From: Tim Sullivan / To: You

To mark the first day of the 2008 National Genealogical Society Conference in Kansas City, Missouri, Tim Sullivan has published a letter to the genealogy community. He highlights several recently released content collections and product enhancements on Ancestry.com, and gives insights into some exciting new projects on the horizon.

Ancestry.com Global Content, Product, and Marketing Update - May 14, 2008

Tim Sullivan, CEO, The Generations Network, Inc.

At the beginning of 2007, Ancestry.com set out to accomplish four fundamental goals.

First, and most importantly, we committed to broaden and deepen the content that we offer our members by digitizing and putting online millions more historical records, both from the United States and from around the world. 

 

Second, we wanted to make it even easier for our members to discover their ancestors in the records we offer, to organize and preserve their personal family histories, and to communicate and collaborate with other members of the Ancestry community.

 

Third, we wanted to introduce the joys of genealogy to millions of new family historians by investing in category-expanding marketing activities around the world.

 

And lastly, we sought to improve our listening skills as a company and to better engage our members in helping shape our products and services. While never satisfied with the speed at which we evolve, I believe we have made substantial progress, and that our recent past and short-term future illustrates some of the most exciting progress we’ve made as a company.

 

New Content on Ancestry.com

Each year, we invest millions of dollars to acquire, digitize, and index new content. Sometimes these collections take years before the fruits of our efforts are realized. Negotiating with content providers, then digitizing and indexing the content, and finally publishing it to our site, is a complex process. In recent years, we think we have fine-tuned our systems to move records through this process and to make them available on Ancestry.com as quickly as we can.

 

In just the last few months, we reached 7 billion names in over 25,000 databases and titles on Ancestry.com. Below are just a few of the U.S. record collections we’ve recently released.

 

Census and Voter Records

• California Voter Registrations (1900-1968) – 30 million names
• New Jersey State Census (1895) – 1.5 million names

Immigration Records

• U.S. Naturalization Records Indexes (1794-1995) – 2.9 million names
• U.S. Passport Applications (1795-1925) – 2.4 million names

Military Records

• U.S. Army, Register of Enlistments (1798-1914) – 1.3 million names
• Headstones Provided for Deceased Union Civil War Veterans (1879-1903) – 170,000 records
• U.S. Navy Cruise Books (1940 onward) – 66,000 records

Birth, Marriage, and Death Records

• Tennessee Marriages (1765-2002) – 6.8 million names
• Missouri Birth, Marriage, and Death Records – 11 million names
• North Carolina Death Collection (1908-2004) – 4.2 million names
• North Carolina Divorce Index (1958-2004) – 2.3 million names

Court, Land, Wills, and Financial Records

• U.S. IRS Tax Assessment Lists (1862-1918) – 8.8 million names
• U.S. General Land Office Records (1796-1907) – 2.3 million names 

U.S. Content Coming Soon

We are also targeting the addition of several new U.S. content collections to Ancestry.com over the next several months. Be on the lookout for:

 

• Historical newspapers – We will soon be doubling the size of our historical newspaper collection with the addition of 20 million images and over 1 billion names. In addition, within the year we will release another installment of newspapers.
• Cook County, Illinois Birth, Marriage, and Death Records (1871-1988) – This collection of vital records includes 24 million names, beginning in 1871 following the great Chicago fire.
• U.S. Yearbook Collection – 6 million names and more than 6,000 yearbooks from various schools across the United States.
• U.S. City Directories – 50 million names and 1 million images.
• Florida State Census (update) – 4 million names added to the Florida State Censuses representing the years 1867, 1875, 1935, and 1945.

These are just a few of the U.S. collections we plan to introduce. Stay tuned to learn what other exciting collections Ancestry.com will offer.

 

International Sites and Collections

 

International Sites

In 2007, Ancestry expanded into four new international markets – Ancestry.de in Germany, Ancestry.it in Italy, Ancestry.fr in France, and Ancestry.se in Sweden. Our international sites, including Ancestry.ca in Canada, Ancestry.co.uk in the United Kingdom, and Ancestry.com.au in Australia, have been wonderfully well received by their respective members, and membership and traffic to these sites have exceeded even our own expectations.

 

Most recently, we have been working on an exclusive agreement with the Shanghai Library to digitize and index their totally unique collection of Chinese family histories (or Jiapu), and we are thrilled to be unveiling a Chinese-language Ancestry site in the coming months. We will also be introducing a Spanish-language Ancestry site to our international mix.

 

New International Content

We have added a host of invaluable international collections surrounding these international markets. Here are just a few of the international collections we now offer on the Ancestry suite of sites:

 

• Drouin Collection of French-Canadian Vital and Church Records (1621-1967) – 37 million names
• Slave Registers of former British Colonial Dependencies (1812-1834) – 2.9 million names
• British Army WWI Medal Rolls Index Cards (1914-1920) – 4.8 million names
• Griffith’s Valuation of Ireland (1848-1864) – 1 million names
• German City Directories (1797-1945) – 32 million names
• Ontario, Canada Births, Marriages, and Deaths – 10.7 million names
• Swedish Emigration Records (1783-1951) – 1.7 million names

International Content to Come

Currently, we are targeting several other international collections to be released within the year, including:

 

• Chinese Jiapu Collection (2000 BC-1950s) – More than 1,200 Chinese family histories containing more than 2 million images in total.
• Bremen Ships Content (1815-1917) – A detailed collection of more than 20,000 birth, death, desertions, and passenger registrations, which complements the existing Bremen content in the U.S. passenger list collection.
• British Army Service Records (1914-1920) – Service records for more than 1.2 million British soldiers who fought in WWI.
• Canadian Passenger Lists (1865-1935) – 8 million names of immigrants and other travelers arriving to Quebec and other major ports during that timeframe.
• French Vital Records (1798-1902) – 12 million names found in original parish and civil records dating from the 1700s through the early 20^th century.
• Deutsche Telecom (1881-1981) – An estimated 70 million names contained in German phone books.
• Australian Free Settlers Collection (1826-1922) – 9 million names of free settlers and travelers to Australia.
• Como Italian Tribunals (1866-1936) – 10 million names in Civil Registration Records from the province of Como.
• Inbound UK Passenger Lists (1878-1960) – 20 million names of those passengers traveling to the UK.

Ancestry.com Site Improvements and Technology

Ancestry.com spends millions of dollars each year to ensure that our sites run efficiently and securely, while investing in functionality and new technologies that improve accuracy and productivity, as well as increase satisfaction of our members. From the performance and security of our 5,000-server data center, to the speed and accuracy of searching and hinting, to keeping the world’s largest online collection of personal history safe, technology is a huge focus. This year, Ancestry.com has several technological improvements in the works to improve the search experience, foster better collaboration, and offer members new ways of doing family history and preserving these life stories.

 

Tree-building Features

In July 2006 we launched Ancestry Member Trees, a free online family tree tool. Since then, Ancestry members worldwide have created more than 6 million family trees. Each day, an average of 10,000 new family trees are posted on Ancestry, with 2 million people added to those trees each week. Members have added more than 550 million people to those trees and uploaded roughly 8 million photos, 3 million sources and millions of stories, comments and notations.

 

The Ancestry Member Tree technology incorporates several features that make it much more than a simple tree building tool, including:

 

• Ancestry Hints – This technology looks across a member’s entire tree and all its associations (parents, grandparents, etc.) for relevant matches in our collection of historical records. In recent months, we have vastly improved the amount of content this hint engine searches, as well as its speed and accuracy. Our hinting technology creates a powerful query that extracts more content, more accurately than a one-dimensional search query. It then surfaces the relevant matches in a convenient hint format, appearing as a little green leaf next to a name in a family tree. Since July 2006, Ancestry subscribers have accepted 85 million hints, including census records, member-contributed photos and stories, vital records and more.
• Hints to other member trees – This feature is one of the newest Ancestry member tree features, as well as one of the most powerful. This hint engine searches through the individuals in a member’s tree to see if that individual is included in other member trees. The hint engine then creates a consolidated “match” that combines what it believes represents the highest-quality information about an individual from a number of member trees. A member can compare the data in this “match” to what he or she already has, or can look at the data included in the underlying trees and sources that make up the “match.” With this tool, members can easily collaborate with others and incorporate another’s tree information as a way to grow their own.
• Privacy – Ancestry member trees also protect the privacy of living persons in ways that other modes of sharing (such as emailing GEDCOM files) do not. Regardless of whether a tree is set to public or personal, we have tools in place designed to hide information about living family members. Also, a member can share his or her tree and elect to display information about the living to only trusted individuals and family members.
• Backup file – Ancestry member trees can also be useful as backup files of your work. Ancestry.com backs up all of its data regularly and creates multiple tape copies that are stored in a secure, granite vault. Ancestry member trees are an excellent way to back up a lifetime of work, in a high-privacy environment.

Search Enhancements

We spent several months this past year refining the Ancestry.com search process in an effort to simplify the search experience and to help our members find what they are looking for more quickly. Earlier this year, several members of the genealogy community tried the new search process and provided feedback that enabled our search team to improve the experience. The new search process includes features such as an image thumbnail view and a type-ahead feature. The thumbnail view, for collections like newspapers and family and local histories, allow you to see the part of the image that include your search terms, allowing you to more quickly zero in on the records that are relevant to your search. The type-ahead feature recognizes if you’re searching for records of someone already in your tree and automatically fills in your search fields with that person’s information.

 

This year, we will be making three further improvements to the Ancestry.com search process:

 

·        We will improve the search engine’s ability to extract data about people from free-text collections, such as newspapers and stories. We plan to make more of this kind of content available, as well as ways to make searching this content easier and more efficient.

·        We will also dramatically improve the search engine’s ability to denote what records have already been attached to a tree.

·        We are developing a content viewer to allow members to view an image and the index simultaneously.

 

Military Memorials

An appropriate addition to the person pages within the Ancestry member trees is the ability to create a family member’s military memorial. Here, a member can create a memorial about their family member’s military service – including branch served, years of service, rank, photos, and more. More than 52,000 military memorials have been created since these memorials were added.

 

AncestryPress

Launched in fall 2007, AncestryPress, our new digital scrapbooking application, allows members to easily turn their Ancestry member tree into a professionally designed, leather-bound book. AncestryPress allows users to preserve and share their family histories with nicely formatted pages, charts, and reports. We’re always working to enhance and improve the functionality of this tool. A new addition to AncestryPress is synchronization with Smugmug and Picasa, which allows members to pull photos from these photo-sharing sites into their family history books.

 

DNA

Also in 2007, Ancestry.com launched DNA testing services of both Y-DNA (paternal) and mtDNA (maternal) lines. This service adds a new dimension and new possibilities to Ancestry.com’s vast set of family history resources. We are currently working to integrate DNA results into the family trees on Ancestry.com – a feature that will allow our members to discover their family history and meet distant relatives in a whole new way through search and hinting.

 

New this month to the DNA side of Ancestry.com, are DNA groups, currently in beta, which allow those who’ve taken DNA tests to join organized social networks or study groups. These networks let users work together to discover genetic connections. For example, people with the last name “Washington” could use their DNA test results to determine how they are all related and to help find others to add their DNA.

 

Products and Upgrades in the Pipeline

Hint Notifications

Within the next several months we will be adding Ancestry Hint email notifications. Simply put, our systems will begin searching 24/7 to see if any matches appear between people in your tree and our content. Our members will be able to choose to receive regular email updates about new matches in their member trees.

 

Household Merge

The Household Merge product enhancement will allow members to merge an entire household into their member tree. Currently, individuals listed in family groupings, such as on census records, are merged into a member tree one at a time. This update will allow users to bring in one, two, ten, even twenty people in one step with appropriate sources, giving you more time for additional searching.

 

Ancestry Community Profile Pages

Very soon, member profile pages in the Ancestry Community tab will see some big changes. Our goal is to make them more usable to those looking to connect with other Ancestry.com members. The new profile pages will give members the option to enter information about their personal interests and ancestral heritage, as well as their research experience. By searching the profile pages, members can locate others in Ancestry Community willing to help others in their family history pursuits.

 

Marketing Update

In addition to our content and product updates, we also remain focused on growing the genealogy category through investments in consumer marketing. We’re currently running a full-scale television advertising campaign on several national cable channels. In conjunction with our television advertising is a large online advertising campaign, including affiliates, search engine optimization, and banner advertising. The results of our advertising efforts have been undeniable. Now, approximately 3 million active members use Ancestry.com worldwide. 

 

We believe that these investments in marketing are essential to grow the genealogy community, and our goal is to introduce millions more people to the joys of family history research in the coming years.

 

The last year or so has been very exciting for Ancestry.com, and we hope that we have provided every member of the genealogy community with a useful and valuable tool to advance their own family history. In turn, we would like to thank everyone that helped us improve and advance our service. We remain committed to adding materially to our very unique collection of online family history content…and to providing our members with a great product.

 

-- Tim Sullivan, CEO, The Generations Network, Inc.

FamilySearch Engages FamilyLink.com for FHLC

For Immediate Release

14 May 2008

FamilySearch Engages FamilyLink.com, Inc. to Add Functionality and Enhancements to Popular Online Family History Library Catalog

SALT LAKE CITY—FamilyLink.com, Inc. has teamed with FamilySearch to improve the user experience of the Family History Library Catalog for millions of people worldwide by adding new Web 2.0 functionality and enhancements. The improvements will also enable users to spend research time more efficiently by directing them to the information that will generate the quickest results.

FamilyLink.com’s improvements to the catalog will make it searchable by major online search engines and allow users to annotate item descriptions—increasing their accuracy and enriching the content.

FamilySearch’s Family History Library Catalog is used extensively by genealogy enthusiasts. It is a window to the vast collection of genealogical resources amassed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints over the past 100 years—millions of microfilms, fiche, and books from 110+ countries throughout the world.

Genealogists use the popular online catalog to see if FamilySearch has any material that can help them in their research. Materials are then requested through one of FamilySearch’s 4,500 local family history centers worldwide.

“The enhancements FamilyLink.com will help make to the Family History Library Catalog will increase its usability and exposure. Beginners will find it particularly easier to navigate, and searching and browsing will be more rewarding,” said Paul Nauta, Manager of Public Affairs, FamilySearch.

Improved Searching

Upgrades to the Family History Library Catalog will allow it to be combed by the major Web search engines. That means Web searches done by millions of family history enthusiasts who may not have been familiar with the rich content of the Family History Library Catalog will now discover exciting new sources to assist them in their genealogy pursuits.

In a typical search of the Family History Library Catalog, users first identify known facts about a family and then go through a step-by-step process to locate records. Newly integrated FamilyLink.com tools will help users better identify information. Guided searches will help users decide what they want to learn about their families, point them to relevant records, help them obtain and search the records, provide clues to more information, and assist them with the application of the new information.

As part of the enhancement, FamilyLink.com will make searches more useful by allowing the user to browse, sort (by popularity, relevance, most used, etc.), and perform multiple searches. A new “probability engine” feature will calculate the likelihood that a particular source contains the desired item. It will also be able to search across someone’s entire family tree to determine which ancestry lines have the highest likelihood of success based on known sources.

“We are excited to work with FamilySearch and to add this extensive catalog to our database collections,” said Paul Allen, CEO, FamilyLink.com, Inc. “We have looked at doing this collaboration for quite a while. We will enhance the catalog by connecting it with new innovative tools, along with the best resources of our WorldVitalRecords.com databases, the FamilyLink.com social networking site, and our We’re Related application in Facebook. Putting all of these resources together will dramatically change the meaning of ‘search’ in genealogy.”

Social Networking

FamilyLink.com will also add an annotation feature that will encourage user contributions and make the catalog much more dynamic and current. Users will be able to add or suggest a new source, enhance an existing source by adding a place (location) or a time period, and rate and review a source based on its usefulness.

Another enhancement to the Family History Library Catalog will be its increased interactivity. Every entry in the catalog will link to an online or digital source, if available. The user will then be able to link directly to the publisher, buy the book, or search for the nearest copy.

“FamilySearch is excited to work with FamilyLink.com to enhance the Family History Library Catalog. They are leaders in the Social Networking space and will greatly enhance and extend the catalog and its usefulness to millions of people,” said Ransom Love, FamilySearch Director of Strategic Relations. “We hope this is the first of many other possible opportunities for FamilySearch to outsource key infrastructure components to innovative companies like FamilyLink.com. They will receive access to key resources to help them grow much quicker and FamilySearch’s assets will be upgraded and extended in return.”

“We know that search traffic will increase on both the FamilyLink services and FamilySearch’s site when users discover the new guided search tools,” said FamilyLink.com President David Lifferth. “Last month we had over 700,000 unique visitors and 8.5 million page views. We are predicting that these numbers will more than double after the first quarter of use.”

Media Contact
Paul Nauta
FamilySearch Public Affairs Manager
nautapg@familysearch.org

Whitney Ransom
Corporate Communications Director
FamilyLink.com, Inc.
http://www.worldvitalrecords.com
whitney@familylink.com

About FamilySearch

FamilySearch is a nonprofit organization that maintains the world’s largest repository of genealogical resources. Patrons may access resources online at FamilySearch.org or through the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, and over 4,500 family history centers in 70 countries. FamilySearch is a trademark of Intellectual Reserve, Inc. and is registered in the United States of America and other countries.

About FamilyLink.com, Inc.

FamilyLink.com, Inc. is a family of services that includes WorldVitalRecords.com, FamilyLink.com, and the We're Related application on Facebook. The focus of the company is to provide innovative tools to connect families.

About WorldVitalRecords.com

Founded in 2006 by Paul Allen and several key members of the original Ancestry.com team, WorldVitalRecords.com, Inc. provides affordable access to genealogy databases and family history tools used by more than 600,000 monthly visitors. The site registers 9.4 million monthly page views and has more than 25,000 subscribers. With thousands of databases—including birth, death, military, census, and parish records—WorldVitalRecords.com makes it easy to fill in missing information in your family tree. Some of its partners include Everton Publishers, Quintin Publications, Archive CD Books Australia, Gould Genealogy, Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild, Archive CD Books Canada, The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc., SmallTownPapers®, Accessible Archives, Genealogical Publishing Company, Find My Past, Godfrey Memorial Library, Find A Grave, and FamilySearch. Investors include vSpring Capital and several angel investors.

FamilySearch Teams with Footnote.com: Civil War Era Records

For Immediate Release

14 May 2008

FamilySearch Teams with Footnote.com to

Publish Historic Civil War Era Records

1860 U.S. Census and Civil War Pensions Index are first projects

SALT LAKE CITY—FamilySearch announced today its records access agreement with Footnote.com to publish two significant Civil War Era databases online—the 1860 U.S. Census and Civil War Pensions Index. The two relevant collections will provide free online access to millions of names of individuals from the 1860 to 1865 period in the United States. The completed databases will expand FamilySearch’s growing, free U.S. Census collection online and Footnote’s Civil War Collection.

The censuses and Civil War pension files are the most used collections of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). The 1860 census provides a snapshot of families living during the Civil War Era. The index to the Civil War pension applications allows searchers to quickly see if a Civil War veteran or his widow applied for a pension—which can lead to rich family history information contained in the original pension document.

Under the agreement, FamilySearch will provide the digital images of the original documents for the 1860 U.S. Census, and Footnote.com will provide the indexes to both the 1860 U.S. Census and Civil War Pensions. FamilySearch plans to publish the indexes for both of these collections for free this year at FamilySearch.org. The images of the original documents will also be viewable at Footnote.com or accessed for free through the 4,500 FamilySearch family history centers located worldwide.

As segments of the collections are completed, users will be able to search them at http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsearch.

Civil War Pensions Index

Ten percent (3 million) of the U.S. population served or fought in the U.S. Civil War, and 2 percent (620,000) died—more American casualties than The American Revolutionary War, World War I, World War II, The War against Switzerland, The War of 1812, and the Vietnam War combined. If soldiers or their families applied for a pension from the government, an index card for the pension application should exist.

The index also extends beyond the Civil War to include veterans who served between 1861 to 1917 in the Spanish-American War, the Philippine Insurrection, the Boxer Rebellion, and the regular establishment.

Each card usually lists the soldier's full name, rank, company and regiment, when he enlisted and discharged, and provides a certificate number required to order a copy of the original pension application from NARA. The completed index will allow users to search on a name, or browse by state, arm of service (infantry, cavalry, militia, etc.), regiment, and company to locate individual records.

1860 U.S. Census

The 1860 U.S. Census index will allow users to quickly search the names of 31 million people captured on the census. Additional information includes the age, sex, color, place of birth, and marriage status. Slave schedules show the name of the slave owner, number of slaves owned, number of freed slaves, and the age, color, and gender of the slaves. The names of the slaves were not included in the 1860 Census.

“These record collections provide a valuable view of America during a critical time in its history,” said Russ Wilding, CEO of Footnote.com. “Together with the other Civil War documents on Footnote.com, visitors are able to piece together a picture of our history that few have seen before.”

Ransom Love, director of Strategic Relationships for FamilySearch, added, “Footnote is targeting U.S. historical records and building their Civil War Collection. FamilySearch wants to provide free indexes to all of the U.S. Censuses online. This joint project helps bring both companies closer to their respective goals.”

For further information, please contact:

Paul Nauta
FamilySearch Public Affairs
nautapg@familysearch.org

Justin Schropfer
Justin@footnote.com
Footnote Director of Marketing

About FamilySearch

FamilySearch is a nonprofit organization that maintains the world's largest repository of genealogical resources. Patrons may access resources online at FamilySearch.org or through the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, and over 4,500 family history centers in 70 countries. FamilySearch is a trademark of Intellectual Reserve, Inc. and is registered in the United States of America and other countries.

About Footnote

Footnote.com is a subscription website that features searchable original documents, providing users with an unaltered view of the events, places and people that shaped the American nation and the world. At Footnote.com, all are invited to come share, discuss, and collaborate on their discoveries with friends, family, and colleagues. For more information, visit www.footnote.com.

Locating Original Records from the IGI

A recent post on the LDS-GENEALOGY RootsWeb mailing list asked how to find the original records for some entries in the FamilySearch International Genealogical Index (IGI). The poster was J.K. (Is this a good time to start a rumor about the Harry Potter author?) J.K. knew and had already done the basic steps shown below (given for the FamilySearch website as it exists today).

• The batch number itself tells you something about the source. Look up the meaning of the batch number at
  wiki.familysearch.org/en/IGI_Batch_Number_Descriptions or Hugh Wallis' IGI Batch Numbers website.
• IGI sources fall into two major types: extraction projects and submissions by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. If the batch was extracted, continue with these steps to find the original source.
• To see what source information the IGI has about the batch, you must view the search results for an individual in the batch.
• Start at www.familysearch.org
• Click on the Search tab, then on International Genealogical Index on the left.
• Enter the Batch Number AND the Region and click Search. The result is a list of everyone in that batch. With or without a surname, this is a useful way of identifying other individuals of interest.
• To see source information, click on the name of any individual in the batch.
• At the bottom of the results, you will see a message and source information. Here's an example for batch C083701 in the British Isles:

---

Messages:

Extracted birth or christening record for the locality listed in the record. The source records are usually arranged chronologically by the birth or christening date.

---

Source Information:

Batch No.:	Dates:	Source Call No.:	Type:	Printout Call No.:	Type:
C083701 Sheet: 00	1814-1837	0825384 (RG4 1552)	Film	1037038	Film

---

A description of each of these items in found in the FamilySearch Wiki. If a source call number is present, click on it to see the entry in the Family History Library catalog (FHLC) for the source. "If the IGI record has a batch number, but does not have a call number, contact Family History Library Support for assistance in obtaining the call number."

Use Brute Force

I explored, here, a brute-force method of finding the source records without contacting support (1-866-406-1830 in the United States or support@familysearch.org). While this method might conceivably work, I don't really know if it ever does. It certainly didn't work in the case I tried.

Let's walk through J.K.'s request as an example. J.K. found the christenings of Mary Ann and Elizabeth Whitcome Nichols, children of Samuel and Catherine Nichols on 4-Oct-1830 in Eccles, Lancashire, England. The IGI source information gave nothing but the batch number: C017516.

---

Messages:

Extracted birth or christening record for the locality listed in the record. The source records are usually arranged chronologically by the birth or christening date.

---

Source Information:

Batch No.:	Dates:	Source Call No.:	Type:	Printout Call No.:	Type:
C017516 Sheet:					Film

---

J.K. searched parish records for St. Mary's and didn't find these entries. What, then, was the source?

I decided my best hope was to find the printout catalog entry, since I learned from our C083701 example above that the printout catalog entry listed both the batch number (in the form C-8370-1) and the source film number.

• The first thing I tried was doing a keyword search for the batch number. I searched for both C017516 and C-1751-6 but didn't find either one.
• The next thing I tried was a place search for Eccles, part of Lancashire.
• I assumed the extracted record printout would be considered an index, so I selected the topic England, Lancashire, Eccles - Church records - Indexes. I was looking for christening records including the year 1830 and excluding St. Mary's. Fortunately, there were only 7 results, few enough to check manually.
  1. Baptist: batch 09176-1, source 0560880 item 8.
  2. Batch 00702-1, source 0093727.
  3. Monton Green Presbyterian: 08829-1, 0560880 item 6-7.
  4. Wesleyan Methodist: 08830-1, 0560880 item 9.
  5. Not an extraction printout.
  6. Monton Green Presbyterian: C-8829-1, 560880.
  7. Wesleyan Methodist: C-8830-1, 560880.
  None of these have the right batch number. Unless the batch number changed when the format changed, none of these is the desired choice.
• Assuming the original record is held by the Family History Library, I repeated the place search but picked the topic England, Lancashire, Eccles - Church records. Of the 28 results, all but the following can be eliminated because they don't have 1830 christenings or they are for St. Mary's:
  * Bishop's transcripts for Eccles, 1613-1864  Church of England. Parish Church of Eccles (Lancashire)
  * Bishop's transcripts for Pendlebury, 1844-1855  Church of England. Chapelry of Pendlebury (Lancashire)
  * Bishop's transcripts for Pendleton, 1813-1820  Church of England. Chapelry of Pendleton (Lancashire)
  * Bishop's transcripts for Walkden-Moor, 1852-1859  Church of England. Chapelry of Walkden-Moor (Lancashire)
  * Parish registers for St. Peter's Church, Swinton, 1791-1928  Church of England. St. Peter's Church (Swinton, Lancashire)
  * The registers of the parish church of Eccles in the county of Lancaster  Hodder, A. E. (Andrew Edward)
  Unfortunately, there is no way to know if any of these are the desired source without methodically searching each one.

All things considered, I think I could wait for a response from FamilySearch support.

Catholics and Mormons and Genealogy

Most of you know a recent Vatican letter singled out and prohibiting the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (hereinafter, "the Salt Lake Church") from accessing parish records of the Roman Catholic Church (hereinafter, "the Roman Church"). I've had several thoughts on the subject that I wish to share.

• As a long-time lover of puns, I couldn't help but smile when I read that the Vatican regarded the Salt Lake Church* practice of proxy-baptisms for the dead with "grave reservations" (emphasis added).

• The official policy of the Salt Lake Church is that members seek proxy ordinances ("temple work") only for their own ancestors. Yet some members have done temple work for famous historical figures, including Catholic popes and saints. If these wayward members had followed the instructions of their leaders, I doubt the Catholic response would have been so severe. They have done a grave disservice to us all.

• According to some reports, temple work for popes has included marriages ("sealings") for known, lifelong celibates! I am embarrassed and aghast at such bald-faced disregard for the truth. To all you, my friends of other faiths, may I assure you that neither dishonesty nor disobedience is condoned by the Salt Lake Church or its faithful.

• It is my understanding that this is not a new Catholic policy, nor is it specific to the Salt Lake Church (despite the Church being singled out in this letter) and that the Salt Lake Church has always been denied access in most parishes. As an increasing number of parishes have liberalized access policies, we should not be surprised that the Vatican has found it necessary to reiterate a long-standing policy.

• We have to remember that these are records of the holy sacraments of the Roman Church, that the Salt Lake Church does not recognize the efficacy of Catholic sacraments and, in fact, will re-do their own versions of the sacraments ("ordinances") of baptism, confirmation, Holy Orders (ordination to the priesthood), the second sacrament of healing (anointing with consecrated oil) and marriage. Little wonder that the Roman Church should take steps to prevent this.

• The Salt Lake Church itself restricts access of its own ordinance records to its own members. On FamilySearch.org, a person must register as a member of the Salt Lake Church or the website excludes the ordinance records that are part of the International Genealogy Index (IGI). New FamilySearch will not be released to the general public until the ability to hide ordinance data is added to the program.

• Thank you, my Catholic blogger friends, for your kind, sensitive, supportive responses.

  Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak writes, "As a Catholic myself, this really disappoints me... Now, Catholics around the world will have a tougher time of tracing their roots." She explains that the Salt Lake Church's practices don't bother her because she doesn't believe in the Mormon faith and notes that the Salt Lake Church itself believes the ordinances are of no effect to anyone that doesn't accept them.

  Craig Manson of the GeneaBlogie writes, "As both of my regular readers know, I am a Catholic... Catholics and our faith are actually strengthened in a way by knowing and understanding our past and appreciating our ancestors. Curiously, we have the Mormons to thank for that."

  I have to echo his final thought on the subject: "All being said, this is a most unfortunate turn of events for all. When it comes to genealogy, we all need each other."

• In an interview broadcast on KSL-TV tonight, the Most Reverend John C. Wester, Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City said that the Vatican letter was not aimed at individual family inquiries.

  "If an individual wants to approach a parish and say, 'My grandfather, my great-grandfather was baptized here and I'd like to have a record,' then the priest or deacon or the staff person will happily look it up and fill out a copy of a form, the baptismal record, and give it to them," he said.

  Let's hope this interpretation is universal across the Roman Church.

• I hope the two churches can reach some acceptable solution. If nothing else, I hope the Roman Church acts to make copies of all its local records for safe keeping. Too many records in the world are perishing.

• Thinking about the sacredness of church records reminds me of a story I heard from BYU professor and Spanish genealogy expert, George R. Ryskamp. During a research trip to Spain his group found an area in which none of the parishes had extant records save one. Upon inquiry they learned the story of a parish priest caught in the middle of a Spanish civil war. Roving military factions laid waste the parish churches and records of any parish pledging allegiance to another faction. In this bloody commotion one priest gathered up all his records and hid them, burying them in the ground. When an enemy militia came to burn the church, the records were nowhere to be found. The priest suffered death rather than disclosing the location of the records.

If Catholics and Mormons* can all feel the sacred character of these priceless records and the people they represent, surely we can find a way to protect them from perishing, and sensitively unseal their contents in a fashion that can turn the hearts of children to their fathers and reveal the hearts of the fathers to their children, lest all our genealogical fervor be wasted.

* The style guide of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints instructs editors not to use "Mormon Church" or "LDS Church." The term "Mormons" is an acceptable term for Church members. For abbreviated references, the style guide encourages use of "the Church" or "the Church of Jesus Christ." As Ben pointed out in his comment, the former is ambiguous in this article. The latter is hardly an abbreviation. I can't think of any terms that are not prejudicial to one church or the other. Consequently, I've updated this article to identify the two Churches by their headquarters. My apology to any that find this compromise offensive.

New FamilySearch News for 30-April-2008

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

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

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

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

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

NFS Record Search pilot updated

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

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

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

http://search.labs.familysearch.org

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

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

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

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

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

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

NFS Family Tree pilot updated

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

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

Personal Ancestral File Problems

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

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

The Ancestry Insider Revealed

Ancestry Employees Get First Look (Take 2)

Following up on my original post last week, residents of Utah Valley got their first hint of a new project under development. The Generations Network employees were seen over the weekend sporting new T-shirts we received in appreciation for the first week of alpha testing. On the front, the shirts have either "Luke, I indexed your father" or "Are you the key master?". The reverse side has the Ancestry.com logo followed by the words, "World Archives Project."

So while I can't fill in all the blanks yet, here's last week's post partially filled in.

This [21-April-2008] Tim Sullivan introduced Generations Network employees to the World Archives Project, Ancestry's name for its v________ indexing initiative....

Understanding that things could change before its release, here's what it currently looks like:

[---STAY TUNED---]

For comparison, here's the FamilySearch Indexing program:

The slogan for Ancestry's World Archives Project is ____ __ ____ ___ _____'_ _______ _____. ... To illustrate the concept visually, the company has some p_______ with the p_____ r______. Here's an example:

[---STAY TUNED---]

Congratulations to Randy Seaver for interpreting the clues and figuring out the gist of my post. Stay tuned as this story unfolds.

The Ancestry Insider Unveiled

After the Ancestry Insider spotlighted the staff of Family Tree Magazine, assistant editor Grace Dobush wrote,

Wow, thanks for writing about us! But now we're really curious—what do you look like Simpsonized?

Well, I wouldn't do this for just anyone. And I've not had very good luck with the Simpsonize Me website. But after realizing my pseudonym was more famous than I, it felt like the time had come to unveil my likeness.

So without further ado...

So, for anyone out there who happens to know what the non-Simpsonized me looks like, what do you think? Does it look like me or no? Stop by my blog and vote in the poll in the right-hand column.

Ancestry Poised to Release DNA Groups

Participants in Relative Genetics DNA Groups received notification recently that Ancestry is ready to move their DNA Group projects from the Relative Genetics website to the DNA Ancestry website. This is scheduled to occur on 30-April-2008. The Relative Genetics website will remain available through 1-July-2008, although any changes made there in May will not be replicated to the Ancestry website.

The notification noted that

• The DNA Ancestry groups will start out with just one project administrator. Co-admins must join the project after which they can be given administrator status.
• Default privacy settings will show your name in match results unless you login and change the privacy settings to anonymous.
• Relative Genetics customers that have opted out of the transfer to DNA Ancestry are shown in the member list as "opt out #". No other information about these individuals will be transferred to DNA Ancestry.
• Only projects with 3 or more members will be transferred.
• Participants are recommended to export their project prior to the migration as a personal backup.

This will complete the transition from Relative Genetics to DNA Ancestry that began back in June-2007.

Spring

When I debuted my fall-themed header on the blog website, I intended on changing it with each season. But autumn turned to winter and I never got a winter scene composed. Spring is now displacing winter and the blossoms and buds in Utah Valley are completely enthralling. Inspired, yesterday morning I set about creating a new website header.

While I can no longer hold a camera steady, I took camera and tripod into the yard and took some pictures of the beautiful new green on the Elm tree and the awesome blossoms on our Bradford Pear. I had my wife help me take pictures of her friend's pink plum blossoms to add some color. Today I put it all together and the website now sports my new spring-themed header. If you get a moment and you can keep your expectations low, stop by and take a look.

My Secret Identity

I had a sobering thought today. If I should reveal my real name here, it would mean nothing to any of you. If I were to publish my photo, none of you would recognise me! The few people—coworkers, family and friends—that would know me by name or face already know I'm the Ancestry Insider. My pseudonym is more famous than I am!

That put the ego where it belongs.

Serendipity in Genealogy: And the Telly Goes to...

It's coincidence, hunch, synchronicity, fortuitous luck, guidance, paranormal, spiritual, karma, ESP, visitation, life-after-death, fate, divinity, genetic memory, providence, intuition, Deity, inspiration, psychic, revelation, the force, subconscious reasoning, numeracy, vision, sixth sense, collective unconscious, dreams, reincarnation, educated guess, inner voice, out-of-body journey, mystical, ghost, chance, acausal, non-mechanical reality, portent, omen, or "the sheer cussed awfulness—or wonder—of things." (See Henry Z. Jones, Jr., Psychic Roots: Serendipity & Intuition in Genealogy, p. 81.)

We call it Serendipity in Genealogy.

And the Telly Goes to...

Congratulations to Roots Television, an online video channel covering all aspects of genealogy, which has been recognized in its first year with four Telly Awards. One Telly recognized "Roots Books: Psychic Roots," a talk show interview with Hank Jones. Host Sharon DeBartolo Carmack and Jones discuss Jones' books, Psychic Roots: Serendipity & Intuition in Genealogy and More Psychic Roots: Further Adventures in Serendipity & Intuition in Genealogy.

I recommend you watch the program, as Jones shares several of the best stories from his books. Here's one of his favorites.

Serendipity in Genealogy

For years Reverend Shuster wanted to visit the hometown of one of his Shuster ancestors in another state, but his ministerial duties had always kept him too busy. After years of trying to find the time, he was at last able to make the trip. He hoped to visit the town's old graveyard and see if his ancestor's tombstone still existed.

Upon arrival in town Reverend Shuster's first order of business was to check out the cemetery, which turned out to be rather large. He found the sexton and inquired about the location of his ancestor's tombstone. Amazingly, the sexton knew exactly where that particular grave was located.

When the Reverend mentioned how surprised he was that the sexton knew the location so readily, the sexton replied that Reverend Shuster was the 5th person that day to ask about that grave.

Amazingly, the Reverend had finally made his trip to the town on the very day that a Shuster Family Reunion was taking place at a location adjacent to the cemetery! This serendipitous timing allowed him to make contact and establish relations with loads of extended family members.

You can view part 1 of the 5 parts above. To see the remaining parts (or if you can't view the video above), go to the Roots Television website: Roots Books: Psychic Roots.

Serendipity in Genealogy: The Lost Shoe

This is another in the Ancestry Insider's series called Serendipity in Genealogy.

"...One of my cousins was trying to locate our great-grandmother's grave in the cemetery in Garden City (Finney County) Kansas while on their way to Colorado for a vacation.

"After searching for quite a while, they were unable to locate it and decided to go on down the road. When they went to get into the car, they noticed their daughter had lost a shoe so they went back into the cemetery to find it. It was found -- on the gravestone of our great-grandmother!"

By Charles E. Templer in Overland Park, Kansas, USA

Previously published in RootsWeb Review, 25 October 2006, Vol. 9, No. 43.

New FamilySearch Update for Earth Day 2008

In honor of Earth Day, I thought I'd recycle some old New FamilySearch (NFS) rollout rumors. But then some new ones came in, so I won't have to. Here's the news and the new rumors.

Dallas Texas, Melbourne Australia and Perth Australia all went live today, 22-Apr-2008.

Brisbane Australia is currently closed for cleaning. While closed they will be upgraded to NFS. They will reopen on 7-May-2008.

Halifax Nova Scotia has been told they will go live at the end of May. I'm guessing 27-May-2008.

The Hague, Netherlands received their 4 month notification on 21-Apr-2008. Nauvoo Illinois will also go live in 4 month, placing them about Aug-2008. From this we can infer that all of the temples that have already been announced will be live before then. That is, unless they are being held until the I.O.U.S. problem is fixed.

No news about Seattle as of 21-Apr-2008.

Want to see when your area will get NFS? I've filled in my guesses for over 25 temples that were in transition at the time of the rollout hold. See the latest map and tables at Temple Districts Using New FamilySearch.

Ancestry Employees Get First Look

This morning Tim Sullivan introduced Generations Network employees to the _________ _________ Project, Ancestry's name for its v________ _________ initiative.

While Sullivan gave employees permission to talk about it outside the company, 2 minutes later more careful heads prevailed and we decided we should wait. Since electronically you can't see the twinkle in my eye with which I write this article, let me make it clear that I'm not being critical; I'm using the situation to have some fun with you.

The __________ tool was to enter Alpha release today and employees were asked to spend several hours this week trying it out and giving feedback. Understanding that things could change before its release, here's what it currently looks like:

[---CENSORED---]

For comparison, here's the FamilySearch Indexing program:

The slogan for Ancestry's _________ _________ Project is ________ ________ ________ ________. (I like the phrase: "Everybody deserves to be remembered." Unfortunately, a cremation urn company already has a similar trademark.) To illustrate the concept visually, the company has some ________ with _________ . Here's an example:

[---CENSORED---]

Employees received a postcard sized example and a gray wrist band inscribed with "Ancestry.com" and the project name.

Stay tuned for more information.

Family Tree Magazine Staff

This is one in a series of encyclopedia articles describing people, products and companies in the genealogy industry. When you hear a noted genealogist's name, do you find yourself thinking, "I know I know that name," but you can't quite get the ol' noggin to access the data? I'm right there with you! For that reason, these articles are.

They had me the moment they listed my blog on their Genealogy Insider blog. But the staff at Family Tree Magazine continue to do little things that endear them to me.

Family Tree Magazine staff:
Grace Dobush, assistant editor;
Kathy Dezarn, art director;
Allison Stacy, editor;
and Diane Haddad, managing editor.

First let me introduce them using a photograph from their holiday greeting in December-2007. Pictured (left to right) are Grace Dobush, assistant editor; Kathy Dezarn, art director; Allison Stacy, editor; and Diane Haddad, managing editor.

In January-2008 Grace wrote about her first trip to a Family History Center where she discovered she gets seasick using a microfilm reader. My first thought was... Well, actually my first thought was, "this is a young group." But my very next thoughts took me back to days at the Salt Lake Family History Library with my father and mother. We arrived shortly after the library opened in the morning. And we stayed until late afternoon when we were so tired we had started getting seasick as the microfilm images zoomed past. Now my father is gone and those are shared memories never to be forgotten.

Family Tree Magazine staff, Simpsonized:
Grace, Kathy, Allison and Diane.

In August-2007 the staff came across the Simpsonize Me website and posted Simpsonized portraits of the whole crew. I've rearranged their positions to correspond with their holiday greeting. What do you think? Do their Simpsonized selves match their real selves?

Earlier this month Diane appeared on morning television in San Diego to explain Tamagotchi family trees. No, if you don't know what a Tamagotchi is, I'm not going to explain it. Quoting Diane,

For more on Tamagotchi trees and how kids can research their own families, watch the video (remember, I woke up before the crack of dawn) on San Diego's NBC affiliate Web site.

I was hoping for Tamagotchized portraits, but no luck.

Ancestry News From Winning to Wearying

Ancestry News Catchup

RootsWeb SSDI Used in Fraud Scheme

Tracy June Kirkland, 42, allegedly used RootsWeb.com to find the names, Social Security numbers and birth dates of newly deceased people, randomly call credit card companies to find an account, and then have the mailing address—and in some cases the account name—changed to her own.

RootsWeb spokesman Mike Ward says the company sometimes hears rumors or speculation about people using the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) for identity theft, but this is the first prosecution he's aware of.

"The reason the Social Security Administration has it out there is to prevent fraud," says Ward. The government produces the Death Index so that banks and other lenders can prevent people from applying for credit using a dead person's information. Kirkland allegedly exploited a weakness in current safeguards by taking over accounts that were already open.

(This report is adapted from "Feds Charge California Woman With Stealing IDs From the Dead," by Kevin Poulsen.)

Vote MyFamily.com for Webby Awards, Win a Nokia Smart Phone

TGN's MyFamily.com website has been nominated for a Webby Award. For information on voting, go to the MyFamily Blog. The posting there drew some very interesting user responses.

Registering on the Webby website before 1-May-2008 automatically registers you in a contest to win one of ten Nokia N95 smart phones. Registration requires disclosure of your e-mail address and creation of a username. For me the biggest risk was not Nokia getting my e-mail address. It was the time I wasted tooling around the nominated websites. I spent 2 hours in only 1 of the 70 categories. I gravitated right to the "Weird" category under "Connections." Highly recommended. Even if you don't have a weird sense of humor, you'll still enjoy the "Cute Overload" nominee.

Ancestry/Ford Sweepstakes

After the Ancestry/Buick Sweepstakes, I guess Ford didn't want to be outdone. Enter the Ancestry/Ford "Meeting David Wilson" Sweepstakes for a change to win one of 200 Ancestry.com DNA test kits or 800 Ancestry.com 30-day subscriptions. Your entry must be submitted before 21-June-2008 at www.fordurban.com/ancestry.

TGN Hiring

Lots of job postings have shown up recently for the Generations Network (TGN). One is an Indexing Project Coordinator to coordinate with international keying vendors. I'm gland TGN isn't planning on using volunteer indexers exclusively. Also interesting to me, 4 positions are located in San Jose, including a software engineer position to work on DNA Ancestry. The pool of available software engineers in Utah is small, but expanding engineering work beyond the valley is always met with suspicion.

Another TGN Employee Blogger

I came across another TGN employee blogger, Cameron Evans on the Ecuablog. I harp a lot on these pages about the need for employers to implement a specific blogging policy. I assume TGN feels its existing employee policies are sufficient, which they are. My agenda, however, is prevention of abuse so that TGN in particular and employers in general don't have problems that cause them to forbid employees from blogging about work-related topics. Take the case of Ecuablog. Evans' post of 28-March-2008. In relating the story of getting hired, he mentions the specific amount of a hiring bonus. Now most people know that any public disclosure of any part of one's compensation package is against policy in any company. But something about blogging makes people forget they are in a public forum. And once out there, it propagates forever.

In my opinion, companies should have a good company blogging policy as a substitute for a good slap up the side of the head.

"Hello, McFly. Anybody home?! Nothing is private on the web. Nothing!"

TGN Recognized by Utah financial group

TGN was recognized by the MountainWest Capital Network in a luncheon held 20-March-2008.

Generations Network (Ancestry.com), provider of online genealogical research, was recognized for a successful $300 million dollar deal (purchase of a majority interest) by Spectrum Equity Investors in December 2007. David Sampson, Controller of The Generations Network, accepted the award on behalf of the company.

David Sampson, TGN Controller, in tan coat.

A previously undisclosed detail of the TGN/Spectrum deal was made public in a press release from Hercules Technology Growth Capital, Inc.

[Hercules participated] in $150 million syndicate financing for The Generations Network, Inc., an online network of family history Web sites. Hercules provided $17.5 million in debt and $500,000 equity capital in December 2007.

Last Items

You probably don't care about the following items, but I'm on a roll! I'm clearing my files of TGN mentions in the news.

• Ryan Bonnett, IT Administrator for TGN, was quoted in a press release about a storage monitoring product, 3PAR and Tek-Tools. Hypothetically speaking, would such a product make it possible to detect storage-full conditions that would prevent users from uploading images to... say... the MyFamily.com website? Hypothetically.
• This bullet is definitely boring. Ancestry and TGN are mentioned several times in a press release titled "Interevco Launches Web Site Incubator Division." Unless you're looking for a firm to help you increase your web-based advertising, this one's a real yawner.

And with that, I'm caught up. Whew!

New FamilySearch Update for Tax Day 2008

You know what they say about death and taxes. The rollout of New FamilySearch (NFS) is nothing but sure. After the rollout resumed last week (Bismarck and Monterrey México) following a 7 week delay I was eager to see if anything would happen today. Happily, it did! Oaxaca México and Toronto.

After 2 weeks of releases, I've updated the rollout table and map in my article, Temple Districts Using New FamilySearch. Release Target dates in the Temple Districts in Transition table can all be thrown out the window.

NFS Rollout Resumes

FamilySearch quietly resumed the rollout of New FamilySearch (NFS) this past week. On LDS Tech Bryce Fifield reported,

Bismarck Temple Live.

Just got back from the Bismarck ND temple. They are using nFS. Ordinances performed were online before I got home from the Temple.

Sources at FamilySearch confirmed that Bismarck and Monterrey, México were activated on 8-April-2008. These are the first temples activated since the delay was announced in February. (See New FamilySearch Delayed.) The cause of the delay remains unspecified and speculation is rampant.

TempleReady Replacement

In a comment posted to my article PAF, NFS and the Princess Bride  new blogger Shoebox Genealogy said,

I've heard several reasons for the suspension of the rollout from different researchers and other professionals, but the IOUS situation was new to me. Are there other factors that are slowing the rollout? The theories I've heard:

1) Poor reception of the new system by professional genealogists
2) Confused masses
2) Realization that more features need to be added before the general public gets it
3) Reworking the combine algorithm
4) Not enough server capacity
5) General authorities not approving of the current version
6) Waiting for third party software to assist in the synchronization of files
7) Aliens have held FamilySearch developers hostage and are demanding the recipe for fry sauce before releasing them.

Okay, so I haven't heard the aliens one, but a different researcher walks into our office nearly every day with a "Hey, I just talked to a family search guy at the FHL and he told me they're having XYZ problem and THAT'S the reason it's not rolling out"

As for Shoebox' first 3 items, we all need to remember that version 0.9 is primarily a replacement for TempleReady. FamilySearch knows NFS needs to be reworked before it is released to professional genealogists and the general public. Remarkably, the 1.0 version is being developed publicly and everyone's feedback is welcome. See Family Tree at FamilySearch Labs.

Since the resumption of the rollout is not coincident with a new release of NFS, I discount items 3 and 5. There are still no third party software, so item 6 is not the case, although third party synchronization will alleviative IOUS problems.

The Church has been accused of liberal views regarding illegal aliens, so I doubt item 7. (That was an attempt at humor. ;-)

IOUS and IOUF

That leaves IOUS and item 4, server capacity. One prevalent online rumor combines these two possible causes, claiming that the rollout to the Mesa Arizona Temple in early February resulted in IOUS that overwhelmed server capacity. If that is the case, then the resumption of the rollout may be possible because of increased server capacity. If that is the case, NFS users should see an improvement in NFS performance.

NFS Product Manager, Jim Greene, defined IOUS and IOUF at the recent BYU genealogy conference. An IOUS, or Individual Of Unusual Size, is a person in NFS composed by combining hundreds or thousands of separate records. An IOUF, or Individual Of Unusual Fan-out, is a person related to hundreds or thousands of individuals that presumably need to be combined.

NFS help Document ID: 101056 addresses IOUS.

new FamilySearch: Large record warning

Problem

When you select individual details, a yellow warning icon (triangle with an exclamation point enclosed) shows up in the heading bar of the information screen indicating an inidividual [sic] record of unusual size. (IOUS)

Resolution

This is a known issue. This individual has more relationships than FamilySearch can display. This individual has other relationships to parents, spouses, and children that are saved in FamilySearch but cannot be displayed. This includes relationships that you may have contributed. We are working on a way to make these records more manageable. This information has not been lost, but FamilySearch will not be able to display it correctly until a future release.

For an example, search for person KWJY-BPD, Joseph Smith, the first prophet of the Church.

Joseph Smith, Jr. entry shows Large Record Warning icon

Prognosis

Greene admitted that the Church underestimated the size to which IOUS and IOUF would grow and the software needs to be adjusted accordingly. The regular schedule of NFS releases seems to be the mid-point of each calendar quarter, so upcoming releases can be expected on the 15th of May, August and November. I think it is safe to assume that until the problem of IOUS is fixed, the rollout will continue on hold for temple districts with large numbers of members descended from early Mormon ancestors. Sorry, Las Vegas.

If something else was holding the rollout, it apparently has been fixed and the rollout has resumed in other districts. Bookmark Temple Districts Using New FamilySearch to track the ongoing rollout.