security and email for family website

[unclewally]

Hi--I'm a relative neophyte trying to establish a family website that's open only to family members and that has individual email accounts closely linked to each person's separate page within the site. I've learned a little bit about .htaccess (have read dozens of websites about it) but haven't hit upon the precise sequence of steps needed to set it up, with a common password everyone can use top get into the whole site. I think I've coded in the right instructions for each user to be permitted access, if I could only figure out how to do the password bit using the control panel. Has anyone done all this already, including the passwords (and then the next step of making it possible for each person to access their email, or have email sent to them, by a simple click on each person's page)? Is there a precise sequence of steps to follow available anywhere? Thanks for any tips...