FHCs Jumping the Gun

On Monday I reported in my article “Heritage Quest at FHCs.” that I had received a call while at the Alpine FHC to help set up access to Heritage Quest on our center computers. I understood that the Church was calling all centers to help set up their access. In just three days since my blog post I am amazed at what has transpired.

Many FHCs decided to not wait for the call from the Church to help them set up access. Since I had listed the website http://www.fhc.familysearch.org (thinking it would only work at the FHCs) I didn’t realized that people actually at the FHCs would jump the gun and try the directions to install access to the new online databases at their own centers. Seems that once FHCs ran into problems getting access they turned around and contacted Family History Support for assistance. Now Family History Support is being overwhelmed with calls.

I thought I would give you a little more information to help tame the masses.

1. You must wait for a call from the Church letting you know you have access to the new online databases. They will also be contacting centers through LDSMail.net. This is a gradual process and only a few centers have been given access. Family History Support would really appreciate it if you would not call them concerning not being able to access the databases unless you have received authorization thru LDSMail. More centers are given access every day and they cannot tell you when your center will be contacted. They know that everyone is excited and anxious to have these databases, but please be patient with them during this time of authorization and access.

2. From an e-mail sent to FHC directors through the LDSMAIL system on May 15, 2007: "At present, only centers in the United States who 1) have installed LANDesk, 2) have more than two PCs, and 3) are open at least 10 hours per week will qualify to have access to this service."

Note: Selected centers in other countries will also receive access.

3. There were a number of services announced, and the department is working to provide access to each of these services. At present, Heritage Quest Online and WorldVitalRecords are working and are being progressively rolled out to the centers. Each center that qualifies will be contacted. Once the department is confident that things are working well all centers will be notified via LDSMail.

Footnote, in particular, has a technical problem with the access method being used to authenticate that the connection is coming from a family history center. This problem is being worked on by the Family History Department as well as Footnote and should be resolved soon. There also should shortly be a notice in LDS Mail providing an update on these services.

The site is not fully up yet. You may be able to access Heritage Quest and possibly some of the others but not all of them. They will send out a message on LDS Mail when the site is fully functional. Please do not contact the Family History Department if you cannot get access to Footnote, Godfrey Memorial Library, Kindred Konnections and possibly WorldVitalRecords. They are not prepared to be accessed yet. You will be notified when these sites are ready.

I apologize if I have caused any misunderstanding on the roll out process in my previous article.

See ya tomorrow, for tomorrow is always another genealogy day!