Wednesday, April 30, 2008

New FamilySearch News for 30-April-2008

Well, it's Tag der Arbeit Eve and time for another New FamilySearch (NFS) update.

"Ancestry Insider," you ask. "Did you pick Tag der Arbeit because there are no English holidays today?"

"No," I lie. "Tag der Arbeit is the German name for a Swiss holiday and today's news has a Switzerland connection."

Bern Switzerland was the only temple district getting New FamilySearch yesterday. Typically two, and sometimes three, temples are activated each week. Rumor had pointed to an April Hong Kong release. Hong Kong would have been a big milestone, since the Chinese  language requires more than Roman characters. Come to think of it, a conflicting rumor has it that the non-Roman character set milestone will happen in Japan. Stay tuned.

One other change to my Temple Districts Using New FamilySearch article is the addition of 8-Jul-2008 as the release target for the Newport Beach, California temple.

NFS Record Search pilot updated

Tim Crabb announced version 1.3 of the NFS Record Search pilot on the FamilySearch Labs Blog this afternoon.

This release features a number of enhancements from the look and feel to the types of searches that are available. 

Take some time to check it out and give us feedback on how we are doing.

http://search.labs.familysearch.org

It's been so long since I've used Record Search, I'm not completely certain which features are new, but I found several features that are new to me.

The search type can be set to Exact, Exact & Close or Exact & Close & Partial. Close matches will match different name forms. For example, "Joseph" will match "Joe."

When entering a place name, you can select from matches presented.

The search form can be expanded to allow entry of spouse or parent names, an event type, a year range and a place.

Records flagged as new or updated in the last 30 days are

  • 1850 US Census
  • 1850 US Census (Mortality Schedules)
  • 1895 Wisconsin State Census (Images only)
  • Norway Baptisms, Burials, Marriages 1700-1900
  • Texas Deaths, 1890-1976
  • Spain, Albacete Diocese, Catholic Parish Records 1550-1930 (Images only)

NFS Family Tree pilot updated

Yesterday Tim Cross announced updates to the NFS Family Tree pilot. Cross listed these improvements:

  • We added “Helpful Tips” to identify features that may not be obvious.
  • If you have folders open when you log off, those folders are open when you log back in.
  • We improved the graphics when selecting other spouses and other parents from the Tree tab.

Personal Ancestral File Problems

I've mentioned before my opinion that PAF users should consider upgrading to a free or low cost replacement program once NFS is mature enough to warrant it. A post by Shoebox Genealogy documents some of the problems in Personal Ancestral File (PAF):

  • Multimedia functions need to be altered to integrate rich media into the PAF database, allowing users to more easily share photos, source images, audio, and video.
  • New temple codes need to be updated
  • Option for listing the additional LDS ordinances of confirmation and initiatory, which are now being listed in NFS.
  • Rich text in the notes sections
  • Storing the unique NFS ID numbers with an individual, instead of/in addition to, the AF number.
  • Auto-update old two letter temple codes to the 5 letter codes
  • Much more, as described by the general genealogical community

1 comment:

  1. Here's a note from the wish list of the "general genealogical community." We wish that when a person prints out a family group sheet from PAF, with the sources listed, that it would not repeat identical sources. Say there is an identical source used for the birth and the death of an individual. It would be nice if PAF printed a small superscript 1 for the birth and a small superscrit 2 for the death and then put the 1 and the 2 at only one listing of that source. sigh.

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