Genealogy from the perspective of a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon, LDS)

Sunday, September 27, 2015

FamilySearch Family Tree adds direct searching in partner sites


FamilySearch.org Family Tree adds direct searching from your ancestors in the Family Tree to the partner websites. You have to be careful with the results and evaluate each suggested source carefully. The searches also assume that the information in the Family Tree is correct. This type of searching is not quite as accurate as letting the programs suggest record hints.

I suspect, and will verify this, that they will only work if you are already registered with an LDS account. However, they may allow searches but require you to log in to see the results. I cannot tell because I have an LDS account.

Here is a screenshot of what happens when I search using Ancestry.com.


I have to go to church and then to the BYU classes, so more later.

7 comments:

  1. It worked for me after I saw this post, however if you are not LDS or have an account with that site (Ancestry, etc) then you will get limited data.

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  2. Have to have an LDS account. The links go nowhere for ordinary accounts. Ideally, they should only show up on LDS account pages and not on the rest of us. It will surely confuse a lot of people.

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  3. It works for me as a non-LDS member, but both Ancestry and My Heritage include tree data disguised as record results, so the Search Records heading is not very true.

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  4. I have an Ancestry account that I have not linked to my Family Search account for various reasons.

    If I am signed out of Ancestry and search from Family Search, I get search results. If I attempt to access one of Ancestry's free databases, I get the screen to set up a free Ancestry account. If I attempt to access one of their subscription databases, I get the screen to purchase a membership. Both of these screens include a "Sign-in" button.

    When I am signed into Ancestry with my regular (non-LDS) account, and do a search from the new link from Family Search, I get full access to everything I usually do on Ancestry.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for this more complete explanation of the process and the requirements.

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  5. Not quite sure what to make of this new search feature. Going to one of my ancestors, Heber Chase Featherstone, born 1874 in Utah and died 1945 in Utah and clicking on the My Heritage Link gives 347,984 results in 424 collections. Far too many are just goofy. There are 2,624 results for him in the 1861 census for England and Wales.

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  6. I agree with you, Gordon! I am not sure what you do with it once you find it either. Record seek is not visible on my screen when I pull records up that I would like to keep or attach. There is a similar feature in The Family History Guide found at www.thefhguide.com that works a lot better in my opinion. Either I am missing something major or they need a better explanation of what to do with this feature once you wade through the records you can see on how to capture them short of copying the url.

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