Sunday, October 1, 2006

Changes Coming to LDS FamilySearch Site

Dick Eastman on his blog posted a link to an article titled "A Family History Overhaul" in the Deseret (Utah) Morning News printed yesterday, which is here. Some of the changes coming soon include:

And with a complete overhaul of the church's FamilySearch.org Web site planned for the months ahead, even those who have no experience researching family history will be able to "do something meaningful without having to learn anything prior," according to Steve W. Anderson, online marketing manager for the church's Family History department.

New online tools will allow novices to log on and — with a few mouse clicks — pull up their family tree, with details about ancestors, of any faith or none, that are part of the database. "You'll be able to attach images or photos to it, or something like a timeline of events. It will have all kind of things to make it a much richer resource."

Users will have their own login, allowing them to add information about living people to their family tree if they so choose, though that information will not be available for others to view in order to maintain privacy. Anderson said there is some concern about the accuracy of allowing people to simply add information, but "if someone disagrees with your account of it, there will be an opportunity to put additional information or opinion there."

Read the whole article - it is worth the time.

Dick Eastman wonders if the new online family tree service will mean an end to Personal Ancestral File, the LDS free genealogy software program.

I wonder if the LDS site isn't trying to build a researcher-submitted database similar to WorldConnect/Ancestry World Tree on Rootsweb/Ancestry or the World Family Tree data promoted by Genealogy.com. Of course, they already have two submitted databases in the Ancestral File and Pedigree Resource File, but I think that most of the information in those databases are dated.

These are interesting research times we live in.

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