Geeks Gone Wild At FamilySearch; And It's Going To Be Awesome

I am scheduled to view the discover center on Thursday at 4PM. Hooray.

UPDATE: The first discovery center is here at last. I wrote this article about 12 months ago. Now the Discovery Center is taking appointments for tours. Go here: https://familysearch.org/disocverycenter to book a time. The slots are already filling up. I get to see it in two weeks. Go and let  your heart be turned to your ancestors. 

Introducing the FamilySearch Center of Tomorrow, "Discovery Centers". In April and May of next year two pilot versions of the future LDS Family History Centers will be unveiled. One will be a revamp (already underway) of the Family History Center at the bottom of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. The second will be in the Bellevue, Washington Bellevue South Stake Center. This building sits behind the Seattle Temple.

Pardon the quality of the following photos, they are my iPad snap of a power point presentation I was privileged to enjoy last Saturday.

These centers are going to be experiences. An example of the concept lies in the answer to the question behind these to photos: Which is more interesting, both have the same message?\\

The one with photos is the correct answer.

On an average day 5000 photographs and 500 stories are attached to FamilySearch family tree. This is important. It is important for those who come along to find the contributions of others. It is also important to the Discovery Centers, in a couple of other ways.

The discovery Center is to be a family experience. It will help connect us, young and old,  to our ancestors. It will also pave the way for us to leave our posterity with important parts of our own histories. The family history center of the future is a place where families can discover together. It offers individuals and families simple yet powerful in-person experiences to discover their heritage and have their hearts turned to their ancestors.

The purpose is to create an environment where families can begin their journey of family history. It is a focus on family history in addition to genealogy. It will help others find themselves through their ancestors. It will create a family experience as well as a better experience for the visitors.

These Centers will be inviting

When you walk into a Discovery Center you will be welcomed with  an iPad.
You will take your picture with it.

You will begin by building a story you can leave with, 

send to social media sites, or attach to family tree.

You will login to family search or open an account and login. Anyone can join.

You will then see on a large screen your first 8 generations as connected to FamilyTree

You will pick an ancestor from this fan chart visual of your ancestors.

This person will be your focus during the tour.

You can take as many tours as you want, each studying a different ancestor.

 At your first station you will be in front of screens that are interacting with the iPad.

It will have on screen calculators, showing what happened when you were born: + costs of items, etc.

These screens will be touch screen technology, you will be managing your tour.

You will be building your own story which you can forward to Facebook when you leave.

Children will be creating a story book

A digital popup book

Your screen will show you what it was like in the places your ancestor lived.
It will show the immigration patterns of  your first and second generations families.
The experts and techies at FamilySearch are having a ball providing research in 100 countries.
You will learn about what is was like and where your families came from.
You will see what it was like where they lived.


You will see the areas where your ancestor came from
You will go to the dress up station
You will pose in front of  an 80 inch screen

If your ancestor was Scottish you will be appear in Scottish Clothes
If he was a farmer - dressed like a farmer of that day.
You get to take the photos home
They are part of the book you build

Then there is the Time Machine
This will drive your family wild
You and the iPad and your family enter the Time Machine
It's a room for about 8
In holographic style the room goes back in time
Authenticity is the word here
It takes days just to create a digital copy of an original teapot

You are taken back in time
in the home your ancestor would have lived in
you are recording this for your book
You scroll with your iPad to make changes
It's all in 3D

Take Grandma with you
because
at the end of the tour
is the Share Your Story room
Do the interview
take a thumb drive with you
upload it to the tree

A lot of what happens here is thanks to family tree
the thousands of photos and stories
they will be integrated into the
Discovery Center Experience


If you live in a far off place such as Kokomo or Tokyo, you may want to make one of these two your family vacation. They will be just that cool.

Remember

Salt Lake City Joseph Smith Memorial Building in April
Bellevue South Stake Center, next to the Temple
A New Visitors Center
In the Chapel Building
In May

And portions at RootsTech 2014

Bless those Geeks, They can make life so interesting

Will there be others? Possibly, if they have an impact in expanding the spirit so more get involved. These are so expensive that the Church is considering sponsorships

I have the many opportunities to be around serious researchers. I usually ask who will pick up the legacy you have started? Who will take care and take off from your hard work? The answer is often a shrug, like I have no idea. This changes when someone gets the spirit. My sister and I picked up and went a lot farther than my avid mother. I am sure she had no idea it would happen. Experiences such as will take place in the Discovery Centers plants the seed and desire with those who you bring. So my suggestion - bring em.

Family Search Has Several Partnerships

So much publicity has been given to the partnerships with Ancestry.com, FindMyPast, and MyHeritage that people overlook their are several partners with FamilySearch continually looking ofr additional partnerships.

This link will take you to the partners site: https://familysearch.org/products/

It might be fun to take a look.

Updates to FamilySearch Family Tree

Return to Last Viewed Person in Family Tree June 17

As users navigate from Family Tree to other parts of our site (Memories, Search, Indexing, Temple) and return to Family Tree, the person last seen on the tree view and the person on the detail page are now restored.  Previously, a user would be returned to their own tree and person page. This change makes navigating our site seem more fluid and seamless.

Family Booklet July 2

Many individuals outside the United States that need someone to help them get their information into the system. The family booklet is a way they can organize their data and make it easy for another to help with the input.

Preserve the Name of the Person Who Created the Source July 2

We no longer overwrite the name of the person who created the source with the name of the person who modified the source. We now show who originally created the source and who last modified it.

 

PDF option on memories removed July 2

Before the update, there was a PDF option on the Memories People page so you could share the whole list of people based on the filter selected.  However, the PDF option is not there now after the update.

Please Make Your Email Public In FamilySearch

Not knowing how to contact those who make changes on an ancestor I have been focused on just knocks me over.

It puts me in a real sticky mood.

 

 

It's painful realizing there is someone to collaborate with who is hiding in secret places.

You can solve this tricky problem:

 

 

Just go to the settings and make it public. Really, it's painless.

 

 

What About The Partnerships Family Search Is Making?

On February 4, 2014, FamilySearch announced a series of agreements with Ancestry.com, findmypast, and MyHeritage to accelerate the delivery of freely searchable genealogical records to family history researchers.

As a missionary I receive more questions on this issue than practically any other. Dennis Brimhhall recently posted this list of questions and answers regarding the partnerships.

These agreements are in line with the FamilySearch mission to publish online as many freely available, searchable genealogical records as possible.

The agreements are best understood in light of the overall pace at which searchable records are currently being delivered on FamilySearch.org. Notwithstanding the astounding success of the FamilySearch indexing program and the tireless dedication of hundreds of thousands of volunteers, it will still take many generations to index and publish just the records contained in FamilySearch’s Granite Mountain Records Vault. This estimate does not account for the more than 35 million new images of records that are digitized each month—and that rate is increasing.

FamilySearch indexing, is, at best, only a partial solution to the challenge of making searchable records available in a timely fashion. Clearly, there is a need for additional, creative approaches to providing indexed records, which is why it makes sense to partner with leading commercial genealogy providers such as Ancestry.com, Archives.com, findmypast, Fold3, and MyHeritage.

Working together, FamilySearch and its partners will bring billions of currently unsearchable and unavailable records to patrons decades before these records would otherwise become available.
Some people have questions about how this collaboration will all come about and what it means to volunteers. Below are answers to some of the most common questions.

Q.        Will records indexed by FamilySearch indexing volunteers continue to be freely available to all patrons?
A.        Yes. FamilySearch volunteers index and arbitrate with the understanding that their contribution will be made freely available to others. These partner agreements will not change this practice.

I have been told by Don Anderson and heard Dennis Brimhall suggest that there could be many more of these in the future.

It is really exciting to see that the big providers in the genealogy community see the value they often preach, that of collaborating. It is truly a good thing.

Continue to the family search blog for the remaining Q & A

Here is an update on new FamilySearch and Family Tree.

Recent Family Tree Changes

Print Pedigree now includes PIDs

A few weeks ago, we updated the Family Group Records to include the PIDs for each individual.  With this update, all users will now see the PID for each person printed on a Pedigree Chart in the format: Sarah Moulton (KWNK-3B7).

Review Merge comparison look changes

The merge page styling has changed slightly to make it more obviously that conclusions on the right are being copied to the left. Note the use of the gray background for Person B (right side).

Sources during Merge process

Sources are now preselected during the merge process to prevent sources from being unintentionally dropped during a merge.

To tell whether the source was on the original record before the review or not, look for the “undo” option in the upper right corner of each source.  In the picture above, the “undo” option shows which means it was not on the original record but was “added” from the second record as part of the process.  The “undo” option still lets the patron choose if they want to keep the source as part of the merge process or not.  The “undo” will move the source back to the second record and delete the source from the record when they complete the merge.  They may not want to keep a source because it is already on the record in another format (i.e. manually created versus system created) or decided it is an incorrect source (i.e. for a different person).

New FamilySearch Changes

There is currently a scheduled release for new FamilySearch on Tuesday, Feb 25^th.  In this release, there is one known change for patrons: A fix for the bug currently preventing patrons from seeing all children in the pedigree using Chrome.