20 March 2011

FamilySearch Family Tree: Sneaking up on us?

NOTE: This article contains screenshots which can be clicked for a larger view of FamilySearch.org website changes.

After reading GenealogyStar James Tanner's post from earlier today I decided to do a little digging around on FamilySearch.org and see what is new.

Keep reading for the secret of how to view the new FamilySearch Family Tree before anyone else knows it is online!

First off I have to say that I notice little changes almost every time I go to the site which happen so often that I think several things get missed by us bloggers.

The biggest change I noticed today was a link which did not appear at FamilySearch.org, but appeared when I went to the wiki - "Family Tree" (the first link next to FamilySearch logo)


Clicking on this Family Tree link takes me to https://familysearch.org/tree/
This page asks me to log in, but that function is not working for me so I am stuck there, but I noticed something...


Above the sign in box are three links: Tree, Ancestor, and Search.
What could this all be?

It seems like new.familysearch.org is closer to being part of FamilySearch.org than I guessed.

Some websites load annoying boxes asking you to authorize or log in in order to continue viewing the site. I have a trick for you, but it is hard to time - click the stop button repeatedly right after clicking refresh and before the annoying log in box appears. This way you will be able to see stuff otherwise restricted. In this manner you can trick the system into letting you preview the 3 different tabs. :) hehe... I'd tell you what I saw, but I'll let you try it.
I'm excited...

Oh, and if you want to do it the easy way you can log in by clicking https://familysearch.org/, signing in at the link on the upper right of that FamilySearch.org page. Then add /tree so that you are at http://www.familysearch.org/tree. The pop-up log in does not work for me, but if you log in the way I just explained you get access to the Family Tree already. Wow!

I am going to give you a few minutes to take this all in... Okay, I can't help it anymore, I'm going to do another post with screenshots of the Family Tree.
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A couple other website update tid-bits:

VIEWER
Recently I spoke to Brian Pugh for more details on the HTML viewer he mentioned in his speech at RootsTech 2011. Going to any historic document you will see the document within what we call a viewer. There have been some good blog discussions lately about ways this viewer could be updated in the near future. Brian was able to tell me how to access the HTML version of the viewer. Simply remove "/show" from the URL in your browser's address bar and hit enter to load the image in the HTML viewer.

While functionality differences are not earth shattering in scope, it is fun to know there are 2 versions of the viewer online right now.

LEARN
The new YouTube channel has been preparing for the past couple months so that the "Getting Started" videos could be integrated into the Learn tab at FamilySearch. They have finally been integrated and can be watched from the comfort of FamilySearch.org

3 comments:

  1. Michael,

    Great catch - I think it doesn't work now - I get the sign-in but it never connects from the FamTree page. I tried the general sign-in, which went fine, but when I went to the Tree page I had to sign in again and it never worked.

    Thanks for the peek -- Randy

    ReplyDelete
  2. I just tried it again to see if it would block me out like that.

    It still works fine for me.

    I see what you are saying, but for some reason I don't have the same problem.

    When I log in FamilySearch.org and then add "tree" to the URL making familysearch.org/tree it loads my family tree right away.

    Anyone else able or not able to do this?

    ReplyDelete
  3. I was signed into the Wiki and went to the page and was logged in already. Maybe you have to have a working new.familysearch.org account for it to work?

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for your kind and thoughtful comments.