FamilySearch: A Global Experience at #NGS2017GEN

The 2017 National Genealogical Society conference wrapped up last Saturday, and after a couple of articles, so will I. Diane Loosely of FamilySearch spoke at the FamilySearch luncheon. Her title was “FamilySearch: A Global Experience.” She described three definitions of global for which FamilySearch is global.

One definitions of global refers to world-wide global reach. Diane showed us a FamilySearch booklet, My Family: Stories that Bring Us Together. It is available in 66 languages. FamilySearch has 5,000 family history centers located in 33 countries. They offer support to patrons in 13 languages.

FamilySearch operates cameras in countries across the globe. They have 5.6 billion names published online from many countries. They publish an additional 2 million names a day.

Diane showed a video, “Preserving and Accessing the Records of the World,” documenting record destruction in the Philippines resulting from super-Typhoon Yolanda. One town’s records, indeed all the town offices, were completely destroyed. All that was left was the cement floor of the building. Because FamilySearch had photographed their records, FamilySearch was able to restore all the records to them.

Diane said that FamilySearch is gathering the genealogies of villages in Africa that, today, are preserved only by “Rememberers.” Aging village elders have memorized the genealogies of the village. Many are old and their knowledge is perishing with them. In the case of 95-year old Opanin Kwame Nketia, FamilySearch interviewed him and documented 12 generations and 1,000 people. A couple of days later when they returned to thank him, they discovered he had passed way.

Diane said that 50 years ago FamilySearch canvassed Mexico, filming their records. It is thought that today 15 to 20% of those records have perished.

Another sense of the word global is the idea of operating on a whole set of things. To find and search all of FamilySearch’s records, you have to know a few ways of accessing the records. Diane showed a Kentucky probate collection containing 12,000 names and nearly a million images. Obviously, FamilySearch had not completely indexed the collection. To access all the records, you have to be prepared to browse through the images like you would microfilm. She also pointed out that some records are accessed only through the catalog.

Another sense of the word global is embracing the whole of something. “We feel a responsibility to help everyone discover their family history,” she said. She shared the quote from the Emory university study stating that the more children know about their family’s history, the stronger their sense of control over their lives and the higher their self-esteem. FamilySearch recently remodeled the first floor of the Salt Lake Family History Library to appeal to a younger generation.

Diane shared the well-known quote of Alex Haley:

In all of us there is a hunger, marrow-deep, to know our heritage—to know who we are and where we have come from. Without this enriching knowledge, there is a hollow yearning. No matter what our attainments in life, there is still a vacuum, an emptiness, and the most disquieting loneliness.

She then challenged us to choose a person we would like to introduce to family history. Prepare beforehand. Then go and give them a meaningful experience with family history.

 

 

Note: I was interested in where one might find Alex Haley’s original quote, as very few people cite the source. Barbara Renick in her book Genealogy 101: How to Trace Your Family's History and Heritage (Thomas Nelson Inc., 2003) is the only source I could find who cited a source: “What Roots Means to Me,” Reader’s Digest (May 1977), 73-74.

Monday Mailbox: Preservation of Photos and Stories on FamilySearch

Dear Ancestry Insider,

I have been using FamilySearch Memories as my main repository for family history-related photographs and documents, with the hopes that this material will be preserved “forever.”  Do you think there is a chance that the LDS Church could abandon the FamilySearch Family Tree and Memories projects, with all of this material being lost?

Thanks,
Thomas Abbott

Dear Thomas,

There is always a chance your scanned images of photographs and documents could be lost. Elder D. Todd Christofferson, an apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, recently reaffirmed the Church’s belief that it will endure forever and one of its duties is offering ordinances to both the living and the dead. If he is correct ((and I believe he is), then your images are not in danger for reasons of the Church ceasing to exist or losing interest in family history work. However, there are other reasons to consider. Storing those images is very expensive and preserving them is more difficult than you might think. One can argue that preserving them is not essential to offering ordinances to the dead. There is always the possibility that the Church would divest that portion of their family history efforts to one of the many other companies offering that service. Failure of that 3rd party then becomes a possibility. There are no plans to do this, but one can not rule out the possibility that it could someday happen. And there is always the possibility of catastrophic failure that inadvertently destroys all the Church’s copies of your images. I think that would be nearly impossible, but stranger things happen.

Similar arguments can be applied to FamilySearch Family Tree. I believe there is an additional risk for Family Tree. If FamilySearch can’t find a way for non-genealogists and competent genealogists to coexist in the same tree, then Family Tree might collapse under its own weight.

I believe the lesson here is the same one we talked about last week: many copies of images and information increase the possibility that they will survive.

Signed,
The Ancestry Insider

Future of Family History Center Microfilm

FamilySearch Family History Center staff are increasingly having hard times keeping their microfilm readers operational. Parts are becoming hard to obtain. On a Yahoo discussion group, one staff member reported using O rings from a local machine shop to replace belts. Another staffer reported being quite concerned last October when FamilySearch support indicated that “Film ordering will be going away eventually and now is a great time to start removing unneeded readers.” This startled her because she understood it would be decades before all the microfilms that could be digitized would be posted on FamilySearch. Another staffer reported hearing at RootsTech that only 7% of the records had been digitized. Another reported that some microfilm would never be digitized because of “copyright.” (It’s actually not a copyright issue, but other legal impediments.)

Steve Fox, manager of cataloging and metadata services at FamilySearch International, stepped in to clarify the situation. Steve said the 7% number is incorrect. You’ll recall my report from RootsTech that FamilySearch executives said 50% of the vault has been scanned.

Steve said, “The more critical issue is that raw microfilm used for making copies for distribution is no longer available at an affordable cost. In fact, it will soon be unavailable at any cost.” He said, “I can’t give an exact time frame, but microfilm circulation will go away in the near future, regardless.”

He acknowledged the “copyright” issues and said, “Creative solutions to these issues are in review.”

Steve went on to disclose that some films have been digitized that are not available in historical record collections. These contain 100s of millions of images and are accessible only through the FamilySearch catalog. Including the images available through historical record collections, there are nearly 2 billion images accessible through the catalog. To access images through the catalog, look up a film as you usually would. Then look for a camera icon in the column to the right of the film number. Click the camera icon to access the images. “Images viewed this way are not structured like the browse collections, but mimic the microfilm roll experience,” Steve said. “If something is on Item 3, you need to scroll down through the thumbnails looking for Item 3, like cranking through a roll of film.”

Images accessed through the catalog are subject to the same conditions as those in historical record collections. Some require that you login. Some will require that you be at a FamilySearch family history center, or even the Salt Lake library.

Town Hall Meeting at #RootsTech – Tree Edition

This is the second in a series of articles about FamilySearch executives’ town hall meeting during RootsTech 2017. Yesterday I published questions and answers pertaining to records. Today the topic is Family Tree.

As I warned yesterday, I didn’t always capture correctly everything that was said. What you’ll read below may or may not bear any resemblance to what was actually said.

Q: What happened with FamilySearch in 2012? A lot of changes in Family Tree are attributed to FamilySearch in that year.

A: Family Tree indicates 2012 because that year we migrated systems. It indicates FamilySearch contributed the information when we don’t know who contributed it. Long ago, back in the 70s and 80s and so forth, we received contributions for which we don’t have a valid user ID in our system. But since we require everything to have an owner, we assigned FamilySearch as the owner.

Q: Will FamilySearch ever have a place to post DNA results?

A: DNA is a valid record type. But we don’t want our Church members to feel like they are expected to spend $100 to fulfil their responsibilities. Having a place for DNA in the system is under advisement.

Q: There were a lot of questions on the ability of sharing living records. Why can’t we see living persons in FamilySearch.org? When are we going to have shared spaces for living persons?

A: We are currently inventing that new feature. It is going to be awhile because it is a big job to preserve privacy while allowing sharing, to keep private all those who wish to remain private, and make public all those who wish to be public. There’s a lot of legal work to do. There’s a lot of coding to do. It is going to be awhile. Stay tuned.

This is driven by the principle that individuals and families are the gatherers of their families. Since this is a family effort, lets make sure families can see both deceased and living information so they can do this as a family.

Q: I have added a lot of photos for the living. Why can’t other people see them?

A: The model with sharing will be that you can create a private space and invite people to go into that space. Everyone puts living persons in that space. Those persons are visible to everyone else in the space. A person can be members of multiple private spaces. When someone adds a photo, everyone can have access to the photo.

Q: [I didn’t catch the follow up question or most of the answer.]

A: If you tag a living person in a photograph, then it will be private. [I was a little confused at this point. I think that all photos and documents on FamilySearch are visible to anyone and everyone who has a URL to the photo or document. I think if a photo is tagged to both a living and a deceased person, then anyone can find the photo through the deceased person. What tagging a living person does, is hide the photo from Google’s search engine. At least that’s my understanding.]

Q: Why did you incorporate the name LDS Membership as a source in FamilySearch.org?

A: [Let me take a stab at a more detailed answer to this question than provided by Craig Miller.

You may recall that until June 2016, Family Tree was linked to the backend of the archaic NFS. NFS treated the LDS Church Membership database as if it were an actual user. When that pseudo-user made changes, those changes were attributed to “LDS Church Membership.” That is why FamilySearch incorporated that name as a source of changes in FamilySearch Family Tree.

Incidentally, once the link with NFS was broken, that pseudo-user ceased to exist. It no longer contributes or owns any data in Family Tree.]

Town Hall Meeting at #RootsTech – Records Edition

FamilySearch executives held a town hall meeting during RootsTech 2017 and answered questions for an hour. Today I will write about the questions and answers pertaining to records, online or on microfilm, and partners.

Present were:

• Steve Rockwood – President and Chief Executive Officer.
• David Rencher – Chief Genealogical Officer.
• Stephen Valentine – Vice president, partners and records. He handles record ingest and publication.
• Rod DeGiulio –Vice president, priesthood and area support. He handles record acquisition and management of all FamilySearch employees outside the Salt Lake area.
• Craig Miller – Vice president, product and engineering, including the website FamilySearch.org.
• Shon Watkins – representing Diane Loosle, vice president, patron services. Diane’s division includes customer service, the Family History Library, and family history centers.

No one was representing the member and public outreach (marketing) division. They were busy doing some incidental project called RootsTech. Perhaps you’ve heard of it.

I’m sure some of these people are senior vice presidents—maybe all of them—but the conference app didn’t list them or their titles.

I need to warn you that I was typing like a madman trying to take notes of what was asked and said. I didn’t do a very good job. Consequently, what you’ll read below may or may not bear any resemblance to what was actually said.

Q: Is there any way to suggest acquisitions, such as a small community in Germany?

A: There is a dedicated team that develops that strategy. Today, we don’t have the capacity to do lots of small archives, but we are experimenting with ways to do so. We have a Record Capture Kit, for example, that could be loaned to a local society.

Q: Paul Nauta of FamilySearch in early 2017 wrote that over 30% of the 2.4 million rolls of microfilms in the vault have been digitized and published. That seems low. Is he right?

A: About 50% of the vault has been digitized. We don’t ever say when we will be done, but we are making really good progress. We go in priority order, with vital records and civil registration and census being digitized first, pretty much from around the world. Those are primarily done.

Q: Why don’t I see all of them?

A: The reason for that is rights. In some cases, in some countries, we do not have the full rights to put all that content online. We can preserve it, sometimes we can even loan it on microfilm. We are working on the digital rights. That is something that Rod’s team is constantly working on, to improve our rights, and we are having lots of successes. We see laws change. We just had a huge opening in France; those laws are changing and we are starting to digitize. That’s on ongoing process. Over the next couple of years we are trying to wrap up digitization.

It isn’t going to take decades to finish digitizing the vault. We’re down to just a few years left until it will be done.

One of the drivers is just the incredible cost of microfilm. It just keeps going up and up and up. So even if we were in love with microfilm—and we’re not—price is pushing us to get this done much faster.

[This is TAI speaking, here: My understanding is that the manufacture of microfilm could cease almost without warning at any time. That could be really bad.]

Q: When will the microfilm of the membership records of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints be completed?

A: We actually already digitized and indexed it. That was been done as a closed indexing project several years ago. But it has not been released. We are working with the Church History Department who actually owns those records to see how we can get them available to you.

Q: [I couldn’t hear the question, something about removing films from the Family History Library?]

A: Only the films with your ancestors will be removed. We have a very complex algorithm that knows which films you need. Those are the films we remove. (Laughter)

As films become digital, we decide whether to leave them in the library or not. The films that need to be in the library because of rights, they will remain. It will keep changing.

Q: Some record sets that were once visible online are no longer visible once they were indexed. How come?

A: The only reason we would ever do that is rights. It’s that simple. It’s rare, but it happens. A law could change. We’re constantly working with our legal staff around the world. Data privacy laws change. That’s become more restrictive around the world, data privacy. And we do everything we possibly can to not turn those records off. But if we do, that would be the only reason.

Q. Why is it that Ancestry has a lot of those images that FamilySearch doesn’t? Why would other websites have records that we don’t?

A: We are more conservative than other companies. We are going to err on the side of protecting data privacy, more so than other companies are.

I’ll tell you, privacy laws are one of the most difficult things we have to work with. Every country is different, even in the United States every state is different. And it changes constantly. And so there will be collections that come and go. Fortunately, there are lot more that are coming available than those that are being taken away.

Be aware of some of the legislation on the issues that come up. It does work when we [discuss] and work with our congressmen and senators. But be aware that that is something you can help us with. Coalitions of genealogists have really helped. France is a great example of that, opening up access that was once much more restrictive.

Q: What are your plans for future partners?

A: We are always on the lookout for more partners. We are also looking for partners outside the traditional genealogy space to create a richer experience for you. And we’re eager to find partners in other countries. Geneanet is a new partner in France. We have the largest collection of Chinese genealogies outside china, so we are looking into a partner in China. If you are aware of partners, contact me.

Q: [One guy tried to ask a question and people kept interrupting him:] There is an extension from the Google app store, but it puts all the partners in there, it auto populates… Record Search? Record Search. Record Seek. Record Seek? Record Search. Search. It’s Record Search. There’s two different ones.

[I feel like I’m watching the Tonight Show.]

A: I’m not familiar with that one. So what was it called again?
Q: It’s called Record Search.
A: Record Search.
Q: It is a Google extension. Record Search.
A: Oh, it’s a Google extension. A Google extension, Record Search.

[Yup. They are definitely channeling Higgins and Fallon.]

Q: Any chance of a newspaper acquisition or collaboration?

A: We are working with some great newspaper companies and the obituaries you are now using on FamilySearch.org are due to a partnership with NewsBank. We want to bring more and more of that newspaper content. It is in the works.

Q: Have you contacted national libraries that call out those historical newspapers, many of which are public domain?

A: Yes. We are working to expand our newspaper holdings. Until two years ago we were doing nothing in the newspaper space, so this is a new area for us. We just did 26 million obituaries where the computer did the entire thing. OCR has been around a long time, but now we are using technology to understand the text. And we really want libraries outside of this country. Absolutely.

Q: As new partners are added to FamilySearch.org, how do you suggest we learn to use the partner’s technology?

A: Traditionally we have not done a lot to help use our partners products. We generally send you to the partner to learn. We are working on playing a bigger role, but the first thing will always be to go learn at the partner website. But where our two products interact, we are working on how to do that.

 

 

Tune in next time for more questions and answers.

FamilySearch Unveils Latest Discovery Center at #RootsTech

This morning, FamilySearch unveiled their latest Discovery Center. Elder Bradley D. Foster, chairman of the board of FamilySearch International conducted the event. Elder Dale G. Renlund, an apostle with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, presided.

In introducing his remarks, Elder Renlund quoted Hogwarts Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, who began one school year by saying a few words (“Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!”) and then sat down. “So I have a few words that I’d like to say,” Elder Renlund told us. His words were identity, family, heritage, eternity, and love. He said that as we understand these words, our hearts turn to those we love, living or deceased.

Elder Renlund said that this multi-million dollar renovation is a gift to the community and to families. it enables individuals and families to connect with their ancestors.

“The new discovery experiences at the Family History Library is a gathering place for families,” said Elder Foster. “There's an incredible spirit here. Guests and families come for fun, to expand their family tree, and to learn new tools, sources, and skills, and then return home to apply what they learn.”

This discovery center is 10,139 square feet and replaces a smaller, test facility in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. It is located on the ground floor of the Salt Lake FamilySearch Family History Library. It utilizes innovative technology to appeal to guests of all ages and is designed to make genealogy interesting to a wider segment of people. The center has 140 computers and life-sized touch screens offering several ways to make fun discoveries. It has six recording studios for individuals and families to record their family memories. It includes a children’s play area. It has a time machine allowing visitors to see back in time.

If a visitor has previously created a FamilySearch account and added enough of his ancestry in FamilySearch Family Tree to connect to other people, the experience at the discovery center is enhanced. At one station visitors can see what famous people they are related to. Another shows photographs, sources, and other information about ancestors. A FamilySearch account is free. Simply register on FamilySearch.org.

The other four floors of the library will continue doing what the library has always done: provide the world’s largest collection of family history records assembled anywhere in the world.

The discovery center makes the library a more attractive tourist destination. Temple Square, adjacent to the library, is one of the top visitor attractions in the state of Utah, attracting three million visitors each year, according to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir website. The Deseret News reported that in 2009 it was the 16th most visited site in the United States. U.S. News and World Report recommends Temple Square visitors stop by the Family History Library. I hope this new center engages visitors in the rewarding work of family history.

The official opening is Wednesday, 8 February 2017 at 8:00am. Admission is free. Youth groups and families are welcome. The center recommends that groups of over 20 register online at FamilySearch.org/discovery.

FamilySearch Owner and Ancestry CEO Respond to Refugee Situation

My policy is to not write about non-genealogical politics. However, it is unprecedented that both FamilySearch’s owner and Ancestry.com’s CEO would both issue statements in response to a presidential action. These are the statements:

FamilySearch’s owner, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued the following statement Saturday:

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is concerned about the temporal and spiritual welfare of all of God's children across the earth, with special concern for those who are fleeing physical violence, war and religious persecution. The Church urges all people and governments to cooperate fully in seeking the best solutions to meet human needs and relieve suffering. (http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/the-church-expresses-concern-for-those-fleeing-violence-war-and-religious-persecution)

Ancestry’s CEO, Tim Sullivan, sent an email to the entire company last evening. I repeat it here with permission:

The last 48 hours in the U.S. have been both heart-breaking and outrageous.  Of immediate importance is the status of our Ancestry employees and/or their families.  We do not believe that any of our employees are currently affected, but if we are wrong, please let us know immediately, and we will do everything we can to help.

Our company values decency, works hard to embrace diversity, and is very familiar with the difficulties that families all over the world have endured for centuries in their attempts to stay together and to improve the lives of the next generation.  We are a company that lives history, so we’re familiar with the ugliness that we’re witnessing right now.  We’ve seen how families were impacted by the quotas on Chinese immigration less than a hundred years ago, by the refusal to accept Jewish refugees fleeing the horror of Nazi Germany, and by the absurd detainment of Japanese Americans during that war.  Today, it is broadly understood that these policies each left a black mark on our history and ran counter to the fundamental values of openness and inclusion that are our country's strength.

Ancestry is stronger due to the diversity of our employee’s personal and professional experience, so we have a clear business interest in not seeing America’s doors slammed shut to those that desire to come here and to contribute to our national strength, regardless of religion, race, or national origin.  Ancestry is also a company whose values are on display every day, and I’m proud to be part of a company that strives to have a positive impact on people’s lives, respects every person’s story, and celebrates the diversity of everyone’s ancestry.  So I want to clearly affirm that the content and intent of President Trump’s executive order on Friday, as well as the disturbing actions that were unleashed by this order, represent the total antithesis to the values of our company.

No one can ignore the stories of people stranded or detained and refused re-entry into a country they considered home and not feel real empathy.  Because I am also writing to you not just as CEO, but as a person, I will be honest and say that I am personally horrified and angered by the ignorance, hate, and xenophobia that have precipitated this shocking weekend, and that I think this is something that we all are going to have to confront and denounce.

Again, please let us know if you know of any employees that are personally impacted by the current situation.

Thanks,
Tim

FamilySearch Reviews 2016 Accomplishments – Part 2

This is a continuation of yesterday’s article. FamilySearch recently published a review of their 2016 accomplishments. Here is the information plus commentary and a comparison with their 2015 figures.

Help

“In 2016, FamilySearch added a Help Others feature to guide consultants and more experienced genealogists in assisting others. People seeking help provide their username and a helper number that allow helpers to look online at their records, find opportunities for research, and help guide that research,” wrote FamilySearch’s Diane Sagers.

Facts and figures:

• 15 million volunteer service hours. This is up from 12 million in 2015.
• 11 million of those hours contributed by indexers. Up from 9 million.
• 315,000 volunteer indexers. Up from 304,000.
• 3.7 million hours contributed by service missionaries. Up from 3.
• 4,807 service missionaries. Up quite a bit from 3,850.
• 4,960 FamilySearch Centers. Formerly called family history centers. Up from 4,891.
• 103 new centers this year. My math says the difference between 4,891 and 4,960 is 69, but there were centers that closed as well. The Layton FamilySearch Center alone replaced 48 family history centers (according to a 27 November 2016 article in The Davis Clipper).
• 3,108 centers outside the U.S. This is up 244 from 2,864 the previous year. This is wonderful news. Some countries of the world don’t allow FamilySearch to loan microfilm. Researchers in those countries can now access records in their centers that aren’t available otherwise.
• 1,852 centers in the U.S. This is down 175 from 2,027. This is discouraging since many records on FamilySearch.org are only available to the general public in FamilySearch centers.

Discovery Experiences

In 2016, FamilySearch opened a new FamilySearch Center in Layton, Utah; broke ground for a large FamilySearch library in St. George, Utah, that will include discovery experience stations when it opens in 2017; and began remodeling the first floor of the Salt Lake family history library to include discovery experiences.

Facts and figures:

• 375,000 RootsTech Attendees. [Fine print: Includes in-person, online, and local Family Discovery Day events.] This is up 75,000 from RootsTech 2015.
• 133 million FamilySearch.org visits. In 2015 they reported 291,000 visits per day, which yields 106 million visits. (Techie comment: If I am not mistaken, FamilySearch uses the Adobe Omniture definition of a visit: If a person views a sequence of pages, that counts as a visit. If they take a break of more than 30 minutes, it counts as a new visit. If they visit for more than 12 hours, it counts as a new visit.)
• 7.4 million registered users.

Memories

“Family history is about stories; it is more than dates and facts,” said Steve Rockwood, CEO of FamilySearch. FamilySearch added the memories gallery view, added user-to-user messaging, and has the ability to make audio recordings.

Facts and figures:

• 5.6 million memories [stories, photographs, documents, and audio recordings] added in 2016. Last year FamilySearch reported a total of 10.3 million memories, so the total must be about 16 million. 
• 4.7 million photos added. Added to the 9 million total last year, FamilySearch.org now has 14.5 million.
• 521,000 documents added. These are documents that users have scanned and uploaded to FamilySearch.org. They now have 1.6 million total. I hope everyone is scanning and uploading your home sources (birth, marriage, death, and military discharge certificates; funeral programs; newspaper announcements; Bible pages; etc.). Don’t have a scanner? Use your cell phone camera.
• 362,000 stories added. With 747,000 last year, FamilySearch now reports having 1.1 million.
• 50,000 audio recordings added. FamilySearch reports the total is now 92,000 recordings. That is disappointing. Tom Jones has said, “What should be our first priority is to do what future generations cannot do.” (Jessica Murray, “Answering the Big Genealogy Puzzle With Tom Jones,” Ancestry [Blog] [http://blogs.ancestry.com : 25 August 2014].) Recording elderly relatives is one of those things.

For more information see “FamilySearch 2016 Year in Review” on the FamilySearch Blog and “FamilySearch 2016: Connecting families across generations” on the Deseret News website.

FamilySearch Reviews 2016 Accomplishments – Part 1

[THE INDICATED BULLET WAS UPDATED 14 JANUARY 2017 TO ELIMINATE MY BAD MATH.]
FamilySearch recently published a review of their 2016 accomplishments, just as they did last year for 2015. As I did last year, I thought I’d present the information here, along with commentary, and a comparison with their 2015 accomplishments. I found a few surprises.

FamilySearch organized the accomplishments around the five discovery experiences presented in Steve Rockwood’s 2016 RootsTech presentation.

Family Tree

In 2016, FamilySearch made Family Tree more stable, made it possible to merge duplicates, added more record hints, made record hints more accurate, added user-to-user messaging, and broadened the ability to identify your relationships to persons in Family Tree.

Facts and figures:

• 1.1 billion persons in FamilySearch Family Tree.  FamilySearch has previously reported that 28 billion people have lived since 1500 AD. Few records exist that uniquely identify people who lived prior to that date. Had FamilySearch met their objective that there be no duplication in Family Tree, then the Tree would contain 4% of all the recorded people in the world’s history. However, there is a lot of duplication in the Tree. 1.1 billion is the same size reported last year, so the number of new persons must be less than 100 million.
• 561,759 new contributors in 2016. This is up from 120,000 in 2015. I think this includes those who contribute in any way, not just the addition of persons.
• [Updated 14 January 2017]3.45 million total contributors. That sounds high, even though participation is considered a mandate for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Current Church membership stands at 15,634,199. Total contributors was up from 2.47 million in 2015.

Searchable Records

“Millions more searchable records were added this year as employees and volunteers digitally converted FamilySearch’s vaults of microfilm for online viewing and added millions of new record images from archives across the globe,” wrote FamilySearch’s Diane Sagers. “Partnerships formed with other genealogy search companies, such as Ancestry.com, FindMyPast.com, and MyHeritage.com, broaden its searchable databases.”

Around the world, 320 camera teams digitally preserved over 60 million records in 45 countries. FamilySearch reworked the U.S. census collections in 2016.

FamilySearch, along with the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, other organizations, and 25,000 volunteers, indexed and published records from the Freedmen’s Bureau. “These records are pivotal for African American research because they document freed slaves and others who struggled to redefine themselves after the Civil War.”

Facts and figures:

• 5.57 billion total searchable records online. This is 260 million more than the 5.31 billion reported last year.
• 275 million total records indexed [during 2016]. This is up from 110 million in 2015. According to the math, volunteers indexed 15 million more names than FamilySearch published. Makes you wonder if they have a growing backlog.
• 37 million non-English records indexed. FamilySearch must be having trouble recruiting non-English language indexers, since that is just 13% of the total. On the positive side, 37 is up quite a bit from 19 million in 2015.
• 125 new 2016 historic records collections. This is down from 158 the previous year.
• 2,174 total collections. It was 2,049 at the end of 2015.
• 60 million record images published. FamilySearch cut in half the number of images, 122 million, published in 2015. That is disappointing. One possible explanation is that FamilySearch now publishes some record images exclusively through their catalog—much the same way that NARA does with their catalog. If you are not using the catalog as your primary search mechanism, you are missing out on what looks to be millions of records.

See tomorrow's article for more information.

Insider Ketchup for 5 December 2016

Each December I try to take the month off. Ancestry.com and FamilySearch respond by doing lots of interesting things. Still, I’ll try to write as little as possible. Here are the topics I would have liked to write about this week.

Ancestry is offering free access to WWII records on Fold3 in December to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Pearl Harbor this Wednesday. “Go to fold3.com/pearlharbor to explore. Then build a memorial page for your ancestor for free, so that their memory may never be forgotten.”

Mike Provard shared an interesting link about the 2020 census. Thanks, Mike.

Looking for service opportunities this December? FamilySearch suggests that you consider indexing. See “Indexing Goal in December to #LIGHTtheWORLD” on the FamilySearch blog.

Sick of duplicate persons in FamilySearch Family Tree? They published a good article on their blog. See “Merging People in FamilySearch’s Family Tree.”

“Exploring Your DNA Results Further” on the Ancestry blog describes two features of your DNA results you may missed.

Watch online the celebration of the completion of the Freedmen’s Bureau project. It will be held at the National Museum of African American History and Culture on Tuesday, December 6, at 9:00 a.m. eastern standard time. The broadcast will be streamed live at DiscoverFreedmen.org.

FamilySearch is celebrating today the 10th anniversary of Internet-based, volunteer-driven indexing. FamilySearch (and the Family History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) had previously used CD-ROM, paper, and microfilm based images in its (more properly named) extraction program. As a thank you of sorts, FamilySearch has provided “I HEART families” images that you can use as computer or phone wallpaper or Facebook profile images. See “Celebrating 10 Years of Indexing” on the FamilySearch blog.

Ancestry ProGenealogists is sponsoring scholarships to the major U.S. genealogical institutes. According to their website, “the AncestryProGenealogists Scholarship Program will provide four scholarships that will cover tuition, round-trip standard economy airfare (Ancestry may substitute appropriate ground transportation for awardees who live within 300 miles of the applicable institute), and hotel expenses for one individual each to attend one of the four institutes”

• Genealogical Institute on Federal Records (Gen-Fed)
  Washington, D.C.
  July 10-14, 2017
• Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh (GRIP)
  Pittsburgh, PA
  June 25-30, 2017 or July 16-21, 2017
• Institute on Genealogical and Historical Research (IGHR)
  Athens, GA
  July 23-28, 2017
• Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG)
  Salt Lake City, UT
  January 21-26, 2018

To enter, visit https://www.progenealogists.com/scholarship.

Follow Ancestry.com and FamilySearch via Social Media

Last week I quoted an anonymous commenter who had left RootsWeb mailing lists in favor of Facebook and Google+. I admitted not doing much with social media. Just in case social media is your thing, let me point you in the direction of Ancestry.com’s and FamilySearch’s social media channels.

Ancestry has a presence on several social media channels. Follow them at

• https://www.facebook.com/AncestryUS
• https://twitter.com/ancestry
• https://www.youtube.com/AncestryCom
• https://www.pinterest.com/ancestrycom/
• https://www.instagram.com/ancestry/ 
• Also
• https://www.facebook.com/AncestryWorldArchivesProject

FamilySearch also has a presence on several social media channels.

• https://www.facebook.com/familysearch
• https://twitter.com/FamilySearch
• https://www.youtube.com/FamilySearch
• https://www.pinterest.com/familysearch/
• https://www.instagram.com/familysearch/
• Also
• https://www.facebook.com/familysearchindexing
• (Other country/language-specific FamilySearch pages exist)

By contrast, I’m only on Facebook and Twitter. Like or follow me if that is how you wish to be informed of new blog posts. (Sorry about the double posts on Facebook last week. I was running an experiment. It should be fixed now.) And if you follow me via social media, there is a bonus! Once—sometimes twice!—a year I’ll post a comment on Facebook or Twitter that blog readers won’t receive!

• https://www.facebook.com/AncestryInsider/
• https://twitter.com/AncestryInsider

I should warn you that to contact me it is still best to send me an email (ancestryinsider@gmail.com) or leave a comment on a blog post. I don’t check Facebook or Twitter messages, at least not very often. Sadly, even if you send me email, I’ll probably ignore it. Just kidding. I read every email and value your ideas, but I have time to respond to only a few. Thank you for your interest and support. I hope my humble efforts benefit a least a couple of you.

Monday Mailbox: Film at 11:00

My comments about the Layton FamilySearch Center and microfilm elicited some good feedback.

Dear Ancestry Insider,

I work at the Ogden FamilySearch Center and we have some books and readers and film and fiche. Come on up!

Janice Nusbaum

Dear Janice,

That is good news. There is so much that is only available on film. I’m glad to hear it.

Signed,
---The Ancestry Insider

Dear Ancestry Insider,

I am a FHC Director and was told not too long ago that there will be no film use within 3 or 4 years. I was told this because I was inquiring about returning films that were viewable online.

Signed,
Unknown

Dear Ancestry Insider,

They've (FamilySearch?) said they will never put all the films online?? Is that because of contract restrictions or some other reason?

Signed,
Marilyn Cranford

Dear Marilyn,

There are several reasons why some images will never be available online: contracts, laws, relationships, and strategies.

In the distant past many companies did business over a handshake. If FamilySearch/GSU operated that way, it is conceivable they have films for which they have no written contract. In the past when written contracts became the norm, companies didn’t foresee technology growth; FamilySearch has said publicly that most of its contracts did not foresee distribution via any medium besides microfilm. If FamilySearch wishes to publish these films, they will have to negotiate contracts with many record custodians and many of them won’t do so.

Laws increasingly limit what can be published. Open publication (which the Internet does) is a very different animal than closed distribution (which is what you do when you order a film to view at a FamilySearch family history center). So while some films can remain in limited distribution, they can’t be published publicly on the Internet. This trend is likely to get worse.

An article in the FamilySearch Wiki documents another scenario. FamilySearch had published some images of vital records. The contract with the record custodian was revised such that FamilySearch depublished the images in exchange for rights to obtain and publish additional indexes. Apparently, FamilySearch is willing to forego publishing microfilm that it has rights to publish if doing so can buy a continued working relationship with a record custodian.

Strategy comes into play. Some films are duplicates. Some films were not filmed by FamilySearch/Genealogical Society of Utah. I predict that FamilySearch will not digitize some films because decision makers will decide they would rather spend the money elsewhere. For example, how valuable are Soundex census indexes? Are the costs justified for the few discoveries that will result? Or would you rather have high-value vital records from your ancestral country? How valuable are the road commissioners’ ledger books? They’ll never be digitally indexed by humans. Looking at the public numbers, FamilySearch has slowed publication of unindexed images. Does that mean that low-value, hard to index films might never be published? 

Signed,
---The Ancestry Insider

Dear Ancestry Insider,

Would you be willing to give our Family History Center a plug? We have a VERY LARGE collection of microfilms for the Chicago and Cook County Vital Records.  Instead of writing to Cook County, spending $15, and waiting 6 weeks, or not getting what you want at all for your $15, you can spend 5 minutes and get that birth, marriage, or death certificate for FREE.

Signed,
Donna Roginski

Wilmette Family History Center   
2727 Lake Ave., Wilmette, Illinois
www.wilmettefhc.org

Scheduling Notice. The Center will be closed November 22 through November 26 for Thanksgiving. We wish you a happy Thanksgiving, and resume normal operation on the 29th.

Dear Donna,

This is a timely reminder of why getting rid of microfilm will be a painful process. Consider yourself plugged.

Signed,
---The Ancestry Insider

Free FamilySearch Webinars for November 2016

I received this webinar schedule recently from FamilySearch. Okay, maybe it wasn’t so recently; I’m a little behind.

November 9

• 10:00 A.M. Italian Language Indexing Webinar (1½ hours)

November 10

• 1:00 A.M. Descendancy Research Webinar

November 14

• 1:00 P.M. Reivers and Relatives: Ancestors Along the Anglo-Scottish Border Webinar

November 15

• 2:00 P.M. Exploring Danish Census Records Online Webinar

November 16

• 10:00 A.M. French Language Indexing Webinar (1½ hours)
• 10:00 A.M. GENTEAM.AT—A Necessity When Doing Czech and Austrian Research Webinar
•   1:00 P.M. Lost in London: Tracing Elusive Ancestry in England’s Largest City Webinar

November 17

• 11:00 A.M. Learn How to Use the Online, Searchable Meyer’s German Gazetteer Webinar
•   1:00 P.M. Your British Questions Answered Webinar

November 19

• 1:00 P.M. Preguntas frequentes de Árbol Familiar Webinar

November 22

• 1:00 P.M. Using Digital Libraries for German Family History Research Webinar

November 30

• 10:00 A.M. Dutch Language Indexing Webinar (1½ hours)

Access the online webinars directly by using the links in this PDF or

1. Go to FamilySearch.org.
2. Click on Search, and select Wiki.
3. Search for [Webinars].
4. Click on the result “Family History Library Classes and Webinars.”
5. Click on the name of the month to get the the PDF with the links.
6. Or scroll and click “show” to find the desired classes.

Monday Mailbox: Layton,

Dear Readers,

I received several replies to my inquiry about the size of the Layton FamilySearch Center’s microfilm collection. Here are some:

Dear Ancestry Insider,

On the new center's "Resources" page they say “This is a computer-only center and does not order microfilm,” and “There are no printed materials or books available in this facility.”

Geolover

Dear Ancestry Insider,

I toured the new center today. They have NO physical books. They say that is why it is not called a Library. All digital.

Thank your for sharing so much with us.

Janice Nusbaum

Dear Readers,

Wow. I don’t know how much to read into this. Patrons at the Layton center, 23 miles north of the Salt Lake Family History Library, will have to drive down to see film while patrons at the Riverton center, 23 miles south of the library, have their own film collection. I guess it makes sense that as more and more of the Family History Library’s book and microfilm collections go online, the less need there is for physical books and films. FamilySearch recently said publicly that they have 299,822 books in their digital collection. I don’t know that they’ve ever said how many films they have digitized. Certainly it is more than the 23,000 rolls at the Riverton center. Someone should ask them. But since they’ve said they will never put all the films online, you’d think they would still have a film reader or two. Wow.

Signed,
The Ancestry Insider

News Ketchup for 4 November 2016

I’m way behind. Time for Insider Ketchup.

FamilySearch has announced the class schedule for the Family History Library for November. Click here for the schedule. Most webinars are recorded and posted on the Family History Library Classes and Webinars Wiki page a few days after presentation, so you can access past webinars and handouts.

FamilySearch has released its monthly wrap up of new features and changes on FamilySearch.org. They include:

• A simplified help center experience. I mostly like it. They’ve obviously copied the Google search experience, placing the text entry box in the middle of a mostly blank page. However, I don’t like the elimination of a separate Learning Center search experience. It appears there is no way to filter by language, format, or ability level. Unlike Google, there seems to be no search tools or advanced search page. Hopefully they’ll find a way to work those features back into the mix.
• FamilySearch has added 141 million new record hints into Family Tree. For more information, see the article “141 Million New Ancestor Hints Added to FamilySearch Family Tree” on the FamilySearch blog.
• You can read and send message in the mobile app.
• You can open a map in the mobile app.
• Names of contributors appear in the Memories gallery.
• You can upload a photograph while entering a story.
• On 26 October 2016 FamilySearch published a bunch of new obituaries in the U.S. GenealogyBank obituary collection. Along with the new publication is the ability to see and navigate to others listed on the page. In the collection, 23 of the 31 million records were indexed by computer. If you view one of those records, a message will indicate it was indexed by a computer and you will be given the opportunity to request a correction. (That correction request feature is available only for this collection. If you want to make corrections to any other records, you are DOA.)

I’ve received new reports that portions of RootsWeb—mailing lists in particular—are broken. An anonymous reader commented on 23 October 2016:

I am unable to post messages to either of the mail lists I administer. Nor can I subscribe to Listowners-L. I took a look at various list archives, it appears the mailing lists have not not been working since Oct 7 2016.

Andy Micklethwaite sent me this message on 21 October 2016:

I received this as a reply to a post on a Facebook group:

“Morning, as you are probably aware they upgraded the servers recently. At the same time they upgraded Mailman, the lists software, to the latest version which was long overdue. It’s the latter that has caused the problem, I believe. The lists have been down since the 7th October. Hopefully they will be back in due course but no date is known.”

Ancestry employees recently spent a week building a home for Habitat for Humanity. Employees from their Lehi, Orem, and Salt Lake City offices helped build a new home for a local American Fork family. “We want our employees to get personally involved in the community,” said Ancestry’s Camille Penrod. “[We] offer our employees time to volunteer on the clock so they’re able to participate in meaningful charities.” For more information, see “Ancestry Employees Give Back” on the Ancestry Tech Blog.

FamilySearch is gradually rolling out a new homepage design. I’ve written about it before. Regular users have probably all started seeing it. The left side contains inspiring videos, tree-specific resources, and recently added photos, recordings, stories, and documents about your ancestors and their families (and advertisements, I might add). The right side contains a list of recently seen ancestors, recommended tasks, and a to-do list. For more information, see “New FamilySearch Design: Log In to Try It Out” on the FamilySearch Blog.

“Ancestry recently announced the creation of a Tech and Product User Group in Utah with the goal of encouraging collaboration between companies across the Wasatch Front to solve difficult and interesting technology and science problems.” For more information, see “Ancestry Hosts First Tech/Product Meetup in New Lehi HQ” on the Ancestry Tech Blog.

Layton FamilySearch Center Open House

FamilySearch has announced the opening of a new FamilySearch center in Layton, Utah. The goal of the center is to provide a fun, family oriented experience to learn about who you are and where you came from, with interactive displays, a children's area, two recording rooms, and 140 computers, 60 of which have touch-screen monitors.

They are having an open house today through Saturday. The hours of the open house are

• Today (Nov. 3), 1-9 p.m.
• Friday (Nov. 4) and Saturday (Nov. 5) from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

The center is located at 915 W Gordon Ave., Layton, UT 84041-4811. Please enter the parking lot on the north side of the building and continue to parking areas on the south side. Overflow parking is available on the north side of the Deseret Industries building.

According to information provided by FamilySearch, the center includes experiences debuted in the FamilySearch Discovery Center in Salt Lake:

Your visit will be as unique as you are. Learn about the meaning of your name, what happened the year you were born, and other fun facts. See where your family came from, view photos of family members, and read their stories—all on 55-inch touch-screen monitors. Data used for the interactive experiences is drawn from FamilySearch.org [Family Tree] and selected partners.

This state-of-the-art FamilySearch Center with 13,979 square feet has casual seating and collaboration areas, making it easy for families and youth groups to work together on laptops, iPads, or other mobile devices. The center and its resources are open to the public at no charge (a small fee is required for printing and making photocopies). If the usual family history center model is used, the library is staffed with volunteers with differing areas of research expertise. I recommend inquiring to find the best experts in your area of interest. I assume the center replaces multiple, smaller centers in the area. I wonder how large their microfilm collection is. Riverton has 23,000 rolls. Anybody out there know?

For more information, visit the event’s Facebook page or the center’s website at familysearch.org/fhc/layton.

Linda K. Gulbrandsen and FamilySearch Partners – #BYUFHGC

This article will be of interest mostly to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Linda K. Gulbrandsen of FamilySearch gave a presentation titled “New Possibilities with FamilySearch Partners” at the recent 2016 BYU Conference on Family History and Genealogy. She is an executive account manager for FamilySearch in the Partner Services Division.

“Partners are very important to us,” Linda said. She talked about how consultants could use tools from FamilySearch partners to help get Church members interested in family history and temple work. She referenced Mike Sandberg’s talk at RootsTech 2016 (see “Begin at the Beginning: Helping Others to Love Family History”) and showed how his approach can be augmented with the inclusion of partner offerings.

The question arises as to when to introduce partner offerings. That depends, she said. Perhaps the person or family needs to start right into FamilySearch.org. For others, the proper approach may be different. In some cases, the consultant may wish to use the app prior to visiting the member. The app gallery (at FamilySearch.org/apps) has over 120 apps for desktop, mobile, and web. Any of these may be helpful.

Linda presented several scenarios, each with an applicable partner app. For a family with young children, she showed Little Family Tree. For other scenarios she showed Relative Finder, MooseRoots, and Hope Chest.

“We have these partner tools that can be helpful in so many ways,” Linda said.

Stop by Springfield, Win Prizes - #FGS2016

The main part of the 2016 conference of the Federation of Genealogical Societies starts tomorrow, 1 September 2016 in Springfield, Illinois at the Prairie Capital Convention Center. You don’t have to be a member of a genealogical society to go. Registration onsite begins Wednesday from 7am to 6pm (except during lunch, 11:30-12:30). Registration on Thursday runs 7am to 2pm. Friday and Saturday hours are 7am to 10am. For more information, visit http://www.fgsconference.org.

If attendance isn’t in your budget, but you live in the area, consider stopping by the free exhibit hall. In the exhibit hall there are a number of presentations you can attend, again, for free. Those in the demo area start 10 minutes after each hour. The schedule, as of 1 August was:

Thursday, 1 September 2016

Note that Ancestry.com’s Juliana Szucs presents at 12:10. (Did you know that FGS was founded in Juliana’s mother’s dining room back in Illinois in 1975?) FamilySearch’s Mike Provard presents at 4:10.

Friday, 2 September 2016

Notice that FamilySearch’s Robert Kehrer presents at 1:10.

Saturday, 3 September 2016

Notice that AncestryDNA’s Anna Swayne presents at 11:10.

FamilySearch makes 30 minute presentations in their booth. Most are between regular conference sessions.

	Thursday
10:00 am	Searching for Elusive Records
10:30 am	Publishing the World’s Genealogy Records
Noon	FamilySearch Hinting
12:30 pm	FamilySearch Mobile Apps
1:00 pm	Searching on FamilySearch
1:30 pm	FamilySearch Family Tree
3:00 pm	Publishing the World’s Genealogy Records

Friday:

	Friday
10:00 am
10:30 am	FamilySearch and Partners
Noon	FamilySearch Mobile Apps
12:30 pm	FamilySearch and Partners
1:00 pm	FamilySearch Hinting
1:30 pm	FamilySearch Photos and Stories
3:00 pm	FamilySearch Family Tree

Saturday:

	Saturday
10:00 am
10:30 am	FamilySearch Mobile Apps
Noon	Searching for Elusive Records
12:30 pm	FamilySearch Hinting
1:00 pm	FamilySearch Indexing
1:30 pm
3:00 pm

Ancestry also teaches classes in their booth. They post schedules once the hall opens. I’ll try and publish their schedule once I know it, perhaps on my Facebook page.

Genealogy Gems’ Lisa Louise Cooke is again presenting 30 minute classes in her booth (#200), according to her blog. She is joined this time by Diahan Southard (Your DNA Guide) and Jim Beidler (Family Tree Magazine). Their schedule is:

Other vendors will gladly teach you anything you want to know about their products. Some will give you discounts for stopping by and talking with them. See the list of exhibitors here.

The exhibit hall includes a Cyber Café (sponsored by Ancestry, Lexmark, and MyHeritage) adjacent to the demo area.

While you won't find food or drink in this café, it is the perfect place to relax and check e-mail…or recharge your phone, iPad, table, or laptop. It is open during Exhibit Hall hours on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

The exhibit hall hours are

• Thursday, 9:30am – 5pm
• Friday, 9am-5pm
• Saturday, 9am-3pm

To sweeten the pot, I have a few items I’ll try to give to one person who comes to the exhibit hall who isn’t registered for the conference. I received some items in my conference bag that I am willing to give away. They are:

• An FGS conference tote bag
• About 30 door prize tickets
• A $10 cash back coupon – Buy something from a vendor, have them notarize the coupon, and redeem it for $10 cash back.
• A coupon for $50 off Family Tree Maker.
• (Sorry; I’ve lost my conference passport, so I can’t give that away.)
• And you get to meet the Ancestry Insider in person.

Okay; that last one is probably more a downside. Be that as it may, if you want the items, send me an email with “FGS Items Request” in the subject line. I’ll pick someone and make some attempt to meet them and give them the items. I make no guarantees and you promise you won’t hold me responsible for anything that happens in connection with the items.

Hope to see you in Springfield!

Pre-FGS 2016 Ketchup

I’m headed off to the 2016 Federation of Genealogical Societies Conference in Springfield, Illinois. Tomorrow I’ll be turning my focus over to the conference for the remainder of this week. Time to ketchup.

On Friday, FamilySearch released its “What’s New” for August.

• FamilySearch added the ability to quickly attached unindexed FamilySearch Historical Records as sources in FamilySearch Family Tree.
• They will soon release a new home page. It will provide individualized information for you based on your activity in Family Tree, photos and stories others have posted about your relatives, recommended tasks, and recently viewed persons.
• They have changed which page you go to when you select Memories in the menu bar. For a while it went straight to gallery. Now they’ve restored a landing page from which you can go to various parts of the Memories section of FamilySearch.org.
• As I reported during the BYU conference, the Memories App now provides a suggested list of questions that you can ask of a relative.
• They added a Search Historical Records option to the main menu of the Family Tree mobile app. It just takes you to the Search Historical Records section on the web.
• Like the person page on FamilySearch Family Tree on the web, you can tap a search button and search for that person either in Family Tree or on Ancestry.com.
• In the Family Tree mobile app you can add Notes about a person.
• In the Family Tree mobile app they added a page to view all memories about a person.
• In Family Tree on iOS (Android coming soon), you can view a map showing the location of an event in a person’s life.

For more information, see “What’s New on FamilySearch—August 2016” on the FamilySearch blog.

Reader BKip pointed out that Ancestry.com has done something relative to the RootsWeb free pages manager at http://freepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/fileman/file_manager.cgi. It now returns a different error message. That’s good in the sense that it means they’ve turned their attention to this portion of the RootsWeb website.

FamilySearch is presenting a week-long European Family History Conference, online or in person at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. In person seating is limited to 190 and online participation to 500, so register soon. Lab participation is even more limited, 26 onsite and 100 online. The conference is free and will be held 12-16 September 2016. It is for beginner and intermediate genealogists. “Explore such topics as census, church, immigration, and vital records. Learn more about German, Swiss, Russian, and Polish research. Discover new techniques, strategies, and methodology to apply to your genealogical research problems.” A syllabus will be available for anyone to download. For more information, see “European Family History Conference” on the FamilySearch blog.

I came across a record set on Findmypast for a database that I think they obtained through the Mocavo purchase: The California birth index. It should be viewable for free, but I wasn’t able to figure out how. Has anyone else found a way to view the former Mocavo databases for free on Findmypast? Let everyone know. I wonder if Findmypast will put together a page listing all the Mocavo databases. That would be a good way to attract potential customers. I could only find a couple Mocavo databases mentioned online: the California birth index, the California death index, the Social Security Death Index, and the Connecticut death index.

Judging from his slides, I missed a good presentation about FamilySearch at the July 2016 Riverton FamilySearch Library Saturday Seminar by Dan Peay. While a lot of the information was directed at members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, some might be of general interest. Dan showed that FamilySearch’s executive leadership from the Church—the FamilySearch board of directors, if you will—has changed. Elder Allan Packer has been replace by Elder Bradley D. Foster as the executive director (chairman of the board). He is assisted by directors with regional assignments: Elder C. Scott Grow over the United States and Canada, Elder Eduardo Gavarret over the rest of the Americas, Elder Ian S. Ardern over southern Asia, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, and Elder Erich W. Kopischke over Africa, Europe, and north Asia. Rod DeGiulio, formerly over the Records Division of FamilySearch, now leads a division named Priesthood Area Support, with direct reports corresponding to each of the aforementioned areas of the world.

Dan showed some numbers: 6.0 B searchable names, 1.5 M new names daily, 18 P [petabytes] digital storage.