FamilySearch handouts: Historical Collections Wiki Project

This is the seventh in a short series of posts that will highlight some of FamilySearch's pamphlets, flyers, and handouts.

Disclaimer: I do not have any legal affiliation with FamilySearch, and believe it is okay to publish these because the flyers are available to the public at no cost. I am simply bringing them to the attention of my blog readership, for their interesting content.

This flyer was at RootsTech 2014 as I recall. It is a little unique because it talks about a lesser known volunteer opportunity. FamilySearch uses volunteers to do a lot of the work of keeping such a big organization going. They do so much to make records available for us to research.

This FamilySearch Historical Records division has a project on the FamilySearch Wiki where they create and maintain pages about every online collection that FamilySearch has. These pages are where you go if you ever click the Learn More link for a collection you are searching on FamilySearch. Some of these pages are wonderfully helpful because of the volunteers. Every collection has quirks and needs special research techniques.

What do you think?

Click the image to view.

FamilySearch handouts (LDS): Change a Life--Change Your Life

This is the sixth in a short series of posts that will highlight some of FamilySearch's pamphlets, flyers, and handouts.

Disclaimer: I do not have any legal affiliation with FamilySearch, and believe it is okay to publish these because the flyers are available to the public at no cost. I am simply bringing them to the attention of my blog readership, for their interesting content. This pamphlet makes some references to doctrine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, including a spiritual emphasis on knowing one's ancestors.

This pamphlet is similar to the fifth pamphlet in my short series of posts. It seems geared toward the LDS Family History Department. I still found it encouraging to see the quality of the materials and the overarching goal.

 Click an image to view.

FamilySearch handouts (LDS): Family History Progress Update

This is the fifth in a short series of posts that will highlight some of FamilySearch's pamphlets, flyers, and handouts.

Disclaimer: I do not have any legal affiliation with FamilySearch, and believe it is okay to publish these because the flyers are available to the public at no cost. I am simply bringing them to the attention of my blog readership, for their interesting content. This pamphlet makes some references to doctrine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, including a spiritual emphasis on knowing one's ancestors.

I found this pamphlet on a table at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is very LDS in nature, focusing on motivating the church's Family History Department to take a new approach to helping church members have family history experiences. I'm glad to see such good quality work going into reaching out to more people to help them with their family history. 

 Click an image to view.

FamilySearch handouts (LDS): Family History for Youth

This is the fourth in a short series of posts that will highlight some of FamilySearch's pamphlets, flyers, and handouts.

Disclaimer: I do not have any legal affiliation with FamilySearch, and believe it is okay to publish these because the flyers are available to the public at no cost. I am simply bringing them to the attention of my blog readership, for their interesting content. This pamphlet makes some references to doctrine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, including a spiritual emphasis on knowing one's ancestors.

 FamilySearch has been emphasizing family history for youth for the past few years, and some months ago I came across this pamphlet about that.

How do you feel about these efforts to include the youth in family history? I wish that Indexing was around when I was much younger, and I think I might not have wasted as much time playing video games if I understood that there was something a billion times better that I could do at home.

 Click an image to view.

FamilySearch handouts: Partner Services

This is the third in a short series of posts that will highlight some of FamilySearch's pamphlets, flyers, and handouts.

Disclaimer: I do not have any legal affiliation with FamilySearch, and believe it is okay to publish these because the flyers are available to the public at no cost. I am simply bringing them to the attention of my blog readership, for their interesting content.

This is a flyer I picked up at RootsTech 2014 that highlights FamilySearch partner services. It is good to see their collaboration efforts growing. I am a believer when it comes to collaboration among people or major organizations to reach better outcomes for everyone.

Click the image to view.

FamilySearch handouts: A Solutions Story from Kodak Alaris

This is the second in a short series of posts that will highlight some of FamilySearch's pamphlets, flyers, and handouts.

Disclaimer: I do not have any legal affiliation with FamilySearch, and believe it is okay to publish these because the flyers are available to the public at no cost. I am simply bringing them to the attention of my blog readership, for their interesting content.

"A Solutions Story from Kodak Alaris" is a flyer about a new high-speed photograph scanner available for use at most large FamilySearch Centers and the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. I used this scanner myself, and I am very impressed with the ability it has to delicately scan stacks of photos at high speeds... very impressed.

A scanning project that could take all day can not be done in a few minutes. A project that would take days, weeks, or months, may be finished in one day now. Bring your pictures to one of the FamilySearch centers that has one of these and save your priceless photos before a natural disaster destroys the only copy in existence.

What do you think?

 Click an image to view.

FamilySearch handouts: Let's Put the World's Historic Records Online...

This is the first in a short series of posts that will highlight some of FamilySearch's pamphlets, flyers, and handouts.

Disclaimer: I do not have any legal affiliation with FamilySearch, and believe it is okay to publish these because the flyers are available to the public at no cost. I am simply bringing them to the attention of my blog readership, for their interesting content.

Let's Put the World's Historic Records Online... is a pamphlet I picked up at RootsTech 2014. This shows some remarkable predictions about how soon we might get the world's records online.

Although some say the theme of RootsTech 2014 was obituaries, sharing, or technology, I think the theme was really "collaboration, the key to success." What do you think?

Click images to view.

Current FamilySearch digitization projects: How to find them

FamilySearch is the largest genealogy non-profit, and is always adding new content to their flagship website FamilySearch.org. As any other genealogist and avid user of FamilySearch's digital record collections, I am always curious when the records I need will go online.

For full-time genealogy researchers, knowing what is coming online within the year may result in saving untold funds and time. If I am desperate to find ancestors in X, and I pay a genealogist to search X's records by hand, I could be out of several hundreds of dollars. If X's records will be digitized within 1-3 years I may decide to spend my several hundred on records farther out in the queue of digitization (or records that are not in the queue at all).

Unfortunately for all of us enthusiastic genealogists, we have to learn patience. FamilySearch's official policy on listing their current projects is as follows:

"FamilySearch does not provide information on current or future projects. The first public notice of FamilySearch's newly acquired records appears in the Family History Library Catalog."

I wonder if things might be changing at FamilySearch and all around us though. I wonder if we are moving toward an era of greater project transparency. Ancestry.com and FamilySearch will no longer be competing for digitization contracts with the same archive. Their recent partnership was discussed in detail at RootsTech and several online news sources. Last month at RootsTech, one of the leaders of FamilySearch mentioned a project that is still under discussion with the government of India. I was a little surprised to hear this announcement before a contract was even final, considering FamilySearch's general policy. Perhaps FamilySearch has little reason to withhold the information, but there is no efficient system to list current project to the public at this time.

There are a few ways I have learned to gather information about current digitization projects.

1. Attend FamilySearch presentations
   RootsTech, Family History Library classes, or local family history fairs often have speakers who are FamilySearch employees. Last month at RootsTech there were several current projects announced. Some of these were later mentioned in a FamilySearch Blog post.
2. Network with FamilySearch employees and missionaries (on and offline)
   FamilySearch employees are fairly closed lipped online due to company policy, but will sometimes share more in person. They are enthusiastic genealogists too! I have found one recently who is tweeting sometimes about current projects.
   
   Attending events like RootsTech is a great way to jump start your networking. You can sometimes get specific employees email addresses and begin to have discussions with them about what is going on inside FamilySearch. Being helpful and providing useful feedback is a good way to approach this.
   
   FamilySearch missionaries can often be found in your own congregations or areas. If you are involved with your local Family History Center, societies, and genealogical repositories, you may just end up running into some of these digitization teams.
3. Follow the news and blogs
   Using a search engine to search for terms such as "FamilySearch digitization" (without quotes) will reveal some online newspaper articles about FamilySearch missionaries and what they are digitizing. You can use keywords like those to create alerts on Google News so that you will be emailed when a new story goes online.
   
   Subscribing to genealogy blogs will help you to be among the first to know. The following blogs are some that often discuss FamilySearch news:
   
   1. FamilySearch Blog
   2. Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter
   3. Ancestry Insider
   4. Genealogy's Star
   5. Larry Cragun Family and Genealogy Blog
   6. Renee's Genealogy Blog
   7. Enduring Legacy Genealogy (you are here)

 Check back for a possible follow-up article about known current projects.

RootsTech 2014: My Thursday thoughts

This article includes the following topics:

• My experience in the expo hall with my wife 
• Are some worn out and bitter?
• Moving toward preserving the world's records
• FamilySearch is aware of features we need, be patient
• Ancestry.com and FamilySearch, together forever
• RootsTech's major theme: We can't do it alone

Creating and preserving our memories as a couple at RootsTech

Today my wife attended RootsTech for the first time, with a free expo hall pass. I highly recommend that for anyone who can afford to come to Salt Lake City, Utah. It was a special experience for me to share some of this time with my wife, at my favorite annual genealogy event.

There were classes in every time-slot that interested me, but I took some time away during one of the class sessions to enjoy the hall with my wife. She had been walking around the hall for awhile already, doing random activities, and she even won a free membership to MyHeritage.

When I was there, I took her to the FamilySearch family story recording booth where we took a ten minute video of ourselves talking for ten minutes about our time so far as a couple. I've already watched it and I can say we look great together. Creating and recording memories for posterity is an interesting new dynamic of our family history journey.

We also used the phone call interview computers provided in the FamilySearch Discovery Center section. My wife was able to call some of her relatives in Mexico, and I spoke to some of mine in the United States. They instantly e-mailed those conversations to us upon the end of each call. I've listened to part of one I had with my mom's mother, and am glad I was brave enough to try it.

Are some of us becoming worn down and resentful?

I'm not as excited to share news as I was in previous years. There are a few reasons I think. Perhaps it feels less new and exciting, now that I have been for a couple of previous years. Perhaps I am too accustomed to ground-breaking advances in the field. Perhaps I am mentally preoccupied with my own responsibilities, and how much work I will have to catch up on when these blissful days end.

Many of the things that are coming to the genealogy space in the future are really not that new of an idea for me, or I have already been hearing about the developments for so long that further news is not exciting. I feel myself moving toward a more practical viewpoint. I am interested more in news that will help me in my volunteer or work roles immediately, instead of 1-2 years from now--when promised features may come. Don't get me wrong. I recognize that meaningful features have recently been released and more are coming all the time. I'm simply less excited to talk and hypothesize about the future. Sometimes things in development never make it past beta, or are totally different by then.

That being said, there was a lot of exciting news so far at RootsTech. Ryan Heaton and Ron Tanner gave talks about GEDCOMX and Family Tree respectively. I mention these two together, because they both had an unfortunate resentful tone. GEDCOMX and FHISO were questioned a lot last year about their value or true openness. Much of Ryan's entire presentation seemed to be anticipating similar lines of questioning, and it felt defensive. Ron presented in a similar style, especially at certain points. Even his body language and expression was less moving than in previous years. It felt like they had been worn down by having so much critical feedback in the past and were trying to defend their products. Don't get me wrong, these were the only 2 presentations where I noticed this kind of resentful tone, out of all the presentations so far. It is just unfortunate.

Good news

Note: Various speakers or employees mentioned the news items below, but some may be incomplete. These items are not meant as official announcements and deals may not be final.

Several things were said that show FamilySearch is moving forward in preserving the world's records.

• They have an agreement with the Shanghai Library to share all of their Chinese records collections both ways. Each one will give access to the other, to their collections. 
• Through the partnership of Ancestry.com and FamilySearch, Ancestry.com will be able to put more of the Mexico census records online (the 1930 Mexico census is the only one currently online). FamilySearch will grant Ancestry.com access to the Mexico collections currently on their site. [I specifically asked an employee about this because it would help us a lot in researching my wife's family.]
• Vital/church records are currently in process of acquisition for Venezuela and Guatemala. Guatemala is providing many of their own camera teams, while FamilySearch is offering their volunteers to index, and website to host the records. 
• FamilySearch has multiple partnerships that will allow them to publish many more obituaries online in the future.
• FamilySearch recently met with five of the largest Native American tribes in the United States to discuss ways to help them set up family history programs or centers. The response was positive. No timeframe has been announced. 
• FamilySearch has made major progress with agreements in India to preserve records just recently
• FamilySearch gets more offers to allow them to digitize records than they could possibly meet right now. The planned increase from 267 to 500 camera crews will help, but collections will still be prioritized. FS can't do it all. They have limited resources. UK and Germany are in high demand right now, and places like South America, Africa, and Italy are also high on the list.

Several things show that FamilySearch is aware of the features that users want and need.

• Some of the conflicts with dealing with living people on FamilySearch Family Tree or Memories may start to be resolved around May.
• In over a year and a half, we should begin to see ways to share groups of living people through granting permission with Family Tree.
• Index corrections may become possible some time in 2015.
• Due to tighter partnerships with genealogy companies, syncing Ancestry.com trees, Findmypast trees, and MyHeritage trees to FamilySearch Family Tree may become available later this year (or partially).
• FamilySearch is accepting sign-ups for beta testers on the new indexing system, and the new Family Tree/Memories mobile apps
• In Q2 2014 we should see the ability to merge new persons from a source, into our FamilySearch Family Tree
• The FamilySearch Memories app will allow users to record audio and upload it to their FamilySearch accounts. This will be in beta along with the Family Tree viewer app, anticipated in March.
• Video support is on the roadmap, but far to little has been done to suggest a timeline. 

More details about the Ancestry.com and FamilySearch agreement

Members of FamilySearch's sponsor donate funds to the work of FamilySearch. Part of the deal with Ancestry.com requires that these LDS members have free access to at least portions of Ancestry.com. We should see the initial integration along these lines in or after second quarter 2014. I'm being intentionally vague, as this is the kind of thing that is easy to spread rumors about. It is best to wait and see how it plays out.

Ancestry.com and FamilySearch no longer will compete in trying to get contracts to digitize collections. This was the case before, and this new policy will save resources and effort, so that more can be accomplished.

Miscellaneous

GEDCOMX is currently in use among any/all of FamilySearch partners who are exchanging data with their services, whether they know it or not. They welcome developers to create conversion tools, make recommendations, and partner with them.

FamilySearch CEO, Dennis Brimhall said that sometimes he promises too much. He paraphrased what his staff would probably tell him: "How did you dare say that? We're not going to do that." Perhaps one of those things was when he mentioned a text-to-tree feature that would be developed. Brimhall mentioned this in a small unconferencing session at RootsTech 2013, and this year he mentioned it more prominently. Developers clarified that they are only in the research phase of this product. The intent is to open up the family tree to use from those without a regular Internet connection. Many in less developed countries have text-ready cell phones, but no computer or Internet.

One of the major themes this year is that we cannot do it on our own. There is too much work to do in the field of genealogy, and we need all the biggest players as well as all the individuals to have a synergistic result (example: 2+2=5). We need more business partners, we need more developers, we need more indexers, we need more new people to become interested in Genealogy etc. Each of these points was covered well in the conference so far.

New: Upload your own sources to FamilySearch Family Tree

Some of my blogging friends already did a good job sharing this feature, but it is so important that I wanted to say something about it here too.

You've been able to upload photos/documents to FamilySearch for months already, but just recently they've added this convenient way to turn those into sources.

Simply create a new source, and select that you want to attach a file:

Click to see full size

 In my grandfather's source list below you will see the source I uploaded myself indicated with a camera icon. The tree indicates source digitized by FamilySearch. The globe indicates links to other websites or a source with nothing attached.

Click to see full size

Have you uploaded and attached any of your own images as sources?

Enter the date and place for your FamilySearch Photos/Documents

I noticed this new feature today, now you can add the location and date for a photo or document you've uploaded. Of course, you could have listed this information in the title or description before, but there are certain advantages to this update.

I hope this will be used to improve the ability to search and filter through uploads. I'd also like to see an option that would ask you if you wanted to do anything with the date and place when you attach the image as a source. For example: Identify it as the birth or death fact, and have it merged into the Family Tree person as part of the source attachment process. Those are just some ideas of how keeping the date and place in a different box could be beneficial someday.

This is what it looks like:

Click for full size

See photos on FamilySearch Family Tree view

A few of my blogging friends already posted about this a few days ago, but it is such a fun change so I wanted to share here too.

To see this view, go to Family Tree.
Then click that oblong shape in the upper left, and put it on "PORTRAIT."

Click the image to see it full-size

Must-read blogs for What's new with FamilySearch

If you've been here before, you probably know that I'm pretty big on following any kind of development at FamilySearch. This includes "What's new with FamilySearch?" or perhaps "What is coming eventually?" or even "What obscure thing can I reveal?"

You might wonder how I find websites that don't even have a link from the home page of FamilySearch.org, or how I know that something has changed when there has been no official announcement of the change.

One of my secrets is reading blogs.

The following blogs are must-reads if you want to know what FamilySearch is doing before anyone else knows:

FamilySearch Blog
There is a section called What's New on Family Tree?, but it leaves a lot out.

Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter
This is quite possibly one of the most read genealogy blogs in the known universe, and with good reason.

Genea-Musings
A very well rounded blog with fun posts, reviews, and of course, news.

Genealogy's Star
A thoughtful and consistent blogger. His opinions are interesting, and his updates about FamilySearch are frequent.

The Ancestry Insider
You'll get some insider gems from this blog, as the author works for FamilySearch. I've been reading this blog longer than I've been blogging.

Larry Cragun Family and Genealogy Blog
This blog focuses a lot on what's new on FamilySearch.org, and has a nice LDS flavor as well.

Renee's Genealogy Blog
One of the first blogs I got hooked to reading, partially inspiring me to start my own. Renee works for RootsMagic. She often posts e-mails that FamilySearch sends to Family History Consultants. If you don't get those emails, this is a good way to get the content.

and of course the blog you're reading now.

Usually any time something interesting happens on FamilySearch.org (a new feature), one of us finds it and posts about it the same day. Some of us even post about things that haven't happened yet. Our sources there are a little more mysterious...

WorldCat.org now includes Family History Library Catalog

Thanks to the Maryland Genealogical Society Facebook page for sharing Michael John Neill's blog post. Michael John Neill of RootDig.com wrote the good news. Click here to see his post.

Click here for the WorldCat.org site.
Click here for the FamilySearch Catalog.

FamilySearch Fan Chart interactive inside rotating marquee

One of the new things about FamilySearch.org this year is the huge rotating marquee that welcomes users. It takes up a lot of space on the home page, and one shortcoming is that it provides little practical usefulness. This is changing.

A few days ago the signed-in version of the Fan Chart portion of the marquee began to appear as an interactive version of your fan chart. It works differently than the actual fan chart page. This preview version can be navigated by clicking any visible name, but you cannot access a person page from this point. It is great as a way to preview the feature without ever leaving the marquee.

Maybe someday we will be able to search for names from the search portion of the marquee too.

FamilySearch Catalog advertizes WorldCat.org and Archive Grid

These two links may have appeared today. It is the first time I remember noticing them. FamilySearch has been working with WorldCat (OCLC) for perhaps a year or two from what they've been saying in the past. This is the first noticable trace of this agreement I have noticed in the catalog. 

I understand that FamilySearch Catalog items should be showing up in WorldCat.org at some point. Archive Grid is part of the same website. 

Please don't overlook these two sources. The largest genealogical organization in the world (FamilySearch) has put prominent links here because they are extremely valuable catalogs. Almost any book has an entry in this catalog. I just helped a patron in our Family History Center find the location of a rare family history by showing him how to use WorldCat a couple weeks ago.

FamilySearch Site Map: What's missing?

I noticed a new link at the bottom of FamilySearch.org not long ago, called "Site Map."

This page attempts to list all the pages in the website or at least each product. Examples: It lists the Research Wiki, but not all 75,000 articles. It lists Family Tree, but not each person page in the tree... etc. etc.

This is an exciting development, because among avid FamilySearch.org users, many of us notice that certain pages seem hidden... and frequent website upgrades sometimes move the links to new locations.

Some die-hard users may even decide to use the Site Map page as their first stop instead of the prettier home screen. This would drop the number of clicks required to get to some of the obscure products.

In fact, some of these products don't even have links except for from here. Examples would be "Featured Pages." Pages like those have traditionally been linked to temporarily on the home screen as a highlighted item and then disappear. If you are particularly interested in one of the feature page topics you might still enjoy using them.

Even with the advent of the "Site Map" there are still several pages missing from the list. Can you help me identify them by leaving a page title and link in the comments?

Click for full size. Captured 16 Nov 2013.

List of products or website sections/features not included in Site Map:

• My Family: Stories That Bring Us Together
• Photos and Stories: Documents
• Photos and Stories: Obituaries
• Record Indexing: Linking
• Blog: List of all sub-pages and hidden blog posts
• Get Help: Family Tree Training
• Featured Pages: PAF to be Discontinued 
• Featured Pages: Italy 
• Featured Pages: Mexico
• Community Trees
• FamilySearch Labs
• Family History Center Portal
• Online Film Ordering
• new.FamilySearch.org (in-process of closing)
• Old Family History Library Catalog (in-process of closing) 
• Invite Service (employees only) 
• Campaigns (Select "production - familysearch.org" in the drop down list to the right called "Reference." Then click the "en" just under the words "App Table of Contents." This loads some FamilySearch landing pages that are being used as advertisements to get more users involved in current products. Not all campaigns appear in the resulting list.)
• Campaigns: Irish
• Campaigns: Finding Our Cousins

External sites hosted/owned/managed/co-built/enabled by FamilySearch (a.k.a. Family History Department):

• RootsTech.org
• BYU Conference on Family History & Genealogy
• GEDCOMX.org
• Mormon Migration
• The National Archives of Ireland: Genealogy (collections digitized by FamilySearch)
• Ellis Island (collections provided by FamilySearch)
• LDS.org: Family History
• LDS.org: Youth and Family History
• LDS.org: Family History Callings

Note: Some FamilySearch collections are available on other websites such as Ancestry.com, MyHeritage, and findmypast.com

Social media presence:

• Official Facebook Page
• Official Facebook Page (Indexing)
• Official Facebook Page (Family History Library) 
• Official Google+ Page
• Official Google+ Page (Indexing)
• Official Twitter
• Official Twitter (Indexing)
• Official YouTube Channel
• FamilySearch Groups
  (invitation only, Yammer community designed for those in the FHD or FH callings)

Introducing the New FamilySearch Indexing Tool, RootsTech 2014 preview

I've decided to write a few previews of stuff we will all learn about at RootsTech 2014. Earlier, I wrote about FamilySearch Obituaries. Another product coming next year at FamilySearch is an overhaul of the indexing tool, listed in the class schedule as: "Introducing the New FamilySearch Indexing Tool."

This is another one of my top pics for RootsTech 2014 classes to attend.
The RootsTech 2014 class list states: "Scott Flinders, the product manager responsible for FamilySearch indexing, will provide an overview and demonstration of the new, browser-based indexing tool being developed by FamilySearch."

Today (October 4, 2013), FamilySearch gave a presentation to Stake Indexing Directors which was available for viewing online. I've captured some screens and facts to provide you with this preview. If you don't want to know about this until RootsTech, I suggest you stop reading this.

As advertised before, the new system will be entirely browser-based so that downloading software is no longer required. Most of the basic workings of the system are still there, but everything has been enhanced in accordance with user feedback.

One of the first changes you'll notice, you will be able to use powerful filters and waypoint data to find a specific project to work on. You will be able to choose a specific town, county, or parish to work on, Flinders said.

The view of the actual work process provides all the tools we have come to know and love: Highlights, Lookup, International Characters, Handwriting Examples etc. Flinders pointed out that the traditional data entry modes are still there (table and form), and that two more are available. He said one was for indexers who like to index by column although I do not know how it differs from table mode. The 2nd new mode is "in-line" which will have you type the data in a box right where you see it on the screen, and move from one area to the next as you go. I'd like to try that.

The next thing I noted was Flinder's statement that "In addition to..." the current A/B/Arbitrate workflow, there will be a new A + Review workflow. At first I thought they were just doing a terminology change from arbitrator to reviewer, but it turns out that the new process will be entirely different. The reviewer will not compare 2 indexers' work, but will simply review the work of one indexer. Flinders stated that they believe the index quality will remain the same, and the output will rise 40-50%. Regarding the "in addition to" statement, he later clarified that the old system will be maintained and in use until they are able to migrate all users and stats to the new system. If the A + Review is successful, I think they will stop A/B/Arb when they close the old system, though this was not clear to me. This was perhaps the most exciting news to me because it means 40-50% more records for all of us! I would like to know what selecting "don't know" will do. For that matter, I'd like to know what happens if a reviewer says a data piece is wrong. It seems logical that wrong data be corrected by the reviewer, and "don't know" data get sent up the line to a more experienced reviewer, though nothing was said about that detail.

FamilySearch Indexing Groups are a major step forward as well. These groups come with better statistics reporting for group managers, group goals to motivate all users, an increased sense of "social media," among several other interesting features.






The list of improvements is impressive, although I must admit there are a couple which are over my head.

Further down, I've posted the slides that show the timetable for release.

And another thing is the new way to add indexing projects. Instead of requiring FamilySearch employees to add every new indexing project, specific volunteers can be approved to do this within the same website. Flinders mentioned that this will allow archives and other record custodians more control over adding their projects to the system, although I imagine FamilySearch will still require the images to be digitized and ingested according to their guidelines.

Phew! A lot of interesting facts and screenshots today. Come to think of it, I bet they'll be a lot more to learn by the time we get to RootsTech in February.

FamilySearch Obituaries, RootsTech 2014 preview

At the beginning of September, I looked at the list of RootsTech 2014 classes and found one about "FamilySearch Obituaries"

This is what it says: "Everyone deserves to be remembered forever, for free. FamilySearch Obituaries allows everyone in the world to publish and share the obituaries of their friends. They also allow everyone to be a part of the grieving and memorial experience."

I noticed some days or weeks before, when you upload a story @ https://familysearch.org/photos/stories, that has some identifying word like "obituary" that the story was now being referred to as an obituary. See the screen capture below from one obituary I pasted into the system. Notice the words: "Edit Obituary." The system typically says "Edit Story" in that same spot. The system is recognizing certain stories as obituaries and categorizing them as such.

Categorization seems like a good idea, but it must just be a sign of even more features to come. I imagine that a future feature will be to choose the story type manually. Maybe someday another story type beside obituary will be defined. I also imagined that there would be some ability to sort, search, or put in order stories according to category.

We know that categorizing photos will be a thing. Tim Cross, manager of Photos and Stories has confirmed that photos will be able to be categorized as either person photos or documents. This will change minor things about the experience. He said, documents will be tagged with rectangles instead of the circles used for persons. In addition, photos already uploaded will be able to be categorized as documents in the future. Tim said not to wait, but to upload them now.

Tim Cross will be teaching the class being held at RootsTech, about FamilySearch Obituaries. I presume that he will explain, in detail, his vision for this new stories category. I am always very interested in FamilySearch products that are under development. Unless this class conflicts with another I need to attend, I will be giving you a report afterward.

You do not need to wait until RootsTech 2014, but can see the landing page for FamilySearch Obituaries today at https://familysearch.org/obituaries

 

Sometimes typing key words after http://familysearch.org/, in your browser, will take you to pages that are being developed. That is how I found this one.

FamilySearch Mobile App Demo

In the recent FamilySearch "My Family History Calling" newsletter, which I received 4 days ago, there was this link to an interesting video:

FamilySearch Mobile App Demo

From FamilySearch blog 09/19/2013: "Craig Miller, director of Product Development, introduced and demonstrated a new mobile app that allows users to use FamilySearch from the convenience of their own mobile device. This mobile app will be available in 2014...[bold added for emphasis]"

What will this app do? (answered in video)

At release:

• View information
• Add new information
• View a picture

In the future:

• Multiple picture support, and photo tagging
• Use the app to take pictures or video that can be directly added to the tree

See the article with the link here.

For those of you who remember the FamilySearch Indexing App, and wonder how that fits into this new app, the same article reports the following: "DeGiulio said that in 2014, the existing indexing system will be replaced with a new indexing platform. This new platform will attract more indexers and will improve the quality and accuracy of indexes." Other sources explain that this will be a browser-based system. No indexing app has been announced. Stay tuned to my blog for major updates.

This is one of my favorite types of genealogy news to share. It has to do with something that will make life easier for users, and it has the cool factor of something cutting-edge for the FamilySearch community.

Perhaps we will have a surprise release of the app at RootsTech 2014, or perhaps they will simply show this video demo. You never know what is being worked on or when it will be released, until you do.