Family Tree Is Going To Change Genealogy Research Forever

Family Tree is in Beta Test now with some of the features I describe below functioning. The goal is fully functioning and open to all by the end of this year. It is currently available for anyone to join, not just members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

The Decision:


It's not your tree - or my tree - but our tree.

There are some who will be driven crazy by this decision. People like my mother who wouldn't let me mess with her Book of Remembrance and got me one of my own. Or like the nice lady in the email I received demanding I tell her how I was related to her great great grandfather. (I had edited some info in New Family Search about one of OUR ancestors.)

Yes cousin, it was decided that if we were going to document the genealogy of mankind. We had to figure out.............


How to work together.

We have got to stop research duplication.
We have got to recognize it's our genealogy not mine.
We have got to preserve our research for the generations to come.

There is no reason for our kids to have to redo what we have done!

There is too much research to be done, for you or I do to it by ourselves.

Therefore, the ONLY solution and the decision is OPEN EDIT!

With open edit you can fix it. But you are noted as the source.

All can look at what you did - AND THEY MIGHT SAY:
               "This guy is an idiot" - they can get an email (Notifications) of what you did - and they can change it back.(Restoreable)

OR THEY MIGHT SAY - "This guy is amazing!


The entire history of changes is easily viewed in the change log. You can move the changes back a step or more to fix it if a recent change was wrong. It's called restoreable.

So the key to success has been conceived - by the unique concept of  "Working Together".

Family Tree will not only have email notifications (eventually immediate notifications) and it will have "discussions". One might be wise to comment their conclusions in the forum for feedback, lest they consider you to be that noted idiot, rather than the amazing one.

Documentation is what this evolution to Family Tree is all about.  You will be able to upload a document or add a link to a source. You will weigh each others findings and select the best documentation. Yes, cool!

GET EXCITED PEOPLE: This is a Family Tree,  not a Tug Of War!

It is about sources, evidence and proof. The world is going to respect this a ton.

It will benefit as we work carefully and NICELY with each other.



Other Perks:

The system will remember for you the last 10 ancestors you looked at.

• There will be no more combining and uncombining.
• There will be no more New Family Search
• When you add a document it is saved with other documents you have uploaded and that document is easily attached to other ancestors. No duplicate entereing needed.

So what can you do while the development is being wrapped up? Start scanning your sources. See if you can get access now to the beta version. Leave me a way to contact you in comments on this post or email me at larry@cragun.net

This is a sequel to an article I wrote on February 9th: Click Here
And to this article about sharing or not sharing: Click Here