Welcome to FamilySearch Labs

FamilySearch Beta

We're working on a major renovation to the familysearch.org web site. We hope to make it a place where people can come together and work on their family history. We'll build it here on labs where you can monitor our progress and give feedback as we go. As always, please use the feedback link to tell us what you think.

Updated 17 Nov 2009.

Record Search

Record Search is a quick and easy way to search millions of historical records for clues about your ancestors. Click on a map to see what records exist for a geographic area or enter what you know about an ancestor, click search, and see matching records. We're adding millions of new records so be sure to check back often.
(requires Adobe Flash Player)

Updated 1 Sep 2009 to version 2.0. Read more about Record Search on the Labs blog.

Forums

The Forums project is aimed at providing the most up to date information to anyone who uses FamilySearch products to work on their family history. Through the Forums anyone can ask questions about product features, research techniques, hints and tips, or even about specific families in specific locations. And anyone who knows the answer can reply. Instead of a limited number of support agents available to answer the questions there will be tens of thousands of users collaborating together. There will even be special forums for Family History Consultants, or leaders assigned to foster local family history participation. Come participate and give us your feedback. The more who use it the better the information.

Research Wiki

The Research Wiki forms a community of research experts and interested genealogists that share up to date information on how to research sources for information about your ancestors. The larger the community the more useful the data is, so come and be a part.

Family Tree

The FamilySearch Family Tree allows you to navigate from yourself, to your ancestors, and beyond. Users of the Family Tree collectively and collaboratively organize information into its appropriate node on this shared tree. Ultimately, each node will be a folder containing or linking to all known information for an individual.

Navigate the tree.  Open the Folders to discover additional information about individuals. Search for records not found on your part of the tree.
(requires Adobe Flash Player)

Updated 18 May 2009. Read more about the Family Tree on the Labs blog.

England Jurisdictions 1851

The England Jurisdictions 1851 project simplifies research by consolidating data from many finding aids into a single searchable repository that can be accessed by clicking in a parish boundary. Features include contiguous parish and radius search lists and relevant jurisdictions as they existed in England in 1851. Data includes changes to parishes prior to 1851 and lists of non-conformist denominations in a parish.
(requires Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 3, Safari 3 or newer)

Updated 13 Aug 2009. Find out more on the Labs blog

Standard Finder

With Standard Finder you can search for a standardized name, date or place based on your input. The Standard Finder will present the standards that will be used in future releases of new FamilySearch. Come and try out your historical and current entries and understand how the system will interpret your input. Use filtered results to see what we think the best match would be or uncheck filtered results to see all the possible standards. Then send us feedback on how the system can do better.

Updated 26 Feb 2009. Find out more on the Labs blog

Historical Family Trees

Ever wish you could reconstruct the families that lived in your ancestral village in the 1750s? FamilySearch works with individuals and groups with the expertise to piece together the families that lived together historically in a community. We’re experimenting with ways to make these richly-sourced lineage-linked trees more available and expand the number of people helping with this effort. Check it out and tell us what you think.

Updated 21 Oct 2009.

FamilySearch Indexing

Extract family history information from digital images of historical documents to create indexes that assist everyone in finding their ancestors.

Life Browser Prototype

With the Life Browser we are exploring possible ways to get to know ancestors through pictures, records, stories, maps, timelines and collaboration.
Try dragging and dropping records to attach them as evidence. Zoom in on records and photos. Annotate artifacts. Not everything works, but we are interested in your feedback on the concepts.
(requires Adobe Flash Player)

Updated 24 Aug 2007 to version 0.4.

Pedigree Viewer

See and interact with a large pedigree or descendancy.
(requires Adobe Flash Player)

Updated 30 Mar 2007 to version 0.3.4.