Exploring the New "Ancestor Discovery Pages" on FamilySearch

 The FamilySearch blog highlighted the new Ancestor Discovery Pages on the FamilySearch Family Tree site today (two screens below).

By clicking on the blue "Explore Your Ancestor's Discovery Page" button you can see a short summary of your ancestor's life.  The button leads you to the screen below:

There currently is no search field.  You can click the teal button on the screen above to "Browse Surname directory." That leads you to the "Ancestors in Family Tree" page which shows a list of alphabet characters for surnames, and shows the Top of the A surnames.

I want to see what they have for my grandfather, Lyle Lawrence Carringer (1891-1976).  So I clicked the "C" button on the alphabet list and saw the alphabetical ranges for "C" names:

"Carringer" is in the range of the 9th item on the list for surnames between Carrillo and Carter.  So I clicked that item on the screen above, and saw the list of names on that page and scrolled down to the Carringers:

There is my grandfather, Lyle Lawrence Carringer (1891-1976).  I clicked on his name and saw (3 screens):

The page provides the following (from top to bottom) from the FamilySearch Family Tree profile for the person):

*  A brief life story - only names, dates, places of birth, marriage and death.

*  Photos and memories.

*  Activities of "Heritage" and "Traditional Dress."

*  Spouse and Children (with links)

*  Parents and Siblings (with links)

*  Family Time Line (with parents or spouse)

*  Name Meaning

*  Story Highlight (if there is a Story)

*  Sources (if there are any).

I wondered how many generations back and forth are provided in these "Ancestor Discovery Pages" so I clicked on the link for my mother, who is deceased, and she had an Ancestor Discovery Page, as did my father.  Since all of their children are still alive, there were no links for me and my brother.

Back on my grandfather's page, I clicked on the link for his father, and he had an Ancestor Discovery Page also.  

However, when I clicked on the link for my 2nd great-grandfather, Henry Austin Carringer's father, the following appeared:

A user who wants to find this person has to sign in to the FamilySearch website or register for a new account.  Once they do that, they are taken to the profile for the person selected.

It appears that this feature goes back to great-grandparents of a living person at this time.  So it is limited in scope.  But maybe that's OK.  Most people know the names of their parents, and usually know who their grandparents were.  So they are led into the FamilySearch Family Tree without a name search, but they do have to navigate the alphabetical list of people by surname.  And that's a good thing, I think.

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