What’s New—June 3, 2014, Part 1
Use “Record Hints” to Find Records of
Your Ancestors
Finding your ancestors among the billions of records on
FamilySearch.org just got easier with a new feature called Record Hints. FamilySearch.org
finds the records for you. For each person in Family Tree, FamilySearch.org now
compares the person’s information with all of its indexed records and displays
the best matches. You don’t have to fill out a search form or click a button to
request a search—the results are already displayed for you. You don’t have to
weed through hundreds of search results—you have a short list that usually includes
records for your ancestors.
Keep in mind that the accuracy of the matches depends on the
information that is in Family Tree and the information that was indexed. If
FamilySearch.org doesn’t have much information to compare, you may still get
records that don’t match. But the percentage of accurate matches is high, and
the list you look through is short.
And when you find a record about your ancestor, it’s now
easy to attach the record to Family Tree as a source, which lets others see
where you got your information.
Here’s a list of Record Hints for Olive Benedict Livermore.
These indexed records include Olive’s name and match her information
in Family Tree. To see a record, you click Olive’s name above the record. If
the record is for someone other than Olive, scroll down to see if she is listed
as the mother or the daughter. The record may be for one of her children or for
her parents.
Where to Find Record Hints
You can access Record Hints from two places in Family Tree: in
the Descendancy view on the right of the person’s name or on the person’s
details page on the right side. To see the list of Record Hints in the
Descendancy view, click the icon.
Record Hints Icon on
the Descendancy View
Record Hints on the
Details Page
How to Use Record Hints
The Descendancy view
is the quickest way to see which ancestors have Record Hints. When you put an
ancestor in the main position in the Descendancy view, you can easily display
all of the ancestor’s descendants who are in Family Tree. Then you scroll down
the screen looking for Record Hints icons.
When you click a Record
Hints icon, look at the records in the list, and then use the new source feature
to attach to Family Tree those records that are for your ancestor. Attaching a source
now takes only a couple of clicks.
1.
Go to the Descendancy view. (On the pedigree, in
the upper left corner, on the View button, click the down arrow, and click Descendancy.)
By default, you appear as the person in the main position.
2.
Move an ancestor to the main position.
·
Above your name, click the Expand link. More generations of ancestors appear.
·
Click the Select
button for the ancestor you want to put in the main position.
·
To choose an ancestor even more generations
back, repeat the process (click the Expand
link, and click the Select button
for the ancestor).
3.
If you want to see the Record Hints icons for
all the ancestor’s descendants, scroll down the page, clicking all of the triangles that point to the right
(>). This displays all the spouses and children and their Record Hints icons.
4.
View the records for the person.
· To view one record,
click your ancestor’s name above the record.
·
To see more information about all the records,
click Show All at the bottom of the
list of records. The system shows you the key Family Tree information for the
person and the key information from the indexed records. If the information in
the record matches your ancestor, click the Review button for the record.
After you select a record to view,
FamilySearch.org displays the Family Tree record on the left and the
information from the indexed record on the right.
5.
Compare the person’s Family Tree information with
the information in the indexed record.
Tip: You can use the scroll bar on the
far right to scroll down the Family Tree record. To compare birth dates and
places, scroll to the Vital Information
section. To compare marriage information or family members, scroll to the Family Members section.
In this example, the names are not common
and are the same in both records; the marriage date and place are the same; the
estimated birth years are close to the actual birth years. The evidence
indicates that this is the marriage record for the Olive Benedict and Daniel
Livermore who are in Family Tree.
6.
If you determine that the record is for your
ancestor, click the Attach button
near the top.
You’ll see the following screen.
7.
Add a reason why you think this record should be
attached to your ancestor, and click Attach.
Note:
You can attach the record even if you don’t list a reason, but the reason lets
you and other users know what information helped you decide that this was a
record for your ancestor.
The system returns you to the person’s
details page, where you can view the next record in the Record Hints list.
Congratulations! With one icon, four
or five clicks and one sentence, you’ve found a record for your ancestor, and
added it as a source to Family Tree.
What’s New—June 3,
2014, Part 2
You may be wondering, “So what’s
left for Part 2?” Good question. In Part 2, we’re going to show how all the new
features work together to make family history easier than ever.
