Important updates are posted on the FamilySearch blog. For example this post below is about some of the changes you have been asking for on Family Tree. At last you might say: they moved the sources over from new.familysearch. Yes, they did that to the best they could. If the source you entered didn't transfer it was because for some reason they couldn't make the move. Over 90% of the sources made it across to Family Tree.
I've already entered a Life Sketch on my 2nd Great Grandfather Elisha Cragun. It's a handy place to place it, above Vital Information. Only one life sketch can be entered and anyone can edit it. I suggest you contact those that entered the sketch before you make changes, just out of courtesy and the idea of working with your relatives.
Family Tree was a bold undertaking, going live with much to complete. I admire the commitment those involved have made. I appreciate Ron Tanner for his willingness to be out in front of us. I made note of the differences in his presentation from the beginning to a year later: at first it was total enthusiasm, it changed to appear as a man who had been in the ring with a heavy weight champion - what a beating that would be, right? However, he bravely stayed in the fray and dealt with the facts.
It has been quite enjoyable for me to watch him perform. He recently shared some stats I found encouraging: one of them that 1/3 of the work being performed on the tree is by non members of the LDS Church. That is terrific, we are all in this together, descendants of common ancestors. The tree is for all of us.
Another interesting fact which we learned Saturday at Riverton is that there are an average of 25,000 merges a day going on in Family Tree. That is a serious amount of cleaning up the tree.
A final thought for today by myself: I serve in the world wide support section. I see the tone of the emails. I hear the frustration in the phone calls. So many are upset when they contact us. A common heading to an email is "SOMEONE MESSED WITH MY TREE" OR MY TREE IS A MESS!" Can you hear the frustration in the capital letters? My hope is that those who feel this way can do a shift as I have done. I know the feeling, I've had it. A change in attitude can change more than our hearts. A cousin I met from this blog and I have developed not only a friendship but are now working together on our genealogy. She is a terrific researcher. I am not bad, but still learning. She is so focused on research she feels she doesn't have the time to add her sources and other research to the tree. So, I am doing that for her, I'm real good at that part. What helped me over the mess in part of our tree was her suggestion that went like this: " Larry, both the Osborne's and The Whitakers in family tree are a mess. You take the Whitakers and I'll take the Osborne's. That mission has turned out to be a great thing for me. Instead of being upset, I'm on a quest. Oh, how much fun it has been. I've connected with others in doing this, I've learned much with much more to prove, and I have had the tremendous satisfaction knowing that I have begun to clean up this mess for others that follow.
Below is a copy of the article in the FamilySearch blog. I normally only clip 1/3 but I copied the entire post to make sure you read it.
October 18, 2013 By
Lynne L. VanWagenen
Some changes additional have been made to Family Tree recently. We are excited to announce these latest changes and updates because we feel that they make using Family Tree a more enjoyable experience for those who use it. These latest changes include:
- Life sketch.
- Notes.
- Migration of most notes from new.familysearch.org.
- More entries on the change history.
- A wording change to the link used to view a parent-child relationship. (Currently, this change affects only the English versions of Family Tree. When we receive the translations, we’ll update the other languages.)
Life Sketch
You can enter a short biography about a person in a new “Life Sketch” section. Some important facts about the life sketch:
- It appears near the top of a person’s details view.
- You can post up to 10,000 characters (letters and symbols, not 10,000 words). If want to add more than the 10,000 character limit, then you should add the story using the Photos and Stories feature.
- Any short biography that is added using the details view can be added, edited, and deleted by all users, which means the writing can be a collaborative process.
- All changes appear in the change history and can be undone if needed.
View, Add, Edit, Delete, Notes
For a long time, our users have been asking for a notes feature in Family Tree. Notes are free-form, narrative information that simply does not fit anywhere else on a person’s record.
You can now view, add, edit, and delete notes in Family Tree. Some important things to know about this new notes feature:
- You can add notes about an individual ancestor, a couple relationships, and a parent-child relationship.
- You cannot enter notes about a specific piece of information about a person (such as a specific birth, marriage, or death event).
- Each note can contain up to 10,000 characters.
- Notes can be added, edited, and deleted by all users.
- All changes to notes appear in the change history and can be undone if needed.
Here is where you can find the various places to enter notes:
- For a person’s notes, the notes are between the Discussions and the Temple Ordinances sections of the person’s details.
For a couple relationship, notes appear beneath the sources.
For a child-parent relationship, notes also appear beneath the sources.
Migration of Notes from new.familysearch.org to Family Tree
FamilySearch has moved most of the notes that were in new.familysearch.org into Family Tree. Please notice the “most” caveat. Not all notes were moved. Exactly which notes were moved is not easy to determine.
The reason for this uncertainty is because in new.familysearch.org, you could add notes in three different places:
- To a person.
- To a specific piece of data about a person (such as a name or birth event).
- To a family relationship. (In new.familysearch.org, these were called both “family notes” and “couple notes,” depending where in the system you were.)
We moved only two of these types of notes:
- Notes about persons
- Notes about relationships.
We did not move the notes about the specific pieces of data. There are no plans to move the notes that were attached to specific pieces of information from new.familysearch.org to Family Tree.
Change History List is Now Increased to 25 Entries
When you view a change history list, it now contains up to 25 entries per page. Previously, you could see only 10 entries per page.
Wording Change
On a person’s details page, in the section where you see Family Relationships, the wording of the link used to see a parent-child relationship has changed from “View Relationship” to “Edit Parents.”
This change has been made in English and will soon be in the languages that FamilySearch is available in.
