the tree name (Family Members list, Family Tree view, multi-tree picker). Only the creator sees the pencil.

Privacy modes (per profile)

Every profile on the tree has one of two privacy modes:

• Visible to family (default) — other tree members can see your dates, location, occupation, biography, and photo.
• Private — other members see only your name and how you're related to them. Everything else — dates, location, biography, photo — is hidden. A small lock icon appears on your avatar so it's clear at a glance.

You control your own privacy in Profile → Manage privacy. If you added a deceased relative to the tree, you also control theirs — the toggle appears at the top of their profile view.

Privacy levels (per post)

Posts and content have their own privacy setting, separate from the per-profile setting above.

• Family (default for most things): visible to other members of the tree.
• Public: visible to anyone with the link (rare, mostly photos of celebrations).
• Just me: visible only to you.

Block

If you need to stop interacting with someone — for any reason at all — Block ends the connection. You'll no longer see their posts or appear in their tree, and they can't send you new connection requests until you unblock them.

Common tasks

How do I sign up?

You need an invite. Someone already on Ebiwawa sends you a connection request by email, or shares the URL with the email they have for you. Sign up at ebiwawa.com/login using the same email address the inviter knew you by — that's how the system matches your account to the pending invitation.

How do I add a family member to my tree?

Open the Family Tree view → tap + Add Person. Fill in their first name (required), last name, and any other details you have. They're added to your tree as a Person. If they're alive and you'd like them to join Ebiwawa themselves, use Invite Family instead — that sends an email invitation.

How do I define relationships between people?

From the Family Tree view, tap + Add Relationship. The modal reads as a sentence: "Person A is the [relationship] of Person B." Pick the two Persons and the relationship type. Spouse, sibling, and cousin are bidirectional — order doesn't matter. Aunt-uncle and grandparent are directional (one way) but the system automatically registers the inverse on the other side.

How do I accept a connection request?

Family & Connections → Requests. Each incoming request shows who sent it, what they say they are to you, and any message they wrote. Tap Accept and they're added to your tree as a Person.

How do I make my profile private?

Profile → Manage privacy → flip the toggle to Private. Save is automatic. Every surface — Family Members list, Family Tree, posts, chat — updates for other viewers within one render cycle. You still see all your own information, with a small "Only you can see this" note next to each field so it's clear what others can't see.

How do I control the privacy of a deceased relative I added?

Open the relative's profile from the Family Tree view. Because you created their record, you'll see a Manage privacy card at the top of their page with the same toggle. Family members whose loved ones added them, or the tree creator, can also manage this.

If you didn't add the profile and can't see the toggle, the profile is under the control of whoever did. On a private deceased profile there's a request a change link — that sends a note to the controller.

How do I switch between "My perspective" and "Tree creator's view"?

Family Tree view → top-right, below the zoom controls → the segmented toggle. Tap the other option. The tree re-renders with role labels computed from that anchor. No page reload. Your choice is remembered per tree.

If you are the tree creator, the toggle is hidden — both perspectives would show the same labels.

How do I switch between Focused view and Full view?

Family Tree view → top-right, just below the perspective toggle. Focused view shows you and everyone within two family hops (parents, spouses, siblings, children, in-laws, grandparents). Full view shows the whole tree. Focused view is disabled until you have a claimed profile on the tree.

How do I rename my family tree?

Only the tree creator can do this. Family Tree view → hover the tree name at the top → tap the small pencil that appears → type the new name → Save. The rename applies everywhere the tree name shows.

How do I switch between multiple family trees?

If you're on more than one tree, the tree name at the top of the Family Tree view is a dropdown — tap it and pick the tree you want to open. If you're only on one tree, the name is static text (nothing to switch to).

How do I block someone?

Open the person's profile or post → tap the three-dot menu → Block. They're removed from your tree, your family relationships with them are deleted, and they can no longer reach you. You can unblock them later from Family & Connections → Blocked Users.

How do I download my data?

Profile → Privacy & Data → Download my data. You get a single JSON file with your profile, the family trees you manage, your posts and messages, your connection requests, and your blocked-users list. Human-readable.

How do I delete my account?

Profile → Privacy & Data → Delete my account. The system asks you to type DELETE to confirm. Your account is anonymized (your name, email, profile photo, and personal fields are cleared), your Firebase Auth account is deleted, and you're signed out. Posts and messages you authored stay on the platform with the author name set to "Deleted User" — this preserves the conversation context for other family members. To delete those too, ask the relevant tree owner.

Email & notifications

We send email for:

• Email verification — when you sign up (we want to confirm we can reach you).
• Password reset — when you tap "Forgot password?".
• Connection requests (coming) — when someone wants to add you to their tree.

If a Ebiwawa email lands in your Spam folder, mark it as Not Spam and add noreply@ebiwawa.com to your contacts. We're working on sender reputation and inbox delivery improves with every verified domain we get added to a friendly list.

Privacy & safety

• Your data is yours. Download it any time. Delete it any time.
• Family members can see what you choose to share. Set privacy on posts before publishing.
• Reports of unsafe behavior go to safety@ebiwawa.com. We take this seriously and respond within five business days.
• Security disclosure — if you find a vulnerability, write to security@ebiwawa.com. We acknowledge within five business days.
• The full privacy policy is at /privacy. The full terms of service are at /terms.

Getting in touch

We're a small team. We read every message.