New At FamilySearch

Posted by on Apr 15, 2018 in Genealogy Education, Useful Tips | 0 comments

Recently I attended the monthly meeting of the Anne Arundel Genealogical Society about “What’s New on FamilySearch” given by Michael Butterworth who is a Director at the Annapolis Family History Center.

FamilySearch has new features and new mobile apps.

When you sign in to FamilySearch.org, you see a personalized home page. This page includes links to suggested tasks and the recently viewed people in the FamilySearch Family Tree. There is also a to-do list for you to track your tasks. (if you do a search, then sign in, you will be brought to the search results page. NOTE: To see results of a search, you know have to login with a free account.)

FamilySearch now has FamilySearch Places to help you research localities.   You can learn more about it here.

Map You Ancestors is a part of the FamilySearch mobile app. Learn more about it here.

Some of the interesting things we learned:

  • The FamilySearch website software is updated 3 times a day
  • There is chat/email/phone support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
  • 1.7 million images (images from 1000 rolls of microfilm) are added to the website daily
  • FamilySearch has already digitized every filmstrip that was rented in the past 5 years (that they had digitizing rights to do)
  • FamilySearch uses wildcards: *    ?    ~    (The tilde (~) searches for similar terms)
  • The Annapolis Family History Center has the capability to scan photos, slides and negatives
  • It is estimated that the Maryland State Archives project will go on for another six years. The records are being digitally photographed, and the photographs contain searchable metadata making them indexed as soon as they come online
  • Only you can see the live people you enter into the FamilySearch Family Tree. If another user enters the same live person that you have entered, then there will be duplicate entries for that person.

Always look at the symbols next to search results. A camera icon means that there is an image available for the record. A document icon lets you view the record details. A mini-pedigree chart means that the record has been attached to someone in the FamilySearch Family Tree. Clicking on that icon will bring up a popup window with the individual’s profile summary from the tree.

What you access can change based on the currents laws, the number of users, and the place you access it from. Always try to access a record at home first. If home access is unavailable, then you will get a popup box telling you where the record can be accessed. Some choices are: at a partner site, at a Family History Center, or on a filmstrip. For some records, only a transcription may be available.

If the record is only on filmstrip, you will get information about where a filmstrip might be found. Family History Centers still have some filmstrips (Annapolis has 600+ microfilms, 650+ microfiche). If the record is only on a filmstrip, call FamilySearch at 866-406-1830 to request that the filmstrip’s digitization move up in priority. FamilySearch does track the demand for the filmstrips, and your call may bump up the scanning priority.

The Anne Arundel Genealogical Society meets the first Thursday of every month. You can find out more about their meetings here. https://aagensoc.org/eventListings.php