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

Sunday, February 5, 2017

Comments on What's New on FamilySearch for January 2017


Unless you are watching carefully and subscribed to the FamilySearch Blog, you will likely miss the new developments in the FamilySearch.org Family Tree program. Some of the changes are also subtle and might go unnoticed unless you are constantly using the program. This month is headlined by a very useful improvement to the Family Tree. When you are searching for historical records in the Historical Record Collections, the program now visually identifies those records that you have already attached to individuals in your part of the Family Tree. Here is a screenshot showing the icons that indicate records that are already attached.



This may seem like a small thing, but those of us who have to click on the suggested records to see if they are already attached will find this to be very convenient and a time saver.

Next, the Memories section has been redesigned to have an "Overview" link to what is essentially the startup page. FamilySearch has also added a "List View" to the items in your memories section. Here is a screenshot of my Gallery's list view.


This is a much more efficient way to view the Gallery when you have a large number of entries.

There is also a note that the web-based edition of the Indexing program "will be rolled out in 2017." The program is still in Beta right now. I got to see the demo version for a short look and I hope that the prediction of the program's release is accurate. I understand that there will not yet be smartphone support, which locks out all those of us who do a major portion of our computer usage on smartphones.

2 comments:

  1. Occasionally when searching for records for members of my family, I come across one that is already attached to a duplicate entry in Family Tree. I find it useful to examine it more closely to be sure it is attached to the entry/ies I am researching. If not, I have an opportunity to merge the duplicates. There is always the possibility that someone attached it to the wrong person and that bears keeping in mind, as well.

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    Replies
    1. Right, we should always check the sources to make sure they actually apply to the person to whom they are attached.

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