Insights Into Our Future And Our Past

For those who may be concerned about using the new Flash User Interface for the FamilySearch Family Tree, fret no more. My nephew proved to me that the new Family Tree is easy enough for anyone to use.

It’s not every day that you hear a six year old boy chirp, ”I just can’t WAIT to do some genealogy!” when he is asked if he wants to go to the movies.  (more…)

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What would your life look like on a map? Perhaps you visited another country, or an ancestral town in another part of the world, took a vacation a thousand miles away from home, or maybe you have never set foot outside of your home state! Thanks to a GoogleMaps, mapping a life can make genealogy even more intriguing, and can make planning research trips a snap.

What is “Life Mapping?”

One of the most interesting features of the FamilySearch Tree is the opportunity to see life events on a map. This doesn’t just include birth, marriage, and death, rather you can include road trips, vacations, accidental detours, (more…)

Somewhere in the family photo collection is a mysterious face that nobody can identify. Perhaps it is a photograph of one man or woman, standing alone, or perhaps it is a photograph of a group of individuals, with some identifiable individual, but some nameless faces besides.

One online family tree, www.myheritage.com, offers a helpful solution to this lack of identity: Facial Recognition software built right in to the family tree!  (more…)

What is FamilySearch?

You may have heard about one or more of the FamilySearch products and services:

• FamilySearch Labs
• FamilySearch Record Search
• FamilySearch Indexing
• FamilySearch.org
• FamilySearch Forums
• FamilySearch Research Wiki
• FamilySearch Tree
• The Family History Library and Family History Centers

FamilySearch is a brand name for the products developed by the Family History Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Rather than thinking of all of these products and services as separate, we hope that when one thinks of the name FamilySearch, the whole family of products and services will be considered together, rather than separately and independently. Together, we are working to find solutions to make it easier for you to find your ancestors!

Question 7: Why have all the versions of bad data for my ancestor(s) been merged with my good information?

The short answer: All of the genealogical information given to the Church over the years has been included in the Family Tree to encourage collaboration, help reduce duplication of effort, and help those just starting see what information already exists.The long answer: In creating the Family Tree the Church took all of the genealogical information received from various sources over the years and included it in the family tree. Primary sources for this information are collections of patron-contributed trees like Ancestral File or Pedigree Resource File, Temple records, and Church membership records. Over 1 billion records of individuals were analyzed by computer systems and where it was extremely clear that the records were of the same person they were combined together. After this process of finding duplicates occurred there were about 500 million records which constitute the data set in the Family Tree. There are still many duplicate records in the system that seem obvious to the human eye but are beyond the sophistication of current computer technology. The desire in bringing this information together was to have one central place where everyone could see the same information about ancestors and work together to make the information accurate. Bringing the data together in this way is also a key strategy in helping to identify where duplication of effort is occurring. This duplication can either be duplication of temple ordinances, or duplication of genealogical research. Additionally, bringing the information together allows the first time user to sign-in to the system and already see as much information as the Church knows about their family. While these objectives are accomplished with this approach, we have learned some important things about the nature of the information and the challenges of interacting with this type of a Family Tree. While we knew that there was much duplication happening and that there was a lot of incorrect information circulating about families, putting it all together in this system allowed us to truly grasp the reality of the problems. This is good in that we have a completely different understanding of the task at hand than when we started. This is challenging in that the problems are worse than initially believed. Not only do we see this, but the users of the system see this.

What we are doing about it: We are actively prototyping features which will make it easy to correct information in the system. We are also working to adjust the way we represent the records in the system so there is a clear relationship between the primary types of information – genealogical conclusions (opinions about the name, life events, and relationships of ancestors) and evidence (the sources that support the conclusions).

Question 6: Source documentation is a key part of genealogical research. The pilot program seems very weak in this area. Can this aspect of the program be improved?

The short answer: We agree that this is a weakness of the system and yes, we can improve it.

The long answer: The handling of source documentation is an aspect of the system that, due to time and resource constraints, was not fully built out. It does allow for the basic citation of a source and the creation of notes. It also recognizes notes and source citations in data that is imported to the system. The current implementation of these features is lacking in richness and usability.

What we are doing about it: Improving the way in which sources are treated in the system has been the focus of ongoing prototyping. We have considered a broad range of capabilities, like the ability to include digital copies of historical records and automatically citing sources from well-known record sets. We expect to enhance the way sources are captured and shared in the system in the coming months.

Question 5: I see that all of the information I originally submitted to Ancestral File ten years ago is in the system. I have more data to add. Is there an easy way to update the Family Tree with the changes without duplicating my original submission?

The short answer: There is currently not an easy way to accomplish this.

The long answer: Currently there are two ways to add changes you have made into the Family Tree. Both are manual and time intensive. The first, and preferred, method is to manually compare the information in your files to the information in the Family Tree, and then modify the information in the Family Tree. The Family Tree attempts to associate you with your previous submission(s) to the Church and give you ownership of these records. It is not always able to do this. In these cases, you can submit a request to claim legacy contributions. Once the request has been processed, you will be able to modify information you may have submitted previously to Ancestral File, Pedigree Resource File, and other similar systems. Second, you can upload your family history file to the system in a GEDCOM format. This method is usually discouraged as this approach usually introduces duplicate records into the system which must then be combined together. Most users feel the first option is easier. Either option is a manual and time consuming process.

What we are doing about it: The FamilySearch system being built has been designed to interact with software from affiliate commercial software companies. Several affiliate companies are building tools which will analyze a family history file, compare it to the information on FamilySearch and allow you to choose which information you would like to update into the system. These tools should greatly simplify the task. Two companies are building an add-on product for PAF that will allow PAF users to accomplish the same tasks.

Question 4: Why can’t the system just work more like Personal Ancestral File (PAF)?

The short answer: PAF by itself, even with major enhancements, is unable to meet the objectives of the Church to significantly reduce duplication of family history efforts and posthumous temple ordinances.

The long answer: PAF has been a tremendous blessing to millions of people around the world. The PAF product has not been updated since 2000, yet still continues to be downloaded by tens of thousands of people each month. As the work of redeeming the dead has expanded, the frequency of duplicate temple ordinances has increased. The Church also feels a need to reduce the duplication of effort individuals use in organizing, managing, and sharing their family histories. More people will contribute and participate if it is easy and convenient. We recognize, however, that millions of people have invested substantial time and energy into learning PAF and using it to do their family history and are concerned about learning to use a new system.

What we are doing about it: The FamilySearch system being built will work hand-in-hand with PAF and other similar desktop software products. In the near future, users will be able to use FamilySearch resources through their Web browser, family history software obtained from an affiliated commercial software company, or an add-on component for PAF. This approach allows users to select their software program of choice and still get the benefits of the FamilySearch system. It is also helpful to know that while the current pilot program is in some ways better and worse than PAF, the foundation upon which it is built will allow us to deliver many needed features and innovations which are yet to be exposed.

Question 3: I spent days cleaning up and correcting erroneous information only to have another user mess it up again. Can’t this be prevented?

The short answer: Not currently.

The long answer: The Family Tree has the ability to combine duplicate or multiple records of an individual into one record. It also has the ability to separate one of these records out. While the Family Tree only allows the person that submitted the information to change it, it allows anyone to combine or separate records. There have been many unforeseen problems with the way in which combining and separating records was implemented in the Family Tree. The possibility for one user to spend substantial time separating or cleaning up records, that in their view should not be combined together, can easily be undone by another user. We have received many reports of this happening. To make things worse, the system makes it much easier to combine records than to separate records, and there is no indication of which user did the combining or separating operation. Thus one user cannot contact another user to try and resolve a difference of opinion.

What we are doing about it: We recently added two features that start to help in this area. First, we have made it possible to view up to 100 combined records at one time. Next, we have made it so that multiple records can be selected and separated at once. This helps make it as easy to separate records as to combine them. Future enhancements will include the ability to see who did the last combine or separate operation (thus allowing users to contact one another), the ability to undo the most recent combine or separate operation, and indicate that two records are not a match and thus should not be combined.

Question 2: I am sure this temple work is already done. Why doesn’t it appear in the new system?

The short answer: There are several possible answers: 1) The work is recorded on the record of another person in the system which is actually a duplicate of your ancestor. 2) The work has been completed but is one of several million records of temple ordinances that have not yet been added to the system. 3) The temple work was either not completed or was not properly recorded.

The long answer: One of the primary objectives of the FamilySearch Family Tree is to reduce the likelihood that any given person’s temple ordinances will be performed more than once. The Family Tree does this by putting all known recorded ordinances and all known ancestors into the Family Tree and linking them together. The Family Tree then requires all new temple ordinances to be cleared through the Family Tree. The record of the person in question must have sufficient information to identify them as a unique individual In order for an ordinance to be cleared and submitted for temple work. They must have a name, gender, and an indication of death; and then be compared to all of the other records in the system to determine if there is a duplicate copy of the record for that person which may already have temple ordinances completed.

Often the system is unable to automatically determine that two records of ancestors are indeed the same person. This means that users must help the system combine these records together by using the Possible Duplicates feature to find similar records and combine them. The Possible Duplicates feature will present the closest matching records to the person in question. If you still do not find a record of ordinances you can also try using the Advanced Possible Duplicates search to find a record which has the ordinances associated with it.

If the ordinance work still cannot be found then it is possible that these record ordinances are part of a known set of records yet to be added to the system. If you can find the ordinance information in the International Genealogical Index (IGI), but not in the Family Tree, this is likely the case. If not, then it is possible that the ordinance was not performed or recorded properly. If you have documentation that the ordinance work was in fact completed, you can present this information to a temple recorder and they can record the ordinance. Otherwise, the ordinances will need to be done again.

What we are doing about it: We are working hard to add the rest of the ordinance records to the system. This should be completed before the end of 2008, and will make it easier to find currently missing records of specific ordinances. We are also exploring the ability to provide an ordinance search capability that allows users to search using a unique number on the ordinance card, or using the vital information about a person along with the date and temple in which the ordinance was believed to have been performed.