Start and Grow Your Family Tree on FamilySearch.org

Ben Baker

Who This Presentation is For

Don’t have an FamilySearch account or have only logged in a few times

No reason to believe your family is already on FamilySearch Family Tree

Beginner at family history

Regularly do family history, just not in FamilySearch Family Tree

Don’t have multi-generational LDS ancestors

Somewhat familiar with FamilySearch Family Tree

Haven’t done much family history

Descend from multiple generations of LDS church members

Use FamilySearch Family Tree regularly with lots of family already in the tree

Want insights into more complicated features to be more effective

Amount of family already on FamilySearch Family Tree / Experience with FamilySearch

Family H

istory Exp

ertise

My Background

• Over 6 years as a Senior Software Engineer at FamilySearch

• Leads an engineering team working on FamilySearch Family Tree

• Currently work on Family Tree, but try to use all our products

• Have previously given several presentations going into more detail on other topics, mostly for more frequent users of FamilySearch. To view or download these presentations go to http://www.slideshare.net/bakers84.

• Go to http://www.slideshare.net/bakers84/start-and-grow-your-family-tree-on-familysearchorg-syllabus to get a copy of the syllabus materials for this presentation

What Does

Do?

Family Tree

Digitized Images

Indexed Records

HistoricalRecords

(Microfilm and original documents)

Memories

Photos, Stories, Documents, Audio

Why do Mormons do Family History?https://www.mormon.org/values/family-history

What is FamilySearch Family Tree?

• A single COLLABORATIVE, wiki-like family tree

• FREE access to anyone worldwide (not just Mormons)

• Promotes SOURCE BASED genealogy

• Provides RESEARCH HELP to build your family tree

• Integrates with MULTIMEDIA to add memories to your family

• Support for 10 LANGUAGES with portions in 42 languages

Main Types of Family Trees

User Specific

FamilySearch

Genealogies

…

Most other online trees and

desktop records managers

Collaborative

FamilySearch

Family Tree

…

User Specific Family Trees

…

MaryBeus

1851 - 1936

MichaelBeus

1811 - 1888

Marianne Combe

1813 - 1910

User2

… …

…

MaryBeus

1851 - 1936

MichaelBeus

1811 - 1888

Marianne Combe

1813 - 1910

User1

… …

…

MaryBeus

1851 - 1936

MichaelBeus

1811 - 1888

Marianne Combe

1813 - 1910

User3

… …

Collaborative Family Trees

…

User1

…

User3

…

MaryBeus

1851 - 1936

MichaelBeus

1811 - 1888

Marianne Combe

1813 - 1910

User2

… …

How is Family Tree Like a Wiki?

“A wiki is a web application which allows people to add, modify, or delete content in collaboration with others” – Wikipedia

Like Wikipedia and other wikis, Family Tree is maintained by volunteers and changes made to data on pages is reflected to all users and change tracked

What are the benefits of a collaborative family tree?

• Reduces duplication of effort

• Increased collaboration arrives at the best information

• Information added outlives contributors

• We can all go further faster by working together

• Evidence data in the tree continues to grow in quantity and quality

• Not many reported issues of edit wars

• More than 40,000 merges per day continues to reduce duplication in the tree

• Will be able to merge additional currently unmergeable persons in next few months

• Over 291,000 unique visitors per day (familysearch.org)

Hundreds of millions of historical record sources are already attached to persons throughout the tree

Around 531M sources were attached to persons at the end of 2014

Over 609M sources were attached to persons at the end of 2015

More than 1.6M sources are attached to person every week

Preserve precious genealogical photos, stories, documents and audio

Most memories are attached to persons in the tree

Can share via social media

Why Get a FamilySearch Account?

Can search historical records without an account, but can’t link them to persons in the tree

Need an account to view or edit persons in Family Tree – on roadmap to provide viewing without an account

Can view photos, stories, documents, etc., but can’t upload and preserve your family treasures or link them to persons in the tree

Can’t collaborate with other users without an account

Did I mention all resources on FamilySearch are FREE?

How to Sign Up on FamilySearch

Tips When Registeringon FamilySearch

• Your contact name is what people will see on changes you make

• Please check Yes if you are a member of the LDS church

• Linking to your church membership record will automatically bring in all of your relatives that are/were members of the LDS church into your tree

• You can get your Membership Record Number from your temple recommend or by asking your ward clerk

• Please read the legal documents

Managing Your Settings

Make Your E-mail Public

Start Building Your Tree

Add Closest Known Ancestors

Go to https://familysearch.org/first-run if you want to go through this wizard againThe wizard will display persons you have already entered Note that all living persons in Family Tree will only be visible to you

View Training At Any Pointhttps://familysearch.org/ask/#/tree/

Basic Ways toView Information / Navigate the Tree

Person Detail Page

Tree Views Person Card

History List

Landscape Pedigree View

Portrait Pedigree View

Fan Chart View

Descendancy Tree View

Person Card

Provides basic information about a person

Provides links to jump to Tree View or Person Detail Page

Tip: Middle Click or Ctrl-Click on Windows and Command-Click on Mac will open a new tab with the Tree/Person

History List Dropdowns

• Provides history of most recently visited 50 persons

• Use Tree and Person Lists to Jump to Tree View or Person Detail Page View

• Use the Go To: text box to jump directly to a person ID

• Click on your own name to go back to you

• Click on your starting person ID to jump to that person

• Click on a person in the list to jump to that person

• Start typing a name or person ID to filter the list

• Select Add Unconnected Person to add a new person to the tree that isn’t connected to anyone else with relationships.

Person Detail Page

• Shows all you’d ever want to know

about a person

• Place to change or add information

• Links to supporting sources

• Shows uploaded photos, stories and

documents

• Provides help to clean up and add data

Research Help

• Data Problems

• Generally indicators of incorrect or missing data

• Record Hints (are awesome!)

• Search indexed records for you

• Will find records based on all information, including maiden and married names

• Often overcome errors in records

• Only present high confidence matches

• Significant increase in sources attached since rollout – 1.6M per week

• Research Suggestions

• Suggestions for additional family members, etc.

Congratulations!

You have just found someone in a record that is not in the tree

Life Sketch & Vital Information

Other Information

• Can record many more specific facts and events about persons in the tree

Sources

• Lists all sources attached to the person

• Can tag sources as containing information about events

• Links jump directly to records or web pages containing information

• Can create sources from uploaded documents

• Add custom sources for records not found on FamilySearch

• Can reorder via drag and drop

Search Records• Opens new tab with pre-populated search as

starting point to look for more records

• Use search options to find matching records

• Can search records on Ancestry, FindMyPastand MyHeritage as well as on FamilySearch

Family Members

• View closest family members of the person

• Click the pencil edit icon to modify information or remove from family

• Add additional children or siblings easily

• Select preferred spouse or parents as desired

Editing Relationships

Visualize Relationships

Parent Child Relationship

Father Mother

Child

Mother

Child

WifeHusband

Parent Child Relationshipwith Single Parent

Couple Relationship

F M

C

F M

C

F M

C

F M

C

F M

C

F M

C

F M

C

F M

C

F M

C

Tips

• Visualize or even draw out the relationships when trying to decide how to understand or fix relationships

• Pay attention to person IDs

• Remember how to edit and delete relationships

M

C

WH WH

WH

…

…

Discussions and Notes

Discussions provide way to collaborate with others regarding details on a person

Notes allow addition of any information of note about the person

Printable Charts

• Can easily print various charts from any person detail page and some tree views

• Pedigree Chart and Family Group Sheets are editable PDFs that can be saved and modified later

• Easy to share with others

PortraitPedigree

Difference Between Family andFamily With Sources Options

7-Generation Fan Chart

Latest Changes and Tools

• Show All Changes brings up the change log where details about all changes can be viewed

• Possible Duplicates will check the system for duplicate persons that may need to be merged

• Use Report Abuse to report if you see other users modifying data in obscene or destructive ways

• You can delete persons that you are the only contributor for. If you see something else you feel should be removed, please call support.

All Changes

• Click on blue links to see more information

• Can view who made changes and contact them

• Can restore some changes

• Can view changes to some change types (i.e. all changes to birth) by clicking on the title of the change or the History link from the person detail page.

User to User Messaging

Collaborate with other users via the

Memories

• Upload photos, documents, stories and audio about your ancestors to bring them more to life

• Link to their person detail pages in Family Tree by tagging

• Supports sharing on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and via E-mail

Lists Tab

Watch people you’re interested in

Will receive weekly e-mails when others make changes

Can review changes to the people being watched

Lots of cool features described in more detail in FamilySearch Insider Tips and Tricks presentation on SlideShare

Find Tab• Search for persons already in the tree

• Can refine search in numerous ways

Achieving Regular Small Successes• Look to resolve indicator icons on your relatives

• Data Problems

• Record Hints

• Research Suggestions

• LDS Ordinance Icons for LDS church members

• Add any memories you have

• Photos

• Documents

• Stories

• Audio

• Try to work from closest to more distant

• Start with closest direct ancestors

• Make sure children for direct ancestors are recorded and also have indicator icons resolved

• Move to grandchildren and great-grandchildren of your direct ancestors

• In-person help at FamilySearch Centers and Libraries worldwide

• Many offer on-site courses, microfilm ordering and other services

Find a Family History Center Near You

Many Helps and Training Available

• Contact support when you need to

Call 1-866-406-1830 (US),

Live Chat, E-mail or Local Help

• Escalate if necessary

• Track cases you’ve submitted at

https://familysearch.org/help/mycases

“Here is a completely FREE genealogy website with billions of indexed records, access to billions of pages of unindexed records (most of them original source material), with a

significant educational component (the Wiki and Video Courses), a collaborative family tree (featuring sources, notes, record hints, photos, stories, etc.)”

“It is probably the online family tree with the most potential to be correct”

Randy Seaver

Noted (non-Mormon) Geneablogger and RootsTech 2016 Ambassador

http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/01/why-arent-researchers-using.html