Circassian App has a free family tree. Add anyone in your family, from your children to your great-great-grandparents: a name is enough, and people who aren’t on the app are seen only by you. Relatives who are on the app get a request, and once they confirm you’re in each other’s trees. People who carry your Circassian family name are one tap away.
How to make your Circassian family tree
The family tree lives on the Profile tab: tap “Start your family tree”. Then:
- Start with the people closest to you. Add your parents, brothers and sisters, husband or wife, and children. A name is enough; a year of birth, the year someone passed away and a photo are optional.
- Tap anyone to add their family. Every person has quick buttons for their own parents, spouse, siblings and children, so an uncle’s card offers “+ Aunt” and “+ Cousin”.
- Ask the relatives who are on the app. Search for them, or pick them under People with your family name. They get a notification and confirm.
- Fill in your ancestors. Switch to Ancestors and tap an empty place to add exactly that grandparent or great-grandparent.
The tree puts your father’s side on the left and your mother’s on the right, and the dashed “+” spots around whoever is in the center show who is still missing. Pinch to zoom, drag to move around, or switch to List to go through everyone one by one. Besides close family the app knows grandparents and great-grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins on each side, nieces and nephews, in-laws and step-family, great-aunts, second cousins and, when nobody remembers exactly, a plain “relative”.
Relatives on the app confirm you’re family
When you add someone who is on Circassian App, they get a notification and a request that says how you’re related, and what you have in common, such as your family name or your friends. Until they answer, they show in your tree as waiting.
If you confirm, you’ll be in each other’s trees. Saying you’re not related is private: they aren’t told.
Yes, we’re relatedWe’re not relatedIf they tap Yes, we’re related, you’re in each other’s trees, and each of you sees the relation from their own side: you add a grandchild, and they see a grandparent. If they tap We’re not related, nobody is told. Removing someone from your tree also ends the link for both of you, without a notification.
You decide who can send you a request: people who share a family name with you, your friends and people you have a confirmed relative in common with; only friends; or no one.
Find relatives by your Circassian family name
Add your family name, your surname, to your profile, up to five of them, written in Circassian (Cyrillic) letters. Tap a family name on any profile to see everyone on the app who carries it, and when you add a relative, the app lists your friends and then the people under People with your family name, so you can pick them without searching.
Family names written in Russian have a form for men, one for women and one for the whole family: Коков, Кокова, Коковы. The app counts all three as one family, so a brother and a sister find each other. And if you type the palochka as the digit 1 or a Latin l, the app reads it as a palochka.
A shared family name doesn’t make two people relatives. Kabardian even has a word for that: the Kabardian dictionary gives унэцIэджэгъу as “a namesake (not a relative)”. That’s why a family name only lets you ask, and the other person decides. Who sees your family names is up to you: everyone, your friends, or only you.
Your ancestors in one picture
The Ancestors view draws four generations above you as a half circle: two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents and sixteen great-great-grandparents, thirty places in all. Known ancestors are named; an empty place shows a “+” and adds exactly that person.
Under the circle the app counts how many of the thirty you know, generation by generation. Center the tree on your mother or your child and the circle shows their ancestors instead.
One grandfather in every cousin’s tree
Cousins often know different things about the same grandfather. When someone in your tree has passed away, you can tap Share with my relatives: your confirmed relatives see his name and years and can link him in their own trees, so it’s one person in all your trees. When their tree already holds him, the app asks “Same person?”. Changes any of you make show for everyone linked, and you can stop sharing at any time.
How are we related?
Open the profile of someone who is a confirmed relative of one of your confirmed relatives, and the app shows how you’re connected: through your wife to her brother, and the whole relation in one word, brother-in-law. It goes through one relative only, and only when that relative and the other person both have Help your relatives find each other turned on.
The same setting fills Relatives you can add: relatives of your confirmed relatives who share their family with you. Each of them decides whether to confirm.
Private by default
- People you add who aren’t on the app are seen only by you, unless you share someone who passed away (their name and years). The photos you add are only ever seen by you.
- Nobody else can open your family tree. Confirmed relatives see your profile like anyone else, without your activity, online status or friends list; with Help your relatives find each other on, they also see your other confirmed relatives.
- You choose who can send you family requests, and who sees your family names.
- Saying you’re not related is private, and removing someone ends the link for both of you without telling them.
- An adult can’t send a family request to someone under 18: the younger one is the one who asks.
- A block, either way, takes the person’s name and face out of the tree: only a neutral face is left.
Family words in Kabardian and Adyghe
The first two are from the app’s audio course, with its audio. More on the family words page and in mother and father in Circassian.
| Meaning | Kabardian | Adyghe |
|---|---|---|
| family | унагъуэwunaghuwe | унагъоwnagho |
| my family | Си унагъуэ.Si unaghwe. | СиунагъоSiunagho |
And the words behind this page, from the Kabardian dictionary built into the app:
| Meaning | Kabardian dictionary | Page |
|---|---|---|
| a family name, a surname | унэцIэ | p. 454 |
| a namesake (not a relative) | унэцIэджэгъу | p. 454 |
| a sign, a mark; a symbol | дамыгъэ | p. 83 |
The app’s Adyghe dictionary gives тамыгъэ as “emblem”.
Family tamgas
Many Circassian families also have a tamga, a family sign of simple lines and hooks. In Kabardian a sign or mark is дамыгъэ. English Wikipedia’s article on tamgas says almost every Circassian family still has one, used as a family crest, a property mark and a symbol of the lineage, with rules that are part of Habze. Fathers passed it to their sons, and families branded it on horses and sheep and carved it on gravestones.
Today tamgas live on in rugs, rings and gravestones. In Turkey, after the Surname Law gave Circassian families Turkish surnames, they carved their tamgas into gravestones to keep the memory of their Circassian families. The app doesn’t draw tamgas; it keeps the names and the people. For the larger groups, see the Circassian tribes.
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Circassian family tree: questions
Is the Circassian App family tree free?
Yes. The family tree is part of the free app on iPhone and Android. You need an account to build it, so that relatives on the app can find you and confirm.
Can I add relatives who aren’t on the app?
Yes. A name is enough, and you can add a year of birth, the year they passed away and a photo. Only you see them, unless you share someone who passed away with your confirmed relatives (their name and years; your photos stay private).
Who can see my family tree?
Nobody else can open it. Confirmed relatives appear in each other’s trees, and with “Help your relatives find each other” on, your confirmed relatives also see your other confirmed relatives.
Can someone add me to their tree without my OK?
They can ask, if your settings let them. Until you answer you only show as waiting in their tree. Saying you’re not related is private: they aren’t told.
Does the app know that Коков and Кокова are one family?
Yes. The men’s, women’s and plural forms of a family name written in Russian (Коков, Кокова, Коковы) count as one family on profiles, family pages and in search.
Can I write my family name in Latin or Arabic letters?
No. Family names are written in Circassian, that is in Cyrillic letters, up to five per profile, so that everyone who carries the same name finds each other. The keyboard guide shows how to type them.
Is there a list of Circassian surnames in the app?
No fixed list: family names come from people’s own profiles. When you type yours, the app suggests the spellings people already use. For what Circassian surnames mean and how they work, see Circassian names and surnames.
Is it a DNA test?
No. There is no DNA and no archive search. You build the tree from what your family knows, and relatives on the app confirm.
How far back can I go?
The Ancestors view shows four generations above you, up to your great-great-grandparents: 30 places. The tree also holds aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews and in-laws on both sides.
Which languages does the family tree speak?
English, Russian, Turkish and Arabic. In Arabic the whole tree reads right to left, with the father’s side on the right.
What is a Circassian family tamga?
A family sign made of simple lines and hooks. According to English Wikipedia, almost every Circassian family still has one; it works as a family crest, a property mark and a symbol of the lineage, and fathers pass it to their sons.
Sources
- Circassian App, the family tree (Profile tab), checked on 11 November 2026: every screen, word and rule on this page is the app’s own.
- M.L. Apazhev, Dzh.N. Kokov, Kabardino-cherkessko-russky slovar (Kabardino-Cherkess–Russian Dictionary), Nalchik: Elbrus, 2008, the Kabardian dictionary built into the app: унэцIэ and унэцIэджэгъу p. 454, дамыгъэ p. 83. The app’s Adyghe dictionary: тамыгъэ.
- The app’s audio course: унагъуэ / унагъо (family) and Си унагъуэ / Сиунагъо (my family), with the app’s audio.
- English Wikipedia, “Tamga”, section “Circassians”, revision of November 2026: en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tamga&oldid=1382825187
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