Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Tuesday's Tip - FamilySearch Family Tree Learning Tools

This week's Tuesday's Tip is:  Learn how to use the FamilySearch Family Tree (soon to be available for every person to contribute to, perhaps this week!), including the ability to add, edit, delete, and merge persons and their information.  

There is a wealth of "learning material" online to help a researcher come up to speed and learn how to use this interconnected "Mother of all Genealogy Family Trees."



Here are some of the links I've collected:

1)  Guides and Articles:

*  Gaining Access to the FamilySearch Family Tree (PDF)
*  Getting Started with FamilySearch Family Tree (PDF)
*  Family Tree: Quick Start Guide (September 2012) (PDF)
*  Using the FamilySearch Family Tree: A Reference Guide (2 October 2012) (PDF)
*  Family Tree Release Notes  (4 October 2012) (PDF)
*  Sources in FamilySearch Family Tree: A FamilySearch White Paper (PDF)
*  Family Tree: Dealing with Duplicate Records (PDF)

2)  Videos and Presentations (all on FamilySearch Research Courses)

*  Family Tree: Overview
*  Navigating the FamilySearch Family Tree
*  Family Tree: Adding Information
*  Family Tree: Correcting Information About a Person
*  Family Tree: Correcting Family Relationships
*  Family Tree: Adding Sources

3)  Webinars

*  FamilySearch Family Tree Webinar (James Tanner, 15 October 2012)
*  FamilySearch Made Easy with RootsMagic (18 January 2011)
*  New FamilySearch Made Easy with Legacy Family Tree (22 January 2011) - scroll down page to find this

Devoted readers of Genea-Musings know that I have been working in FamilySearch Family Tree since February 2012.  I think it has a real potential to be what it hopes to be - an interconnected family tree with sourced information, discussions, etc.  However, that will require that information in the tree is source-centric and that collaboration will be required to resolve disputed data and relationships.

At this time, there is no GEDCOM (or similar) upload capability to add information to FamilySearch Family Tree.  Users can add persons, data, sources, etc. to the tree by adding it online, or by using one of the genealogy computer programs to add persons, combine persons, add data, etc.  I use both RootsMagic 5 and Legacy Family Tree 7.5 to do this.  However, source citations do not transfer to the Family Tree from the programs.

UPDATE, 18 October:  Michael McCormick offers this URL for the current list of these Family Tree training materials:  https://familysearch.org/tree-training (you have to use your free FamilySearch registration username and password).  Thank you, Michael!

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/10/tuesdays-tip-familysearch-family-tree.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

2 comments:

Carol Kostakos Petranek said...

Hi Randy - I am finishing a short introductory article on FamilyTree for Meridian magazine, and just happened to see your post this morning. I had found the webinar links on the FamilySearch "Help" screen but did not think to look at the Learning Center. Thanks so much for posting these! I will include them in the article and give you credit. Carol Kostakos Petranek

Unknown said...

Randy, I enjoy your blog. Here is a great link that puts many of those trainings and more on one page: https://familysearch.org/tree-training It talks about uploading a GEDCOM in a partly hidden link at the end of an interactive video.