FamilySearch Place Research Tool

I noticed the other day on the FamilySearch Labs website that FamilySearch is no longer supporting its Place Standard Finder. They have replaced it with Place Research. This tool opens the kimono to expose the feature inside FamilySearch.org that allows you to search using a place name and having FamilySearch return proper results even when the name has changed. For example, a search on FamilySearch.org for a person living in Bristol, Vermont will return records for Pocock because Bristol used to be named Pocock.

Place Research can help identify place name changes. The quintessential example given by FamilySearch is St. Joseph, Arizona. I searched for [St. Joseph, Arizona] (without the brackets). Place Research displayed a list of all its historic names, as well as the applicable dates:

	Allen's Camp, Yavapai, Arizona Territory, United States	Populated Place	1876 - 1878
	St. Joseph, Yavapai, Arizona Territory, United States	Populated Place	1878 - 1879
	St. Joseph, Apache, Arizona Territory, United States	Populated Place	1879 - 1895
	St. Joseph, Navajo, Arizona Territory, United States	Populated Place	1895 - 1912
	St. Joseph, Navajo, Arizona, United States	Populated Place	1912 - 1923
	Joseph City, Navajo, Arizona, United States	City	1923 - PRESENT

Place Research attempts to make sense out of whatever you throw at it. I searched for [Notts, Eng] and it returned two places: the county of Nottinghamshire and the borough of Nottingham. It scores each result. Nottinghamshire scored 99 while the borough scored 84. I suppose the terminal s gave the nod to the shire.

Place Research supports non-Latin searches. I searched for [ ] and it returned three results: Taipei the city, Taipei the municipality, and Taipei the county. I clicked Taipei city and then clicked Variant Names. It showed the name in Chinese traditional and simplified characters. It also showed Pinyin and Wade-Giles Romanizations. It even showed Icelandic. (Icelandic?!)

Using Advanced Search presents additional possibilities. In the Jurisdiction field I typed in [Utah,]. Research Tool displayed a dropdown list of matching localities. I selected Utah County. I then set the Type to Cemetery. Research Tool answered with a list and a map showing all the cemeteries it knows about in Utah County.

Advanced Search also supports specification of a year or range. I set jurisdiction to Utah Territory, year to 1855, and type to county. Place Research presented a list and a map of the counties in the Utah Territory as of 1855, including Carson County in present day Nevada.

Advanced Search supports proximity searches, but you must first know latitude and longitude. After identifying where an ancestor’s house may have been, I used Google Maps and found the latitude and longitude to be 41.260568, -95.806873. I tried to find all the courthouses within a 10 mile radius. Unfortunately, Place Research’s database doesn’t include courthouses, at least around my ancestor’s house. Rats!

I put the coverage of the database to the test with a couple of esoteric names. When I went to school at Brigham Young University the locals would talk about Sharon and Edgemont as though they were real places. But they don’t appear on any maps. There are no signs indicating how to get there or indicating you’ve arrived. They don’t have defined boundaries—that I’m aware of. They are real places, but today are just neighborhoods in Orem and Provo. I searched for [Sharon, Utah] and Place Research nailed it. I tried [Edgemont, Utah] and Place Research returned three places. I limited the search to places within the jurisdiction of Utah County. This was sufficient to locate it.

The database behind Place Research isn’t perfect. If you find mistakes you can submit the problem using the Feedback link at the bottom of the page. And while it has millions of place names, covering the entire planet for all of history is pretty impossible. While I found neighborhood names in Utah, I’m guessing place names in Nepal may not be as specific. You will still find yourself going to old standbys like the USGS Geographic Names Information System.

Still, I’m glad I stumbled across this tool and think you will be also.

Medieval IOUSes in FamilySearch Family Tree

I am told that some of the worst IOUSes in New FamilySearch (NFS) are European medieval royalty.

An IOUS is an Individual Of Unusual Size. IOUSes are individuals in NFS that were formed by combining many like people from multiple trees. NFS retains all the separate contributions inside the individual, so the more the matches, the larger the size of the combined individual. If an IOUS becomes too large, it can crash NFS, so FamilySearch caps their size and does not allow them to be combined with other duplicates.

That some of the worst IOUSes in New FamilySearch (NFS) are European medieval royalty makes sense, as thousands of submitters to Pedigree Resource File are descendants of them.

IOUSes are identified in NFS with an icon to the right of the name. (See the graphic to the right.) In FamilySearch Family Tree, there is no such thing as an IOUS. However, because the Family Tree database is synchronized with the NFS database, the combine limitation in NFS is imposed on merging in Family Tree. Effectively, there are IOUSes in Family Tree. As far as I know, there is no indication in Family Tree that the individual is an IOUS in NFS.

One IOUS of European medieval royalty is King Hroar Half Frodasson. According to NSF, he is the combination of 383 records. He is identified as the son of Halfdon Frodasson. I’ve done no work with patronymic names, but even I can see there is something suspicious about Hroar Frodasson being the son of Halfdon Frodasson.

Fortunately, the FamilySearch Royal and Noble Houses of Europe tree comes to the rescue. His name is actually Hroar Halfdansson. The Royal and Noble… tree has been carefully researched and is fully sourced. Want to see evidence that Hroar Halfdansson is the correct name? Check the sources.

• [S1167] #11565 The Viking Age: the Early History, Manners, and Customs of the Ancestors of the English-speaking Nations: Illustrated from the Antiquiites Discovered in Mounds, Cairns, and Bogs as Well as from the Ancient Sagas and Eddas, Du Chaillu, Paul B. (Paul Belloni), (2 volumes. London : John Murray, 1889), FHL book 948 H2d; FHL film 1440113 items 1-2., p. 68.
• [S713] #11577 Ættartolurbækur Jóns Espólíns Sysslumanns (1980-), Espólín, Jón, (Reykjavík: Samskipti, 1980-), FHL book 949.12 D2e v. 6; FHL microfilms 73,257-73., p. 5, FHL microfilm 73257.
• [S283] #2 Der Europäischen käyser- und königlichen Häuser historische und genealogische Erläuterung (1730-1731), Lohmeier, Georg von, und Johann Ludwig Levin Gebhardi, (3 volumes in 1. Luneburg: Sternischen Buchdruckerei, 1730-1731), FHL microfilm 1,051,694, items 4-6., pt. 1 p. 126-127.

There are 339,786 people currently in the Royal and Noble… Tree. No doubt all those individuals are also in Family Tree at least once, and some perhaps a dozen times. That’s easily a million people in Family Tree that need to be cleaned up. How long will that take? If you do the math, it would take one person working full-time for 40 years. More likely would be a thousand people spending a couple of hours a week. It would take them over 10 months.

(The math: Assuming it takes 5 minutes to clean up facts, relationships, and duplicates for each of the million people, that’s 5 million minutes, divided by 60 minutes per hour is 83,333 hours, divided by 40 hours per week is 2,083 work weeks, divided by 52 weeks per year is 40 years. 83,333 hours divided by 1,000 people would be 83 hours a piece, divided by two hours a week is 42 weeks, divided by 4 weeks a month is over 10 months.)

Remember that there are hundreds or even thousands of incorrect trees on people’s desktop computers that are regularly being synchronized with these people in Family Tree. I’m trying to keep just one person clean in Family Tree and every month or so I have to spend a half hour repairing damage and communicating back and forth with the person(s) to prevent immediate reversion.

If you do the math it will take 118 people working full time, 24x7, to keep these people clean.

(The math: 339,786 people times 30 minutes every two months divided by two months is  5,096,790 minutes a month, which divided by 60 minutes an hour is 85,000 hours a month, which divided by 24 hours is 3,500 days a month, which divided by 30 days is 118 man months per month.)

One can argue the assumptions of these calculations, but I think it is clear that it will take significant effort to clean and keep clean royal and noble medieval Europe. If you want to see clean data, consult the FamilySearch Royal and Noble Houses of Europe tree.

#FGS2013: Community Trees: A Win-Win Project for Societies

I attended the full set of FamilySearch sponsored lectures during Society Day at the 2013 annual conference of the Federation of Genealogical Societies. This was the first:

David S. Barss presented a session titled, “Community Trees: A Win-Win Project for Societies.” Barss is the FamilySearch project manager for the Community Trees Project.

Before beginning, Barss mentioned that FamilySearch is offering societies a resource associated with RootsTech. FamilySearch is looking for interested societies to host a local family history fair in 2014. FamilySearch will provide turnkey tools: an online registration platform, training helps, and communication materials. It will also provide recordings of classes and sessions from the 2014 RootsTech conference. Interested societies can contact FamilySearch at the RootsTech booth.

BTW, Paul Nauta mentioned Tuesday night that RootsTech registration opens this week (Thursday, I think). Visit www.RootsTech.org.

Barss defined a community tree as a locality-based, lineage-linked, sourced, genealogy database. It is an attempt to identify everyone in a community. A community can be any size, such as a town, a state, or a country. It can be an ethnic or religious group.

A community tree is a great resource for societies to preserve their records and make them more accessible. Merging all the records for a community, say census records or county histories, can produce extended, lineage linked trees showing how the members of the community are interrelated.

The stages of a society project are: decide what you want to do, determine the locality and scope, identify resources, recruit coordinators and volunteers, extract the data, merge it, and publish it.

Volunteers like to see results. Assign them small pieces and publish updates regularly. To facilitate merging, use standards for name, date, and place entry. Estimate dates and places when missing, noting that they are estimates. This helps the merge process a lot. Validate with primary sources (i.e. sources of primary information). Consider approaching FamilySearch for guidance, merging, and publication.

FamilySearch’s Many Websites

In the years since FamilySearch introduced www.familysearch.org, their offerings have splintered into a dozen mostly disconnected websites. I look forward to the time that FamilySearch combines all these offerings into one. In the meantime, like me you may appreciate a handy list of links. Bookmark this article or look for it at http://ancestryinsider.blogspot.com .

FamilySearch Websites

• FamilySearch.org – The old, current, classic
  • Family History Lesson Series*
• FamilySearch.org Beta – The once and future king
• Community Trees
• Contact FamilySearch
• Forums
• Historic Books
• Indexing
• Labs
• Record Search Pilot – Historic Records
• Wiki

Church Links

Websites for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

• FHC Director's Online Guide
• Leadership Lessons*
• Leadership Videos*
• Consultant E-mail archive
• Consultant/Leader Registration
• New FamilySearch Tree (NFS)
• NFS Rollout – Asia (former Utah/Idaho)
• NFS Training Website

Temple and Family History manuals for members of the Church

• Member's Guide (36795)
• Consultant's Guide (36797)
• Instructor's Guide (35804)
• Administrative Guide (04397)
• FHC Operations Guide (34051 and 34792)
• Family Record Extraction Administrative Handbook (30985) – FREP/UDE are retired, FSI is still applicable
• Church Handbook of Instructions, Book 2 : Section 9

*This isn’t a separate website, but a link I like to have handy.

Digitized Records Not Just for Mormons

Dear Ancestry Insider,

I've been reading your column/blog since you began - and have always been interested in the content -EXCEPT for the recent columns re "the rollout of New FamilySearch (NFS) to all members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints around the world (‘cept for the Orient)."

At a recent Board meeting of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Palm Beach County, Florida - a Board member who had visited our local FHC in Boca Raton, informed us he was told that the digitalized records for the NEW FAMILY SEARCH would not be available in this location.

Is this correct?

Please clarify exactly what this means - and if the digitalized records will only be available at various FHCs in the Utah area.

Thank you.

Sylvia Furshman Nusinov
President Emerita
Genealogical Workbook Editor
JGSPBCI, FL

Sylvia subsequently forwarded a message she received Sunday morning:

I understand no LDS library outside Salt Lake City holds any films - they have to be ordered and yes, it takes up to 4 months for them to arrive. They seem to be closing Family History Centers regularly and I have been told that within the next two years they are going to make the whole collection available online - to members that is. At present it seems a mystery how non-members will be able to access the records. Any information welcome.

Nicole, Belgium

Dear Sylvia and Nicole,

I have good news for you. THIS RUMOR IS FALSE!

Have you ever played a party game variously called Gossip, Telephone (U.S.), Whispers, (England), Le Téléphone Arabe (France), or Stille Post (Germany)? Players sit in a circle. One person whispers a message to the next person, who passes it on around the circle. After the message has completed the circuit, the group compares the original message with its final incarnation.

At a publicity stunt in Las Vegas in 2004, a record breaking 614 participants played the game. The starting phrase, "Mac King is a comedy magic genius," became "Macaroni cantaloupe knows the future."

Let me catalog some possible sources for your rumor:

New FamilySearch

Don’t let my comment about New FamilySearch (NFS) confuse you. While it is currently available only to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as I’ve reported, the leaders of “the Church are anxious to get New FamilySearch out to genealogists outside the Church.”

Don’t let the name “New FamilySearch” confuse you. It is the FamilySearch Family Tree offering. The name is astonishingly ambiguous. The name practically demands misunderstanding and I’ve had to deal with my share. Back in September 2008 Carolynne vowed to never index again when the ambiguity led her to believe that only Church members would have access to the resulting records. Not true!

Record Search

You can already access some of the indexed, converted microfilm on the Record Search Pilot website (at pilot.familysearch.org or via labs.familysearch.org). Once Record Search emerges from the pilot stage, you will see lots more records show up. Once the pipeline emerges from its pilot stage, then you will see a continuous flow of lots more records. Click here to review articles I’ve written about Record Search.

Unfortunately, participation in FamilySearch Indexing is not expanding as fast as it could.  While most of the 2.5 million rolls of microfilm may be digitized in 3 to 5 years, indexing at current rates will take several hundred years. Do yourself a favor and resolve to spend some time each week indexing.

New FamilySearch.org Website

Don’t be confused by information about a new FamilySearch.org website. Eventually, the old www.familysearch.org will be replaced with a new website that consolidates the many pieces currently under separate development:

• new.familysearch.org – New FamilySearch (the tree)
• pilot.familysearch.org – Record Search
• indexing.familysearch.org – FamilySearch Indexing
• forums.familysearch.org – Forums for research questions and FamilySearch product help
• wiki.familysearch.org – Research Wiki
• histfam.familysearch.org – Community Trees
• contact.familysearch.org – Worldwide support contact information
• www.familysearch.org – Some stuff from the old site not covered in the above offerings

A beta preview of the new site has replaced the alpha on labs.familysearch.org and can be seen fsbeta.familysearch.org.

To make the confusion worse, FamilySearch insists on using a lowercase “n” for “new FamilySearch” (the tree). As a result, it is easy to confuse the new FamilySearch and the new familysearch.org.

To avoid confusion, the Ancestry Insider always uses “New FamilySearch” (capital “N” and no “.org”) to reference the tree and “new familysearch.org” (lowercase “n” and always with “.org”) to reference the website. With other sources, you’re on your own.

FamilySearch Member

Don’t confuse the term “FamilySearch Member” with “Church Member.” As I reported last year, access to some images will be limited to FamilySearch Members, defined at the time as:

• Volunteers and indexers who meet basic contribution requirements each quarter
• Patrons at family history centers
• Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; Church members provide the millions of dollars needed to keep FamilySearch operating

In the July 2008 announcement, FamilySearch pledged, “All data indexed by FamilySearch volunteers will continue to be made available for free to the public through FamilySearch.org—now and in the future.” This option has not yet shown up in the Record Search pilot and exact details have not been announced.

Family History Centers

As I’ve previously reported, rumors that FamilySearch is closing all its family history centers (FHCs) are not true. FamilySearch’s Russell Webster stated that the overall number of centers is actually on the increase. The number quoted on FamilySearch press releases recently jumped from 4,500 to 4,600.

Webster said that FHCs are being repurposed. In the past they were needed for microfilm access and TempleReady for Church members. As both these purposes are largely replaced by Internet offerings, the reasons to have FHCs become:

• computer access,
• Internet access,
• access to FamilySearch Member records,
• access to some premium genealogy websites,
• access to CD databases that can’t be published on FamilySearch.org,
• access to microfilms that can’t be digitized, and
• face-to-face research assistance.

Home access to the internet only replaces the first three items, so there is an ongoing need for FHCs. The way I interpret Webster’s comments, repurposing leaves Utah and Idaho with too many centers, and developing countries with too few centers. (Also see KD 101753.)

Summary

In summary, Sylvia and Nicole, digitized records will be available to all, member or otherwise. If you do your part indexing, then you’ll have access in your home. Otherwise, you’ll have access in your local family history center—which generally is not closing. Even New FamilySearch, currently open only to Church members, will eventually be available to all.

Sincerely,

-- The Ancestry Insider

---

Notice: The opinions expressed herein are those of the Ancestry Insider, not necessarily those of Ancestry.com or FamilySearch. All content is copyrighted by the Ancestry Insider unless designated otherwise. See http://ancestryinsider.blogspot.com for other important legal notices.

FamilySearch Community Trees

Last week a new project appeared on FamilySearch Labs.

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.

The website currently hosts 19 collections (“Trees”) with 484,048 families containing 1,189,105 individuals. For individuals with surnames, there are 77,130 unique surnames across all the trees. The 3901 sources are linked to 106 repositories.

While titled historical on the labs website and bearing the URL histfam.familysearch.org, the website itself is titled “Community Trees.” The website seems to be a combination of community trees documenting a specific community and historical trees, documenting nobility back to medieval times. Community trees were produced by the FamilySearch Family Reconstitution team headed by Raymond W. Madsen in combination with local partners. Workers canvassed particular record sets to reconstitute all the families of the locality. Historical trees were produced by the Medieval Families Unit, now identified as the Historical Families Unit.

Some trees can be downloaded in GEDCOM format. One has oral genealogies attached. Some partners may have additional information on their own websites. Partners can make corrections and additions to the information shown. Some of the trees are works in progress.

According to the website, the current collections are:

• British Isles: Peerage, Gentry and Colonial American Connections: This database was compiled from 15 reputable publications. These lines are very important because they connect to many immigrants to America.
• Canada: New Brunswick: Southampton: Millville Communities Family Tree: The Millville Community Family Tree is a joint project with the community of Millville, New Brunswick and FamilySearch International to preserve the heritage of the communities of Southampton parish and other communities including some in Bright and Queensbury parish, through genealogy.
• Canada: Nova Scotia: Kings County: Community Family Tree: Kings County Community Family Tree is a joint project with the Kings Historical Society and FamilySearch International to preserve the county heritage through genealogy.
• Canada: Toronto: Youngs in Toronto: Extracted and linked records of Young families in Toronto, Ontario from provincial civil registration: births (1869-1909), marriages (1869-1924), and deaths (1869-1934). Also includes allied families.
• England: London: Residence of London: The London Project consists of individuals living in London extracted from Boyd's Citizen's of London; controlled extraction records from the International Genealogical Index (IGI); and other records dealing with London.
• England: Norfolk Visitations, 1563: The Visitation of Norfolk conducted by William Harvey, Clarenceux King of Arms. This database contains lineage linked families.
• England: Todd Knowles Jewish Collection: Jewish database from the British Isles
• Europe: Royal and Noble Houses (predominately England and France):This database contains ancestors and descendants of Charlemagne; Louis IX of France; Edward I of England; Charles I of England; Scandinavian and Spanish Royal families; plus many other royal, noble and gentry lineages.
• Europe: Royal and Noble Houses (predominately German): This database was first compiled by the previous Medieval Families Unit and has been updated and corrected using on-line databases, Schwennicke, and other nobility sources.
• Iceland: Iceland Historical Family Trees: Linked Genealogies of Iceland from 100 A.D to the 1800s extracted from sagas, parish registers, census records and compiled family histories.
• Norway: Oppland County: Sør-Aurdal Clerical District: Norway project by FamilySearch International Family Reconstitution team to build community family trees for the several clerical districts of Norway.
• Pacific Islands: Cole Jensen Collection: This important collection is one of the best sources for family records, pedigrees, and historical information that is available for the Pacific Island People.
• Pacific Islands: French Polynesia: Atuona Island: Atuona, located on the southern side of Hiva Oa island, is the centrer of the of Hiva-Oa. Atuona was the capital of all the Marquesas Islands but it has been replaced by Taiohae (on Nuku Hiva). Atuona comprises the valleys of Atuona, Taaoa, Tahauku and Hanamate.
• Pacific Islands: New Zealand: Maori: Meha Genealogy: Information entered from Maori pedigree charts, 13 B.C. 1790 A.D.
• Pacific Islands: Tonga: Oral Genealogies and Community Trees: Tonga Oral History, Siosifa Tu'Iketei Pule of Kolofo'ou, Nuku'alofa. Tape 2 Interviewer: Tevita 'Uatahausi Mapa Dates 4th July and 25 August 1973.
• Peru: Community Family Tree: Extracted from compiled family and historical records. Many of the notes are in Spanish.
• Scotland: Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae: Lineage linked families for ministers of the Church of Scotland from the Reformation.
• United States: Washington: Lewis County: Community Family Trees: This database contains the records of families listed in the 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, and 1900 US Census for Lewis County, Washington. We have merged families that appear in multiple census records together to provide a better view of the family over the years. The data that came from each census can be seen in the source citation for that record. This is a preliminary version of the merging and will be updated with an improved version containing additional records from the History of Lewis County, Washington (by Nix) in October 2009.
• Wales: Medieval Records Primarily of Nobility and Gentry: This Welsh database, when complete, will include lineage linked data for approximately 350,000 individuals, living from about 100 A.D. to 1700 A.D. The base data was extracted from Peter Bartrum's Welsh Genealogies.

The website suggests,

If you have a database you have created from original source material that you think would be a good addition to the FamilySearch Community Trees or would like to participate somehow, contact Raymond W. Madsen at madsenrw@familysearch.org.

Interestingly, the website icon is “TNG” and examining the source code shows the message, “The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding, v.7.0.3 (14 January 2009), Written by Darrin Lythgoe, 2001-2009.”

The “labs” nature of the website was observed in several deficiencies. I found some operations extremely slow. I found no way to browse. Some links showed no useful purpose. The single photograph would not display. A PDF family group report displayed the wrong site URL.

The Historical Trees Unit and the Family Reconstitution Unit are producing conclusion trees that are GML (Genealogical Maturity Level) 3 and GML 4. By contrast, New FamilySearch (NFS), the tree, has been pre-populated by lots and lots of data at GML 1 and 2 and is subject to edit by genealogists of any level, making it an unsuitable environment for publication of more mature genealogical data. Community Trees is a wonderful forward move allowing FamilySearch to publish their high maturity lineage linked trees.

Conference Keynote: Pajama Genealogy

Don R. Anderson - “Learn the Tech to Trace Your Roots!” – Fri., 28 August 2009, 8:00AM.

Hall has filled up pretty well, maybe 80-90%. Holly introducing Don R. Anderson, FamilySearch head of FHL and worldwide support. Don R. Anderson, "Technology to Trace Your Roots, Bring the FHL to You." World in Transition. Bring the FHL to you while still allowing you to go to the Family History Library (FHL) I wish to contrast the world of genealogy today with the future when you can do genealogy any time, any where. I call it, “genealogy in your pajamas”

You need to have these services to do genealogy: - Learning. - Training. - Reference materials. [Don's words per slide rate is high. Thanks Don!]

- collaboration - record access - help (assistance). Learning Today: - must drive (or fly) to the FHL.

- Drive to FHL and WAIT for the classes :-( - Another alternative, drive to book store. Buy book from 2004 and it doesn't have latest

... web links. Learning In pajamas: - moving resources to wiki.familysearch.org . - Also learning modules online:

... www.familysearch.org > Library > Education > FHL Research Series Online

http://bit.ly/11tm0p

Can watch lecture in pajamas, but also go to FHL and talk to presenter. Roots Television has how to videos also, like Kip's Tips.

http://bit.ly/13Yjp2

Demoing http://wiki.familysearch.org . Searched for "England Census"

He's adding info: 1911 census is available at FHL. [See http://bit.ly/eMWiM ]

Please contribute. Be bold. You can't do any harm-at least permanently. [Hey, Mac fans. Don's using a Mac!]

Collaboration today: He calls it "Swapping stories and Gedcoms". Audience didn't get his joke about ...

..."easily mashing together all the GEDCOM CD-ROMs". They did laugh when he recalled trying to match/merge 2 files with 8,000 people each.

Pajama collaboration: Ancestry.com, Geni.com, New FamilySearch (NFS). Using NFS he found a Rigby cousin worked 30 ft from his desk and he didn’t know it before.

Records today: microfilm vertigo. Records In PJs: Digital books.

(Told story of 87 yr old: "Jay, I'm going to meet my ancestors before I can find them. You've got to make this faster.")

www.familysearch.org > Search > Historical Books. http://www.lib.byu.edu/fhc/index.php

BTW, free parking @ FHL on Saturdays. A large number of records is available online and is growing quickly - Ancestry.com > 8 billion names, - FamilySearch > 3 billion names. FSI million names a day.

The more of you that participate, the quicker we can index the 2.5 million rolls in the vault. At current rate, it will take

...100 years. We'll have the films digitized in only ten. What would happen if we doubled the indexers? It would cut the indexing time from 100 to 50 years. And if we doubled again? It would take only 25 years. That starts to sound really nice.

Now demoing Record Search: http://pilot.familysearch.org

- Footnote 40 million docs, - World Vital Records 2 billion names.

Help (assistance) in your pajamas: Now showing UK 1851 Jurisdictions project. Check it out at http://maps.familysearch.org . Searched for morpeth

Mentioned http://forums.familysearch.org/ . http://labs.familysearch.org has links to new stuff.

Q. Schedule for Utah/Idaho NFS rollout? A. We expect to be done before the end of the year.

Q. Where can we find all the website addresses? A. Links to everything we’ve covered are available on either http://www.familysearch.org or http://labs.familysearch.org

Q. I'm in Draper and just got an e-mail stating that within a couple of week my stake would start using New FamilySearch. Can you comment on the meaning of this e-mail? A. We just sent that e-mail to all remaining districts.

... You'll get an e-mail with the exact date about one week before your [stake] goes live. Don is now done.

This article is one in a series of session reports from the recent 2009 Salt Lake City Family History Expo taken from my live tweets of the event. Please see my Tweeting Presentations Policy for further information, including the formatting guidelines I attempt to follow and instructions for correcting errors. Additions are shown in italics.

FamilySearch Record Search Pilot 2.0 released

The FamilySearch Record Search Pilot has been updated. The “News and Updates” on the site reads

1 Sep 2009: Welcome to the updated Record Search 2.0. This release has a whole new look and feel to it with different colors, screen layouts and some new functionality. For a list of all the changes check out our blog at: http://labs.familysearch.org/blog/

Here are the new features of the update:

• The web site has a whole new look. In my opinion, it looks more like the FamilySearch Alpha, also available on FamilySearch Labs.
• Removed the “unsupported browser” message since the message itself was the only reason Record Search didn’t work on some browsers.
• Moved the map off the main page. Click on “Browse our record collections” underneath the search form to go to the page with the map.
   
• The Copy button puts the record on your clipboard.
  
  The information on your clipboard is just plain text. It looks like this:
  
  

  Name: Horace Conrad Wiser
  Death date: 15 Jul 1908
  Death place: Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  Gender: Male
  Race or color (on document): white
  Age at death: 4 months 3 days
  …
  Collection: Pennsylvania, Philadelphia City Death Certificates, 1803-1915

• The Print button prints the record. Unfortunately, my free PDF printer driver wasn’t completely satisfied with the result, leaving most of the page background black.
  
  And unlike the Copy to clipboard function, the name of the collection was either left off or printed black on black.

• A new Share button allows you to share a record on Facebook, an email, even a blog. Clicking the button gives the choice of sharing the record on Facebook, and provides a link, like this one to the above example. If I understand correctly, the links created may break during the Pilot testing. You may have to enable pop-ups to post the record to Facebook.
  
• A new feature I think is pretty significant is the “About this Collection” link to the right of the Copy, Print, Share icons. The “About this Collection” information has been placed in the FamilySearch Wiki! This not only gives FamilySearch collection managers a more powerful environment in which to post information, it gives the general public a shot at enhancing the information as well. I can imagine the user community adding all sorts of useful information about using the collection and interpreting its records.
  
  I think it’s also possible that we’ll see the genealogical community use this tool in unexpected ways that the community views as having value. It remains to be seen if FamilySearch will allow unorthodox uses such as indexing corrections, lists of bad images, links to missing images, and so forth. I hope, I hope, I hope FamilySearch is wise and patient enough to let the genealogical community decide how to best utilize this new tool.
  
  I think this new feature has the power to engage the genealogical community more strongly than anything else they’ve released this year. If they don’t squelch it when it first starts snowballing beyond their control, they will find they have created one of the true, great innovations in online digital archives. Ancestry.com pioneered user contributions at the field level. Footnote.com pioneered user contributions at the record level. FamilySearch has now pioneered user contributions at the collection level.
• Browsing the images of collections has changed. The screen now looks like this:
  
  I’ve already heard people complain about the change in layout, but I like it. For census records, I would rather have the image viewing area be wide than tall. There is a Full Screen button to easily maximize the image view.
  
  The change was to allow easy selection of other places in the browse structure and I think it accomplishes that quite well. My only complaint is that the items I selected in the browse lists are covered up when the image viewer slides into place. The lists should be automatically scrolled to make my selections visible. Then you wouldn’t need to display them redundantly underneath the FamilySearch logo. That would recover some screen real estate.
  
  My other only complaint is with the final selection in the browse hierarchy. When I click the final item (such as Fond du Lac city, ward 6 in the screen image, above), instead of immediately sliding the image viewer into place, Record Search shows me how many images are in that group of images. Why make me click again? I’ve already selected the locality and the image viewer tells me again how many images are in the group. My vote is, drop this useless extra click.

Well, it’s late and I’m not going to get to the NFS update tonight. You’ll just have to check “Temple Districts Using New FamilySearch.” Also, come to the Ancestry Insider website and check out the lists I’ve added in the right-hand column to FamilySearch web sites and online manuals.

Record Search Futures

This article is one in a series of session reports from the recent BYU Conference on Family History and Genealogy. I tweeted the session live, but I hate to send you to Twitter to read them because they appear there in reverse chronological order. I’ve straightened them out for you here. Additions are shown in italics.

Thursday, 30 July 2009

Bryce Roper, product manager, "Record Search" (1:52 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

Like oil, getting access to records is not something we can all do. Bryce has quickly gone through the pipeline process. (1:53 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

See http://bit.ly/165ru7 (1:55 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

600 M names in 136 collections on Record Search pilot. In 2 weeks we are releasing Record Search 2.0 pilot. Looks a little different than current site. (1:57 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

It has been redesigned to become part of the FamilySearch Alpha. See http://labs.familysearch.org (1:58 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

Looks like current site but with color and font changes. Some minor layout changes. (2:00 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

They want to improve capability of wildcard searching beyond current limitation of 3 chars needed prior to wildcard. (2:02 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

Hover over a name in search result gives popup bubble. Click on name opens a slideout. Click on chevron to close the slideout. (2:04 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

Click on Save to copy to hard drive. Can then be inserted into your genealogy program. Click on Print; they've improved format. (2:05 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

Added new button: Share This Record gives option for Facebook or e-mail/message system. Produces a link in Facebook or in e-mail (2:07 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

...that someone can click. They've removed the link labeled "View Image." You must click on the thumbnail. (2:09 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

Link to Collection Information will link directly to the FamilySearch Wiki. In the search results, the icon to the left of a result (2:12 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

... is available. Print image now includes options: Fit to page, rotate, smooth, invert. Will be adding record details and notes. (2:13 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

In the lists of collections: * indicates new collection in last 30 days, "No images" and "Browse images only" are self explanatory. (2:17 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

Browse items are called waypoints. New version has longer lists, that is, more items are shown at a time. Image viewer comes up at bottom of page, waypoints still visible up (2:18 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

... above. Zoom control moves to thumbnail at lower-right. Showed icon with green arrows. Means the original image is on an affiliate site (2:20 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

Clicking icon takes you to affiliate site. They can charge. Q. Does the Church get any money for that? A. No. (2:24 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

Q. Weren't indexers supposed to get free access to the images? A. Currently don't require login. In future when that option is available, (2:25 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

you will be able to see some records only if you sign in. Others only if you are member of the LDS Church. Others if you are an indexer. (2:27 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

These are called "roles." Q. Will images be available for 1880? A. Not certain about 1880, but in general, yes, if we can show images we will. (2:29 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

The recent 5 collections from Canada today are index only. When we have login, we will be able to show any registered user the image (2:30 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

Some contracts specify "FamilySearch Member": - LDS members, - users who are at a FHC, and - active indexers. (2:32 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

Q. How long will it take to digitize the vault? A. Don't know. 10 years give or take 10 years. (2:34 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

Q. What about 1880 census entry where enumerator wrote wrong name? How do I correct it? A. We call it "user annotation." Working on that. (2:36 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

Q. Can we click on NARA icon at Footnote and get 1860 images? A. [From a knowledgeable audience member:] After Footnote's exclusive runs out in about 3.5 years. (2:37 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

What's coming? - Non-Flash version. - Collection-specific search fields, - exact match, - global search, - super collections, (2:38 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

- persistent URL for sharing links (current links _might_ break), - better source citation, - better image control, - sign in, - wildcards, (2:40 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

- link to NFS & other sites, - 1 Billion+ names by end of year (quadruple current capacity). Now taking questions. (2:41 PM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

Remember that tweets are limited to 140 characters. Less the #byugen hashtag, each tweet could not exceed 132 characters. Hence, tweets often use abbreviations, bad grammar, and lack proper punctuation.

Happy 10th Birthday, FamilySearch.org

This article is one in a series of session reports from the recent BYU Conference on Family History and Genealogy. I tweeted the session live, but I hate to send you to Twitter to read them because they appear there in reverse chronological order. I’ve straightened them out for you here. Additions are shown in italics.

Thursday, 30 July 2009

1st session. Steve Anderson, "Happy 10th Birthday, FamilySearch.org" (8:53 AM Jul 30th from web )

Asked background questions of audience. (8:56 AM Jul 30th from web )

1. What is FamilySearch? We've never tried to gather identity under one umbrella until a couple of years ago. (8:57 AM Jul 30th from web )

We've had various identities: Genealogical Society of Utah (GSU) Granite Mountain Record Vault (GMRV) Family History Library (FHL) (8:58 AM Jul 30th from web )

Also family history centers (FHCs). And familysearch.org. Gather all under one face: FamilySearch. This is our public name. (9:00 AM Jul 30th from web )

Is new.familysearch.org the replacement for www.familysearch.org? No. It is only the tree and temple portion. See labs for preview (9:04 AM Jul 30th from web )

of the future replacement of www.familysearch.org. (9:05 AM Jul 30th from web )

2. Past to Present. familysearch.org launched in 1999. big deal, crashed the servers. Also in 1999: downloadable PAF, IGI. (9:06 AM Jul 30th from web )

Telling story about San Mateo, Florida family reunion, finding he was related to everyone in town. Felt connected. That is what PAF (9:09 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

BTW, Deseret News coverage of #byugen available at http://bit.ly/peJxS(9:13 AM Jul 30th from web)

...has done for millions. Over the years: PRF, Jewish Records, Index, Freedman Bank, Ellis Island, 1880/1881 censuses. (9:14 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

Today: FamilySearch is the largest #genealogy organization in the world. 80 countries, 40,000 staff/volunteers, 4,600+ FHCs, records (9:15 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

records of billions of people, from over 100 countries, some preserve records that have since perished. Millions use fs every month. (9:16 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

Swiss archivist told Steve that FamilySearch has more records of his people than he has. (9:17 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

Traditional model of records needs to improve: Collect records > microfilm > preserve, extractors > share film and indexes (9:19 AM Jul 30th from web )

Problems: microfilm readers not available in most homes, not scalable, doesn't give global web access, (9:20 AM Jul 30th from web )

Fastest growing channel to access info is no longer computer, but cell phone. (9:21 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

New model: Access records > digitize > index online (100K volunteers) > post online > family tree > community collaboration > preserve (9:24 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

FamilySearch is a name that resonates. Example: at the Who Do You Think You Are conference he asked a guy: why are you here? The guy replied, I don't know. Steve eventually learned that the guy’s Aunt had died recently. He became curious about his family. (9:26 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

Tells funny story about being stopped by airport security. The agents’ questioning quickly turned to genealogy once they learned who he worked for. (9:30 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

Record Search Pilot hidden on http://www.familysearch.org under Search Records. 600 million names. (9:31 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

Steve is doing an extensive demo of the Record Search Pilot. http://pilot.familysearch.org.  He’s also pushing the need for indexers. (9:38 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

Search menu at familysearch.org also links to Historical Books. Books are scanned, OCRed, every word searchable PDF. Downloadable & printable. (9:40 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

FamilySearch Indexing milestone: 250 millionth name indexed. Ellis Island took 7 years. Now could be done in about a month. (9:42 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

Click on Index Records menu at http://www.familysearch.org .

Click Library > Education for video training. (9:44 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

Wrapping up. On to next session. (9:57 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

Remember that tweets are limited to 140 characters. Less the #byugen hashtag, each tweet could not exceed 132 characters. Hence, tweets often use abbreviations, bad grammar, and lack proper punctuation.

BYU Conference Final Keynote: David Rencher

This article is one in a series of session reports from the recent BYU Conference on Family History and Genealogy. I tweeted the session live, but I hate to send you to Twitter to read them because they appear there in reverse chronological order. I’ve straightened them out for you here. Additions are shown in italics.

Hats off to David Rencher. It’s rare that a keynote speaker at the BYU Conference submits a handout for the conference syllabus. I am extremely impressed with Rencher, who submitted a handout in time to be printed up with the syllabus.

It is not uncommon for BYU to post transcripts of keynotes presented by leaders from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which they have done this year for Elder John H. Groberg. This page has a link to Elder Groberg’s talk, “Jesus is the Key.” There has been talk suggesting that Rencher’s slides might (underline might) also be posted, probably on the same page.

With no further ado, here’s the first tweets from the 3rd day of the conference.

Thursday, 30 July 2009

Elder Alann F. Packer is attending the conference. Assistant Executive Director for the Church family history department. (7:42 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat ) Packer is saying a few words before the keynote. He is often asked questions about when this or that is coming. Many answers have been given at this conference. (7:43 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat ) FamilySearch planning takes into account for 88 billion individuals who have already lived and billions more coming. That's why our planning and execution is taking so long. (7:45 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat ) (Photograph of Elder Alann F. Packer courtesy of the Deseret News.)

Turned time over to David Rencher, “FamilySearch Tackles the Information Explosion.” (Microphone not working.) From the book Groundswell: “Three trends—people’s desire to connect, new interactive technologies, and online economics—have created a new era. This is the fast-growing phenomenon we call the groundswell. Not only is it here; it’s evolving rapidly—creating an incredible challenge for corporate strategists.” (7:47 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat ) (Photograph of David E. Rencher courtesy of FamilySearch.)

Product lifecycle: Envision, Plan, Design, Develop, Test, Release, Repeat.   Many FamilySearch products are nearing the ends of their lifecycles: - PAF, - compact disc products, - IGI, - pedigree resource file (PRF), - paper publications, (7:50 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

- microfilm, - UDE [Universal Data Entry is the predecessor to FamilySearch Indexing]. Beginnings of lifecycles: - book scanning, - FamilySearch indexing, - NFS [New FamilySearch], - wiki, - Record Search, ... Jay Verkler observed artificial barriers in FH (7:52 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

Visit http://labs.familysearch.org PAF 5.2 - from 1997, - free, - millions of users, - 3rd-party products. Future options: - NFS only, - PAF/NFS (7:55 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

- affiliate/NFS. There are benefits to using both off- and online trees. CD products stopped in 2002. Resources shifted to NFS. In the syllabus, Rencher said the CD products will be discontinued when the present inventories are exhausted. “The data from these products will eventually be moved to FamilySearch.org and will be available for free,” he said. Some of the products—vital records from Mexico, Scandinavia, and Europe as well as the 1880 U.S. Census and the 1881 British Census—are already available on Record Search. IGI replaced by Record Search and NFS. (7:57 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat ) Rencher said, “ultimately, the relevant data in the IGI will be accessible to patrons through FamilySearch’s Record Search and the Family Tree feature. All genealogies shared through PRF will ultimately be searchable through the Family Tree feature.”

PRF still active and growing. FHLC on CD - pubbed in 2002. - 279,762 titles added since then. - Use the Internet version. (7:58 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat ) which “is updated every half hour, so it is the most efficient way to access the catalog information.”

Research Guidance migrating to wiki. Why? Paper pubs outdated before ink dried. Paper publications are going away. Many “will not be reprinted when current supplies are exhausted. The information will be updated and moved into the FamilySearch Wiki.” Microfilm at end of lifecycle. (8:00 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

Only Kodak continues to supply film for making copies for FHCs. Price is going up. Scottish Church Records CD: David Gardner & (8:02 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

volunteers indexed them [parish records of the Church of Scotland (Presbyterian)] but Scots won't allow migration to web. “For the immediate future, Scottish Church Records will continue to only be available on the old DOS version of FamilySearch in the family history centers and the Family History Library. The records are also available for a fee on the website Scotland's People.” Vietnam and Korean War Casualty Files - moving to Record Search. “There are plans to convert this data to the FamilySearch website. These files are lower priority than the vital record and census materials.” (8:04 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

UDE phased out in coming months. FS Indexing replacing it. NFS - think of it in terms of temple submissions. Created in tree form to (8:06 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

add identifying information-relationships. David gets no special treatment. His ancestors also have bad data he can't correct. (8:08 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

Christening before birth. Elder Monte J. Brough said: members [of the Church] spend too much time reorganizing info instead of learning new [because of what FamilySearch has provided to them.] (8:09 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

FamilySearch Wiki can capture tremendous knowledge of all of you. Example of town in Texas physically moved from Limestone county to Hill county. (8:11 AM Jul 30th from TweetChat )

Standards Finder available on Labs.familysearch.org. Ireland has decided anglicized town names will return to Gaeilge/Gaelic. Record Search Pilot. (8:13 AM Jul 30th from web )

I'm in charge of the order that FamilySearch is digitizing microfilms. Chocolate doughtnuts are accepted. Trying for entire collections. We're adding world (8:15 AM Jul 30th from web )

areas that dot coms are not addressing. IGI extractions were swiss cheese. RS we want complete record sets. Sometimes have (8:17 AM Jul 30th from web )

permission for images, sometimes just index. FamilySearch Indexing: projected to hit 250M names a year. Easy to volunteer. Easy to index. (8:18 AM Jul 30th from web )

Batches are small.(8:19 AM Jul 30th from web)

Book scanning. Up to 40K+ books online. Scanning projects are underway at Family History Library, BYU, BYU-Hawaii, BYU-Idaho, ACPL (Allen County Public Library), Houston Public Library(David's sister is a volunteer missionary working there), Mid-Continental Library in Independence, Missouri. “The technology…allows users to do an every word or name search.” Many of these books had no printed index (8:21 AM Jul 30th from web )

Supplement collections of ACPL with BYU. Support: 3 levels. http://bit.ly/sEGra (8:23 AM Jul 30th from web )

Nice map of support offices. (8:24 AM Jul 30th from web )

Support utilizes community of 300,000 users worldwide. (8:26 AM Jul 30th from web )

Collaboration and Conclusion Limited resources. We must be strategic. (8:27 AM Jul 30th from web )

1894 GSU founded. 1938 microfilming begins. 1963 film distribution to FHC. 1999 film to public libraries. 1999 FamilySearch.org (8:29 AM Jul 30th from web )

2006 Record Search pilot provides 1st images. (8:30 AM Jul 30th from web )

Many ways of doing genealogy isn't keeping up with the power of technology. (8:31 AM Jul 30th from web )

FamilySearch Strategic Direction: Collaboration, data mining, data conclusions, user experience. (8:32 AM Jul 30th from web )

FamilySearch hasn't gone away. I hope you understand why products are ending lifecycle. (8:33 AM Jul 30th from web)

Remember that tweets are limited to 140 characters. Less the #byugen hashtag, each tweet could not exceed 132 characters. Hence, tweets often use abbreviations, bad grammar, and lack proper punctuation.

NFS Rollout News: Ron Tanner Presentation

Ron Tanner is the current New FamilySearch (NFS) and Family Tree product manager at FamilySearch, replacing Jim Greene (NFS) and Tim Cross (Family Tree). Tanner presented last Saturday at the Utah Valley PAF User Group. (UVPAFUG Motto: “While we’re no longer PAF-specific, we’re still using up old letterhead.”)

To properly interpret Tanner’s NFS news, you have to understand his manic, even zany, presentation style. Tanner had attendees smiling ear-to-ear when not breaking into laughter. He joked that while working at Bell Labs (he has a masters degree in computer science), his extravert score on a personality test set a new record.

Now that he’s moved from engineering into product management his job is to guide the progress and future direction of the products assigned to him. He does this by researching user needs, observing how his products are used, even gathering user suggestions. “I listen to all your suggestions, throw away most, then implement a few. [I’m] like a politician,” he joked.

August Release

Tanner verified what NFS watchers have long observed: The development team plans to do a release every three months with improvements and bug fixes. The beta test for the August release started last Friday. See my upcoming article, “NFS August 2009 Release,” for information.

Tanner disclosed that one change in this release isn’t directly visible to end users. The code that manages data internally, called a database, has been mostly re-written to handle IOUS (Individuals of Unusual Size) better. While this change should result in better performance, there will not be an increase in the number of duplicate individuals that can be combined, which was recently increased from 85 to 150. (See, “Mid-May releases of NFS and Family Tree.”) While warning us that the limit will never be completely removed, Tanner suggested the limit may increase with the November release.

Family Tree

I also learned that the planned role of the FamilySearch Family Tree Project has changed. In fact, it has reverted back to the original purpose for FamilySearch Labs. Family Tree is part of the FamilySearch Labs website, where new ideas, features, and products are developed in a public setting, letting users kick the tires and give feedback. I first reported back in June 2008 that FamilySearch Lab’s Family Tree would eventually replace NFS when FamilySearch (the organization) combined all the pieces onto FamilySearch.org (the website). This was still the case in March 2009, when Tim Cross reported a long list of features necessary before Family Tree could replace the current NFS.

Tanner, however, admitted that it would take too long to make Family Tree complete. Instead, individual features from Family Tree will be moved into NFS. The first feature is the August release’s new Temple Ordinances tab. The Family Tree project will likely sit unchanged for awhile as personnel are used to move desired features into NFS.

Rollout Roadmap

Tanner reported that all non-Asian temples are now using the new Ordinance Recording System (ORS) associated with NFS. In the tables of my article, “Temple Districts Using New FamilySearch,” this statement corresponds with the column labeled, “Process FORs.” This is different from the complete switchover, which corresponds to the column labeled “Temple on NFS.” Users have been warned that the complete switchover is coming by the end of July.

“Remember, I’m a product manager,” quipped Tanner. “I make lots of promises that I don’t keep. All remaining Wasatch Front temples will be done this year. Asia temples are planned for the first half of next year.”

An audience member quizzed Tanner about access for users who are not members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And in his blunt, non-serious manner Tanner shot back, “Don’t you think the system today would make non-members retch?” We all laughed, but realized the degree of truth in his joke. Tanner stated that FamilySearch’s Executive Director was asking intently when non-member access could happen. Tanner told us, “maybe early next year.”

To control the velocity of the non-member rollout, Tanner thought they might use a system like Google Mail’s initial rollout plan. When Google Mail was first released, to use it one had to receive an invitation. Each user could invite one friend to use Google Mail.

Tanner also mentioned plans to combine NFS into the old FamilySearch.org but gave no timeline or details.

Tanner went on to talk extensively about adding support for a “conclusion model.” I will cover that portion of his presentation in an upcoming article. Stay tuned…