A Survival Guide to the FamilySearch Family Tree: Part One -- The Introduction

Many of the users of the FamilySearch.org Family Tree feel like they are lost in the wilderness. Some are on the verge of giving up hope and others like one commentator to my recent blog have given up entirely. Here is what she had to say.

I quit using Family Search because changes made with no documentation. And when you asked for it no response.

An additional comment agreed and said:

I totally agree. Aunt Susie said is rarely adequate for making any change in any record. Especially with today's available records, I have also found the Watch feature is not very efficient.

Because of the almost constant stream of such negative comments, I have decided to write a detailed and exhaustive analysis of every comment. If you have any concerns or questions about your own experience with the Family Tree, you can add them as comments and I will respond to every issue raised. I will be using every comment I can find in the extensive comments on the GetSatisfaction.com website. There are about 241 pages of comments. There are apparently about 18,384 "customers" that have made comments on the website.

The biggest challenge I can see starting out is imposing some kind of organization on the comments. Likely, I will be highlighting a few issues at a time and adding issues as the posts continue. If you have been reading my posts on both this blog and on Genealogy's Star, you know I have already spent a great deal of effort answering issues and promoting the Family Tree. I have also done some videos for the BYU Family History Library YouTube Channel about the Family Tree and the issues raised. This series of posts will cover some of the same issues but in more depth.

Let's get started.