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

Saturday, September 26, 2015

Looking at the Hope Chest App in the FamilySearch App Gallery


Lately, I have been looking at Apps in the FamilySearch App Gallery. One App that has gotten a lot of attention over the past year or so is the Hope Chest App. Unfortunately, when I tried to click on the Get Started link to the App from the App Gallery, I got the following screen:

Thinking this might be a browser problem, I switched from Chrome to Firefox and got the same screen. I then did a Google search for the program and found it in the Chrome Web Store.


I added it to my Chrome browser and at that point I wondered how many people would know how to use a browser app? I then went back and clicked on the link to the videos and reviewed the Introduction video.

When I followed the instructions and went to the FamilySearch.org Family Tree, the icon appeared in my Chrome browser bar.


Clicking on the App icon gave me a dropdown list of options. I soon discovered that to get to most of the features, I needed to pay for the "Plus" version for $10. I decided to see what else the program might do before paying the extra charge. I then got the following screen:


I decided to "just do search." I then got the next screen:


At this point, I was wondering why the FamilySearch.org App Gallery did not have a little more information about the difference between the "free" version and the paid version?

I clicked on the "Start Search" link button and nothing happened. OK, I know a lot of people are happy with the program, but it didn't work for me. By the way, the Introductory video did not match the menus that appeared when I tried the program. It looks like to me that the program has evolved into a paid program only.

I guess my evaluation of the program is incomplete, based on what I have seen so far I did not pay the $10 price of the App.




1 comment:

  1. When this app first emerged several years ago, I really didn't like it because all it did was skim across the top of your pedigree and locate the green arrows. No thought for duplicates or data errors. People went nuts over it thinking it was just a great way to take "names" to the temple. Those of us who knew more about the data on Family Tree really tried to discourage its use. Now that impedances have been added to stop this kind of whole sale reservation of records with dups, data errors, and within the 110 year rule, I'm not sure what Hope Chest does. So please continue looking at it and tell us.

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