tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3793782800729950147.post997532481206528767..comments2024-03-26T21:29:07.190-07:00Comments on Rejoice, and be exceeding glad...: A Survival Guide for the FamilySearch Family Tree: Part Three -- Initial ConsiderationsJames Tannerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02989059644120454647noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3793782800729950147.post-70408527195447486442018-05-23T18:24:51.950-07:002018-05-23T18:24:51.950-07:00That is one of the major challenges of the Family ...That is one of the major challenges of the Family Tree: educating people how and why it works. Thanks for the long and insightful comment. I will eventually get to all of these issues and many more. James Tannerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02989059644120454647noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3793782800729950147.post-89101112944670374692018-05-23T15:22:14.475-07:002018-05-23T15:22:14.475-07:00A couple of weeks ago I helped someone in our fami...A couple of weeks ago I helped someone in our family history center who was pretty new to family history. The other consultant who was there started off by telling her that she needed to get a private tree on Ancestry to protect her information from all the people who were going to mess up her tree on Family Search. At least two of the other consultants seem to always start by showing patrons how to set up a tree on Ancestry for the same reason. I fully support this practice, but I don't know that it's the best idea to start by telling people that someone's going to mess up all their work on Family Search. I think it's more motivating to start by helping them have heart-turning experiences such as reserving temple names or finding interesting records about their ancestors.<br /><br />One of the issues that a lot of patrons seem to have is editing the tree. Some don't even realize they're allowed to change it and they think they have to call Salt Lake to get things fixed. Others know they can edit the tree, but they're not familiar enough with the program (or sometimes with computers in general) to make changes and fix mistakes. So for them it takes a long time and feels like a big project to correct errors. And merging is even more overwhelming. Once you get comfortable with editing the tree it usually doesn't take long to fix errors.<br /><br />I also see people who get mad that somebody "messed up their tree," but when they show it to me I find that they haven't added many sources. Or as I help them do research, we find relevant records, and they say that's interesting and write it on their family group record (and maybe print the image) but don't attach the source on Family Search. Most people who come in bring file folders/notebooks/plastic totes full of their genealogy.<br /><br />The other issue that comes up a lot is that people can't understand that living people are treated differently than deceased people in the tree. I helped a lady who was really disappointed in the program because one branch was missing from her tree, and I'm still not sure if I was able to help her understand that all she had to do was find out from a relative what her great-grandparents' names or IDs were and then create the appropriate relationships to get that entire branch hooked up to her.RT and Mhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12869535583945601736noreply@blogger.com