The New FamilySearch Family Tree - Post 3: A Person's Data

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In the last post, The New FamilySearch Family Tree - Post 2: Searching for Ancestors, I went searching for Isaac Seaver, and found a mishmash of data that purported to be for my great-great-grandfather, Isaac Seaver (1823-1901), with at least six different Person Identifiers. 

In this post, we will look at the information in the NFS Family Tree database for one of Isaac's entries, and how to navigate through the Family Tree data on the website.

Clicking on the first entry (Isaac's underlined name, or the "Go To" button) in the "Close Matches" list (in the last post, the only one with five stars), I saw this screen:



The screen above has two major components - the "Family Pedigree" (three generations, plus list of descendants) and "Details."  The "Details" component has eight buttons on the left side of the page - "Summary," "Details," "Time Line," "Map," "Parents and Siblings," "Spouses and Children," "Possible Duplicates," and "Discussions."  At the bottom of the page are links for "Individual notes," "Individual sources" and "Combined Records."

In the screen above, the "Summary" button is highlighted, and the summary information for this Person Identifier (LWL3-LN4)  is shown.  Only one entry is shown for Name, Gender, Birth, Christening, Death and Burial.  One person's user name and the change date is provided on the right-side of the "Summary" panel.

Note: In all of the screens shown below, the "Family Pedigree" component appears on all of the screens - I've chosen to show the information in the lower component.

The "Details" button provides all of the information for this person identity:

In the screen above, all of the information for name, gender, birth, christening, marriage, death and burial that has been submitted and combined for this person identity is included, along with the Contributor of the information.  Each piece of information has an "Edit" link, but the only person who can edit the information is the person that submitted it.  A person that did not enter the information can add an opinion about the information.  Each item on the list can be clicked on to see details of the information and the contributor(s).

The next button on the left-hand side is the "Timeline" button:

A timeline for all of the events in the person's birth and spousal families are listed - birth and deaths of his siblings, deaths of his parents, his marriages, births of his children, death of his spouse, etc.

The "Maps" button shows a Google Map of the localities shown on the parents, siblings, spouses and children pages (I'm not sure about that, but it's logical). 

If you click on one of the stick-pins on the map, then the assertions associated with the family and with the location are listed in a popup box.

The next button down the left-hand side is the "Parents and Siblings" button:

In the screen above, the Siblings are listed in birth order, and the parents are shown with a marriage record between their names.  The user can click on the "View family group record" link in the upper right corner of the screen and see a family group sheet that can be printed.  At the bottom of the panel,. there are links for "Add or find sibling," "View Relationship Details, "View or Add Family Notes," "Other Parents" and "Parent Options" (includes Add or Find Parents).

The "Spouses and Children" button shows a similar view - the family structure of the Person Identity:

The next button on the left-hand side is the "Possible Duplicates" button:

On this screen, a user can Combine records or Compare records with more detail.  There are buttons to "Compare in more detail" (you have to select one or more of them in order to compare them).  There are also links for "Advanced Possible Duplicate Search" and "Overview: How Combining an Individual's Information Affects Your Family line."

The last button on the left-hand side is the "Discussions" button:

On the "Discussions" page, the researcher can add a title and add remarks about the Person's identity or any of the assertions made for the person. 

The information for the parents, siblings, spouses and children of this Person Identifier (Isaac Seaver LWL3-LN4) convince me that it is not for my Isaac Seaver (1823-1901).  It is for his uncle, Isaac Seaver (1802-1870), who married the mother of Isaac Seaver (1823-1901) - Abigail (Gates) Seaver - in 1832.  Therefore, I should not combine my Isaac Seaver with this Isaac Seaver LWL3-LN4. 

Most of the data on the "Parents and Siblings" and "Spouses and Children" pages are correct, or nearly so -- there are some duplicate assertions, incorrect dates and places, even some incorrect ancestors.   

 This has been a quick overview of the available options to display all of the information through the eight buttons on the left of the Person Identifier Details screens. 

In the next post, we will look at some of the other links on this Person Identifier page, and discuss them.