© 2013 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.

A Whirlwind Tour of

FamilySearch Resources

BYU Conference on

Family History and Genealogy

July 30, 2013

Ben Baker

bakerb@familysearch.org

Background

• 3½ years as Software Engineer at FamilySearch

• Currently work primarily on Family Tree

• A lot of work around merging persons in Family Tree (later presentation on this topic)

• Experts in specific areas also presenting here

• Previous experience at FamilySearch with digital image processing of historical documents

• Try to do my own genealogy and help others

• I’m here to learn from real users of our services

• Click here for a copy of the syllabus which includes URL links to reach all screens in this presentation

FamilySearch

Family Tree

• Replacing https://new.familysearch.org

• Some key new features include:

• Public access (not just LDS church members)

• A single wiki-like tree that can be edited by any user

• Linking to sources

• Change history with justification reasons

• Not a match declarations to prevent bad merges

• Interactive fan chart

• Integration with photos/stories

• Temple Opportunities

• Lots more

Photos and

Stories

• Upload photos and stories about your ancestors to

bring them more to life

• Supports sharing on Facebook, Twitter, Google+,

Pinterest and via E-mail

• Connect to ancestors in Family Tree

Search

• This is the place to go to search for historical records

and user-uploaded genealogies

• This page is the most like the previous home page

• About 1 million images are being added each day,

many not indexed, so don’t forget to search un-

indexed record collections

Example Using Facets to Narrow Down Collections

Show me all collections that contain birth, marriage or death records in Illinois between 1800 and 1849

Process to Submit Tree

1. Upload GEDCOM to FamilySearch

2. Compare each person with those in Family Tree

3. Add persons not already in Family Tree

Temple

• Shows information and status about LDS

temple ordinances

• Only available to LDS church members

• More features around sharing reserved cards

with family and friends are coming soon

Volunteer

Volunteer to give of your time, knowledge,

money or insight

Get Help

• Supports phone calls, live chat and sending a

message to get help

• Don’t forget to login to see LDS-specific

helps.

LDS Church

Websites

There are many pages on lds.org that have

family history related content

Profile

• Control user profile settings such as password,

contact information and notification e-mails

Indexing

Help index historical records to produce

searchable indexes

Celebrating One Billion Records Indexed!

Volunteers have indexed

one billion records since

FamilySearch online

indexing began in 2006.

Join the US Immigration and Naturalization Community Project to help make the next billion

records free and searchable online!

What’s New

Learn about the latest features in FamilySearch

products and services

Locations

• In-person help at Family History Centers and

Libraries worldwide

• Some offer on-site courses, microfilm

ordering and other services

About

Learn more about the FamilySearch

organization, affiliated products and more

Blog

• See the latest announcements and features

• Can subscribe via an RSS news reader

Feedback

Provide feedback on FamilySearch

products and services

Languages

• English

• Spanish

• Portuguese

• German

• French

• Italian

• Russian

• Japanese

• Korean

• Chinese

Website currently supports 10 languages

Other Useful

Related Sites

Learn about serving in family history:

Call: 1-855-346-4774

Email: mission@familysearch.org

Online: familysearch.org/mission

Q & A

Thank you for attending today’s presentation

Do you know of any other great pages I missed?