FamilySearch Enhancements

The following is from FamilySearch.

Dear Renee,

As a regular FamilySearch user, you are aware of our recent site enhancements. In addition to the new look and feel, we have also made updates to improve our search and research tools. As part of these updates, we

• Made record searching available in 10 languages.
• Created new systems to allow us to efficiently add many more searchable records every day. 
• Launched a fan chart pedigree view to make it easier to see the ends of ancestral lines.
• Added new, easier ways to access live research or product help from anywhere on the site. 
• Made it easy to return to the last five ancestors worked on in the tree via a logged-in home page.
• Added photos and stories to bring family history to life.
• Opened the Family Tree to a much larger audience , which increases the number of people contributing, sharing, and collaborating.

We have seen a lot of excitement about these new features and updates. Along with the positive, however, there has also been some negative feedback about things such as the new location of some of our research tools, text legibility, and the process for attaching sources to ancestors. We want you to know that we are committed to addressing feedback and making FamilySearch.org the best place for you to have research success.

Ongoing Updates

While continuing to develop and improve new site features, we have already made progress in addressing some of the concerns our users have raised. For example, we have added a link to the Research Wiki on the main page and in the search menu, we darkened our fonts and made them larger to aid readability, and we simplified the sourcing process to allow sources to be added with a single click. This last enhancement has led to a record number of sources being added to the Family Tree-74 percent growth in the last three weeks!

To aid in the transition to the new look, feel, and functionality, we have arranged with FamilySearch community advocate Devin Ashby to provide a detailed review of new site changes, including the updates mentioned above. You can view Devin's presentation here.

We want to keep the conversation going. Please visit our feedback page to share your ideas on how we can continue to make our tools easier and more useful.

The FamilySearch Team