FamilySearch MCP Server

A local Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for FamilySearch. Gives AI assistants access to search the Family Tree, view person details, explore ancestors and descendants, and search historical records.

Features

• Family Tree search — find individuals by name, dates, places, and gender
• Person details — view a person card by ID
• Pedigree exploration — ancestors (up to 8 generations) and descendants (up to 3)
• Historical records — search record collections
• Browser session auth — log in once with Brave; no FamilySearch API key required

How it works

FamilySearch does not approve direct API access for most personal projects. This server reuses your browser session cookies and calls the same internal /service/ endpoints the website uses. Your session is stored locally at ~/.familysearch-mcp/config.json.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+ and npm
• Brave browser — Playwright’s bundled Chromium is blocked by FamilySearch bot detection
• A free FamilySearch account

Installation

1. Clone and build

git clone https://github.com/JonathanReiss15/familysearch-mcp.git
cd familysearch-mcp
npm install
npm run build

2. Log in to FamilySearch

npm run login

This opens Brave with a dedicated profile. Sign in when prompted. Your session is saved to ~/.familysearch-mcp/config.json.

Tip: You can also ask your AI assistant to run the login-with-browser tool after the MCP is connected.

3. Configure your MCP client

Add the server to your client using stdio transport. Replace /path/to/familysearch-mcp with the absolute path to this repo.

Recommended config (uses cwd so you don’t need absolute paths in args):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "familysearch": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["build/index.js"],
      "cwd": "/path/to/familysearch-mcp"
    }
  }
}

Run npm run build whenever you pull changes.

---

MCP client setup

Cursor

Project-scoped — create .cursor/mcp.json in your project (or add globally in Cursor Settings → MCP):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "familysearch": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["build/index.js"],
      "cwd": "/path/to/familysearch-mcp"
    }
  }
}

Restart Cursor or reload MCP servers after saving.

Claude Desktop

Edit claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "familysearch": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["build/index.js"],
      "cwd": "/path/to/familysearch-mcp"
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop after saving.

Claude Code

From the repo directory:

claude mcp add familysearch -- node build/index.js