Update Made on: Family Tree API Officially Released - Dates for Shutting Down NFS API Announced

I have received some new information and clarification on my previous article "Family Tree API Officially Released - Dates for Shutting Down NFS API Announced". The updates are marked in read on the original article.

http://rzamor1.blogspot.com/2013/06/family-tree-api-officially-released.html

Gordon Clarke, FamilySearch API Program Manager,  sent me the following: 

Here’s a concise statement about certification that will be posted to FSDN very soon.

““Now that the FamilySearch Family Tree API is finalized and all unrestricted deceased data has been transferred from new.Familysearch.org (NFS) to FamilySearch.org Family Tree (FT) all certification of 3rd Party Products reading or writing to NFS has ended. Members of FamilySearch developer network have been asked to stop any development using familytree/v2 API.

All technical support for 3rd Party Products writing or reading NFS data will end June 30^th. 

All reference to 3rd Party Products that were previously certified on the NFS API will end September 15^th.”

Family Tree API Officially Released - Dates for Shutting Down NFS API Announced

The following was announced on the FamilySearch Developer's List this morning. My comments follow after the announcement.

FamilySearch is pleased to announce the official release of the FamilySearch API.  Thank you to all who participated during the beta and pilot phases. This release will replace the familytree/v2 API (targeting new.familysearch.org) for all tree reads and writes.  With the release of the latest FamilySearch API the following dates are also announced:

June 30 – Write capability for the familytree/v2  API will be turned off.  Partners can no longer use this API to write to the tree.  This functionality is replaced with the release of the latest FamilySearch API.

The collaboration toolkit (a feature of the FamilySearch API), which includes sources, discussions, and the change log, has moved from beta to pilot.  With the collaboration toolkit in pilot, partners should feel confident the code is stable and start implementing the features.

Sept 15 – All partners who write to the FamilySearch Family Tree will need to implement the features of the collaboration toolkit by Sept 15 in order to maintain their certification.  They will be able to re-certify after the collaborative features are added.

End of year – Partners will be able to continue to use the read functionality of the familytree/v2 API until the end of the year.

This means if you are using a 3rd Party Product that still works with NFS then you will no longer be able to send information between NFS and your program come June 30th. (3 May 2013 combine/separate was turned off in the NFS API.) This is putting the pinch on some developers that have not already become certified to Tree Share with Family Tree.  They now have a deadline to do so.

You can see the status of the 3rd Party Products and their certification by going to https://familysearch.org/products . Look for the check mark to the left of their name to determine which programs work directly with Family Tree. On the right also check that they have Tree Share certification. Meaning they are products that will allow you to read and write to the Family Tree. They need both icons. All reference to 3rd Party Products that were previously certified on the NFS API will end September 15^th.

After the ability to write to NFS is turned off you will still be able to read data in NFS until the end of the year. All technical support for 3rd Party Products reading NFS data will end June 30^th.  All reference to 3rd Party Products that were certified on the NFS API will end September 15^th.

My understanding from this timeline is that all data from NFS should be moved over to Family Tree before the end of the year or possibly sooner. Once that happens the connection from NFS to FT will be severed. Which would allow us to merge the duplicates in FT that we were prevented from doing so because they were IOUS in NFS. That will be a happy day for many of us. The transfer of all unrestricted deceased data from NFS to FT has been completed.

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

Update 6/04/2013: I received clarification from Gordon Clarke, FamilySearch API Program Manager, on the shutting down of NFS API and Certification.  The changes are marked in red.

“Now that the FamilySearch Family Tree API is finalized and all unrestricted deceased data has been transferred from new.Familysearch.org (NFS) to FamilySearch.org Family Tree (FT) all certification of 3rd Party Products reading or writing to NFS has ended. Members of FamilySearch developer network have been asked to stop any development using familytree/v2 API.  

All technical support for 3rd Party Products writing or reading NFS data will end June 30^th. 

All reference to 3rd Party Products that were previously certified on the NFS API will end September 15^th.”

Moving User Entered Sources from new.FamilySearch to FS - Family Tree

I found the following posted on the FHCNet Mailing List.

An announcement was made in a Get_Satisfaction discussion today that is encouraging. Be Prepared.

Ron Tanner (Family Tree Guy) wrote:
In a few weeks we will be sending out a survey to ask people if they want their NFS sources brought over or not. Those who choose to not move them over, we will not migrate their entered sources. For everyone else we will migrate their entered sources. Essentially the form in nFS was to generate a citation. We will collapse these pieces to create a citation and titles other information will be in the notes. We will create sources for you (they will appear in your source box) and attach them to the person they are on in nFS.

Do I Still Need a Desktop Genealogy Program or is Family Tree Enough?

If you're a family history consultant then you have probably came across this question. "Why do we need a desktop program?  Can't we just use the FamilySearch Family Tree instead?" At RootsTech 2013 I attended an Unconferencing session hosted by Gordon Clarke, FamilySearch API Program Manager. This same question was asked of the Tree Share Panelists: Bruce Buzbee (RootsMagic), Luc Comeau (Legacy Family Tree), Gaylon Findlay (Ancestral Quest), and Dovy Pukstys (RealTime Collaboration/AncestorSync)

I am going to try and recap their thoughts and my own as to why we still need a desktop program.

1. In theory it would be lovely to work only on the web, but Family Tree does not have the power that a desktop program can give you. The same features in a desktop program would be too costly to recreate on the web. 

2. People want to keep some things private, especially if it can be embarrassing or hurtful to other family members. They don't want to share certain things until they are ready to do so. Information that is private can be vital in how you come to conclusions in your research. There is more security having your database under your total control on the desktop than the web will ever be. The Family Tree is also not intended as a place to record information on living individuals. Being able to have both the living and the dead in one family database seems to eliminate a potential hassle and security concerns.

3. Custom reporting is a big reason for maintaining your own database with a desktop program. Analytical reporting and queries on the desktop would be very expensive in a web application. The bandwidth needed would be very costly. Online applications will not have the processing power that is available on a PC. They just cannot compete with your computer resources. The reports from a desktop program look more professional than the website versions. You can also save reports made on the desktop as RTF files and massage them exactly the way you want in Word. This gives you a lot of control and a great advantage.

4. In a desktop program you can have more than one database. You can have a database with proven research and another with those that are not. In the research process you can come across individuals that may be part of a family. In the desktop program you can continue to do more research and prove your conclusions before you add them to the Family Tree. If instead you added your assumptions to Family Tree while building your case, others that have access could change your findings. It's also easier to sift, sort and compare electronically people in your database than online.

5. The web vs. the desktop has two different purposes and usually two different audiences. The web is used to attract people to genealogy, to share with others and get them interested. When people really start researching their family history you will find they start using a desktop. They have to because the web is a box and doesn't fit everyone and doesn't have all the power as the desktop computer. The desktop is where the real success and real concrete evidence is finalized for a real researcher.

6. There are a lot of people that still are not online. When you put your family history online you can only share it with family members that are online. There is a need to be able to share in other ways. You could create Shareable CDs or books with your family history to share with others. These types of options will not be available with online applications. 

7. Desktop programs allow you to organize and analyze your data in a particular way. You can create special groups of people based on specific search criteria.  For example: finding everyone living during the 1940 US Federal Census. Then you can focus your research efforts on those individuals for that data set. 

8. Life gets busy; people tend to work on their family history in little pockets of time. Desktop programs have To-Do Lists and Research Logs that help you manage and track your research efforts. They help you keep records on your thought process and what records you have searched. You can record which records you want to look at in the future as the impressions come to you. These are great tools in breaking down brick walls and furthering your research.  You're not spinning your wheels trying to remember where you left off each time you get back to your family history.  In the long run this makes a person much more productive with the little time they do have to devote on their genealogy.

9. With a desktop program you can get very comfortable knowing its not changing on you. With a website the company can change things really quickly and you have no control over that. Everyone that uses the website is forced to change.  With a desktop program you can stay with an older version if desired and not be forced to change. The desktop programs interface between New FamilySearch and Family Tree is likely to stay very similar to each other. If you were only using the websites you suddenly experienced a whole new learning curve.

10. One great customizing tool in the desktop program is color-coding. You can select a specific person and color his ancestors. If your 2nd cousin color-coded it would be different lines. A community environment doesn't give you that customization. 

11. The desktop program have internal record numbers (RINs). People get used to memorizing people in their file by record numbers. On the web that would be very hard to wrap your head around the numbering systems. 

12. From a web developer KISS is the entire world. Keep it Simple... the most successful websites are the simplest ones. Desktop can go as complex and customizable as desired. The web treats everyone as one person. It's hard to give that customization. The web mimics what the desktop has already done. People will continue to use desktop programs because the developers innovate in the way genealogist care about. Web guys innovate in ways that will bring more users, but not necessarily better research. 

13. If you have your data in a desktop program and something happens to you it's still on your computer and someone can find it. If all your data is sitting up on a company's website and that website disappears you don't have your data. Your data is actually safer in your possession because you can make sure you've got backups.  You make sure that as media type's change you take your data and migrate it and use different formats. So if one of them happens to go down or disappears you still got the data in a format. To keep your data on a website or in a single cloud it's at your own risk. 

14. How many people that only used New FamilySearch have now lost data, with the migration to Family Tree? Not everything has been transferred over. What do they have as a reference to make sure the records are now correct?  Do they need to manually retype all the changes in again? Each time you retype data you add the element of human error while doing so.  In a desktop program you can compare your data with what is on the Family Tree. Then send an exact copy of what is in your database if changes are needed. Are you confident that Family Tree will not be replaced in the future with something else?

15. As a genealogist I have experienced where I needed to go back several years of research to an old backup to see what it was at that period in time. You can't get that picture in a website, because it is always changing. By making backups routinely you have a historical snapshot of what the state was at that point in time. 

16. If you only keep your family history on Family Tree you are missing out on finding potential researchers working on your lines. The more places you share your research on the web the greater potential you have of finding other family members. Desktop programs allow you to create GEDCOMs to share your data on other websites. You can upload your database to Ancestry.com, WorldConnect, Geni, and MyHeritage, to name a few. You can also create your own websites with desktops programs and host them yourself. These in turn can be searchable in Google where other researchers can find you.

17. Maintaining your own database is the only way you can be sure your data or some portion of it has not been lost, corrupted mechanically or merged improperly.  Some temple ordinances have been lost or have choked in the pipeline.  If you have your own records on what has been done previously you can help FamilySearch find the missing ordinances and restore them.  If you are dependent on FamilySearch maintaining those records you have nothing to fall back on.

18. When you use a desktop program to interface with Family Tree you will stay connected as long as you don't close the program. On the Family Tree you will be periodically logged out if you are inactive for even a short period of time.  Anyone that does research will need to step away for a few minutes to consult other resources, their research logs, or just analysis their findings.  Having to continually log back into Family Tree is very time consuming and frustrating and doesn't make for a good experience.

19. In a Desktop program you can choose colors, fonts, display styles for names, dates and places. You can set up your database to show in the way that will best assist you in your tasks.  An online application does not have that ability. 

20. Desktop programs provide a variety of "Dashboard" features for tracking your temple submissions and their progress. It's easier to determine who still needs their ordinances done and which have been completed. You can manage your temple cards and record which family members you have assigned them to. 

21. Desktop programs can help keep you in touch with living family members that are not interested right now in family history. It can be a great tool in planning family reunions.  You can determine very easily all the living descendants of a common ancestor. Most programs include a way to record contact information. You can also generate calendars showing family members birthdays and other special events. 

The Family Tree is a great tool, but it is just not there yet to replace the desktop programs.  Maybe in another 10 years the technology, bandwidth and computing power will evolve enough for it to do so.  For now, there is still a great need for the desktop programs. Family Tree and the desktop programs actually need each other.  The Family Tree helps by getting new people interested in working on their family history.  It's a starting point for them.  The desktop programs in turn receive new customers when the Family Tree users realize they need more features to help them manage their research efforts. This in turns helps them come to better conclusions in their research that then can be added back to the Family Tree. 

FamilySearch is doing a wonderful job by allowing third party affiliates (genealogy software programs) to interact with the Family Tree through their API. It bridges and brings the online experience within the desktop experience. You can have the best of both worlds together.  To learn more about the third party affiliate programs certified to sync with Family Tree check out the following link: https://familysearch.org/products

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

New FamilySearch 3rd Party Products Update

This past Friday (3 May 2013) FamilySearch removed the ability to do combines or separate in the NFS API. That means you can no longer combine or separate using a 3rd Party Affiliate Product.  This feature was turned off because of the damage combining and separating was doing to the FamilySearch Family Tree.

If you have the following products and version numbers you will no longer be able to do combines or separate using their New FamilySearch sync features.

Ancestral Quest 14.00.9 build date 20 Mar 2013 - current version
Ancestral Quest had turned off the combine feature when their latest version came out. To get around combining, since AQ doesn't yet sync with Family Tree, they have a unique method of launching your browser so you can do the actual merging instead on the Family Tree website. You still see the NFS results on your compare screens inside the program.  Ancestral Quest has not launched an update yet to work with FamilySearch Family Tree it is still NFS Certified - Tree Share only.  It is working on becoming FT Certified. My guess is this feature will be a free update to version 14. If you don't have the latest build of AQ you will want to update so you can at least launch your browser through the program so you can merge on FT.

Legacy Family Tree 7.5.0.219 build date 15 Feb 2013 - current version

The current version still only works with NFS. My gut tells me that Legacy will wait for version 8 to come out before they add the FT sync feature. Legacy 7 has been around way to long (since 2007) and people might not pay to upgrade if you put FT sync in version 7. At RootsTech I learned that Legacy 8 was coming out, but no clear indication of when. On the Southern California Genealogical Society (SCGS) website they did announce Geoff Rasmussen will be teaching a Legacy 8 class at their annual conference (Jun 7-9, 2013). While at the UGA S. Davis Conference Apr 20th I asked a new guy behind the Legacy booth when version 8 was coming out and he said 3-4 weeks. So we are getting a small window on how soon Legacy 8 should appear.  Of course, what's planned and how beta testing goes on a new version can totally destroy any time frames.

RootsMagic 6.0.0.5 build 21 Feb 2013 - last version with NFS sync (current version 6.1.0.3 has FT sync)

If you have older versions of the software that synced with NFS you will no longer be able to do combines. RootsMagic released version 6.1 at RootsTech and it is FT Certified for Tree Share. It will work directly with FamilySearch Family Tree and you can do merges inside of the program. If you have version 6.0 you need to update to 6.1 it's free. If you have RM 4 or 5 it's time to upgrade to RM 6. RootsMagic 6 Essentials is the free version that will sync with Family Tree.

Real-Time Collaboration, Inc. - FamilyInsight and AncestorSplit

I don't know what the latest version of either program is. The website doesn't mention it either. It's been a long time since I  have seen FamilyInsight at any genealogy conferences. Rumor has it that FamilyInsight was not going to update the program to become Family Tree Certified.  We have to wait to see if that rumor is correct. As long as PAF is around there will be people that want to use FamilyInsight with it.

AncestorSplit was a great program that helped you split people that were combined incorrectly on New FamilySearch.  I used that program all the time. Now that feature is pretty much dead in the water.  I don't know if it can be resurrected to be applicable with Family Tree or not. My guess is that's programs gone now too.

Well that's all the news I have on the New FamilySearch front.  We all know NFS is going away and being replaced with FamilySearch Family Tree. Shutting off the ability to do combines and separate in NFS API has just help make the Family Tree much more stable. Won't we all breath a since of relief when this whole transition period is over.

If you want to follow when a 3rd Party Product becomes FT Certified go to this link: https://familysearch.org/products . The graphics are a little confusing. When the product because FT Certified it will have a small check mark to the left of their name.

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

FamilySearch Family Tree Available to All

The FamilySearch Blog quietly announced on Tues, March 5, 2013, that the "Family Tree is Live on FamilySearch.org for All Users". I have been waiting for an official press release from FamilySearch on this announcement, but so far none has come.

I speculate that the reason they are silent is out of concern with overwhelming the FamilySearch website with to much traffic.

FamilySearch Family Tree is the replacement for the New FamilySearch (NFS) website. NFS was rolled out very slowly to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint by temple districts. It took several years for all LDS members to gain access. Then it was slowly being released to the public but never became available to everyone. During the roll-out process it was determined that the model needed major changes. FamilySearch Family Tree is the second generation model.

That said NFS is still not officially dead. If you are using any of the third party affiliates with NFS you are still not able to sync with FamilySearch Family Tree.  Some affiliates say they are syncing with Family Tree but that's really stretching the truth.  If you move data to NFS through a third party product it could "potentially" be passed along to Family Tree but it isn't directly going there.

Third party affiliates are still waiting for FamilySearch to complete the API to FamilySearch Family Tree so their programs can sync with it. The sooner that days comes the happier I will be.

I have discovered that if you gain access to Family Tree you also gain access to the New FamilySearch website. Your login can be used on both websites. That means any one can access NFS through third party programs.  We have had a lot of anxious RootsMagic users waiting to be able to do that.

A word of caution here. If your third party affiliate program allows combining on NFS don't use that part of the program. Combines on NFS are messing up things on Family Tree. That is because Family Tree uses a different process called Merging and they are not the same thing.

During this transition period both websites are actually pretty unstable. There are periods of time that both sites go down.  So be patient. The announcement that FamilySearch Family Tree is available to everyone is  a significant milestone in it's development.  I feel like we are beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel.

If you haven’t had a chance to see FamilySearch Family Tree in action, simply go the FamilySearch.org site and click on Family Tree at the top of the page. You can also take advantage of the training website to view tutorials, access a user guide, and much more.

There is also a great personal website developed by Elder LeLand Moon a Family History Library Training Missionary. He has a great collection of training videos to help you learn how to use Family Tree. You can visit his site at: http://familysearchtraining.com/ .

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

Ogden Family History Fair Report

Saturday, Sept 15th was the annual Ogden Family History Fair. I believe it is the third time being held at Weber State College.  It's also the third time I have attended and enjoyed this conference.

There were tons of classes to select from, but I wanted to immerse myself in the subject of Family Tree, with the goal of having a greater understanding of it. The conference began on a high note with a keynote address from Ron Tanner, Product Manager for FamilySearch. He was in remarkable form, very entertaining and delivered a lot of emotion and passion on the subject of FamilySearch, in particular new FamilySearch (NFS) and it's replacement Family Tree. I attended Ron's class after the keynote which gave us opportunity to ask lots of questions.  He's the man that can tell you what's happening at FamilySearch.

There were two other instructors on Family Tree, Debbie Burnett and Edith Reeves. I attended each two part class that they offered, giving their own twist on Family Tree.

Ron Tanner's Keynote Address and Class Notes

We have to change the way we do genealogy.  Instead of playing the game "Go Fish", we need to play fair in the genealogy pool.  The goal is to build a "Tree of the Human Family", everyone working together, so we can stop researching the same people over and over again.

There was a rumor going around that this coming Wednesday, Family Tree was going to be released to the public. That is not going to happen.  The plan is to go public next month. Then when people visit www.familysearch.org they will see a Family Tree link. Everyone will be able to look at it.  If you want to edit, make changes, you will need to register or login to your account to do so.  There will be no more need to request an invite.

After the public release of Family Tree there will be a three month or so time frame that New FamilySearch will be still live. Early 2013 New FamilySearch (NFS) will be gone! (Personally, I think this time frame for duel access if to give FamilySearch Affiliates time to make changes to their programs to transfer over to Family Tree.)

In October all the Temple features will be fully functioning in Family Tree.  We will then be in Pilot phase of Family Tree until the end of the year.  They will be adding the Add/Delete person features, Helper function, and the ability to Print.

Next year we will get the ability to scan and attach our own documents.

Ron was asked about adding GEDCOMs.  We were told they are writing a new GEDCOM system.  It will be available on FamilySearch in November. When you add a tree by GEDCOM it will use a tool to compare the GEDCOM with records that are already in Family Tree.  It will show you the status of how many are already in the Family Tree, and how many are new.  You will only be able to add the new people, but first you have to search the tree and compare possible duplicates on each one.  The process is purposely more painful for adding GEDCOMs so it stops the resulting pain others feel cleaning up the duplicates.

Separate from Family Tree is another Trees area on FamilySearch.  If you go to FamilySearch now you will find the Trees link under the word "Discover Your Family History"  This section is for Ancestral File (AF), Pedigree Resource File (PRF) and patron submissions.  This is the best area to upload your GEDCOM instead of the Family Trees. Ron told us patrons will have the ability to remove their old Pedigree Resource File submissions.  That is going to help clean up FamilySearch tremendously.

There are tutorials on learning how to use FamilySearch Family Tree.  They have plans on creating more of them.  You can find the tutorials at: http://familysearch.org/tree-training .

Instead of Combine & Separate that was in NFS, Family Tree will have a Merge & UnMerge function.  You will also have the ability to mark individuals as "Not a Match".

When the Pilot Phase of Family Tree is released in Oct the Combine feature will be turned off in NFS.  This is due to all the issues involved with the two systems sharing information.

Right now there is no system to deal with LDS Temple Ordinances that have been reserved by patrons and left undone for years.  The Church and FamilySearch are evaluating the status of these old temple cards.  They may be having these old cards released to the Temple to be done. Another option is the ability to share your ordinances with others to complete. These items are still in discussion.

I loved Ron's presentation and am excited for all the new changes and great things to come with FamilySearch.

Debbie Burnett Class Notes

• The NFS Personal Identification No. is now simply ID No. in Family Tree.
• Searches can be refined. Advanced search will allow you to search by parent and it will return back all their children.
• In your Temple Ordinance List you can use Ctrl-F to locate a person you are looking for.
• The History List will remain even after you logout.  It will save the last 50 people viewed.
• The Source Box is like a clipboard to attach sources to people.
• Once a source is attached from FamilySearch records you can remove them from the Source Box. It will not delete the source from the attached people.
• There is a difference in the links to Ancestry if you are using your own account or the FHC's Ancestry Institution account. This does effect the source links to documents from Family Tree to Ancestry.

Edith Reeves Class Notes

• There are Practice Activities on the Family Tree Training webpage to help you familiarize yourself with the program features. You can find them at: https://familysearch.org/tree-training
• Edith said you can remove any source in your source box after you attached it to someone. Debbie earlier said you can only do this with FamilySearch sources.  I watched Edith's demonstration and she appeared correct.
• You can copy a source attached to someone on Family Tree to your own Source Box and reuse it.
• There are some lost children and pedigree lines on Family Tree from the NFS move.  You will have to just search for the people to connect the lines.

Renee's Observations

My notes may not make sense to the readers that are not familiar with Family Tree.  I encourage you to watch the videos on - https://familysearch.org/tree-training .

My initial impression of Family Tree and it's wiki style, using the all-on-one-page concept, was favorable.  As I watched the demonstrations by Debbie and Edith it became quite painful to watch all the scrolling.  I wanted to yell use the Page Up, Page Down, Home & End keys on your keyboard.

As simple as it was to add sources, there was also a lot of clicking and page jumping involved. It would seem like you could keep one window open to your source box and another to Family Tree. Definitely need to play in this area.

It took me a little while to realize that when they moved people from NFS to Family Tree they came over as one combined person.  It doesn't have the separate people combined in one folder concept anymore, meaning you can't uncombine them. With uncombining in NFS you could remove the incorrect person's records and all their junk would disappear.  In Family Tree you have to clean it up.  I can see a huge benefit for those that have clean records in their genealogy databases to refer to. The need to have your own separate database for your genealogy is not going away any time soon.

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

Get early access to FamilySeach Family Tree!

The following is from FamilySearch.

Get Early Access to the Family Tree
on FamilySearch.org!

Congratulations! You have been selected to be among the first to use the new Family Tree on FamilySearch.org.
 

Now you can access your family tree and the largest collection of genealogy resources in the world from a single website—FamilySearch.org.
 

Why you? Because you are familiar with new.FamilySearch.org. The Family Tree, which represents a new approach to researching and organizing your family tree, will be replacing new.FamilySearch.org in the coming months. Early access allows you to explore the Family Tree using your own tree data on a live system. You can also invite other users of new.FamilySearch.org to work with you. (They will just need to follow the activation instructions provided below.)
 

What Is the Family Tree?

The Family Tree is a new service found at FamilySearch.org that enables you to enjoy family history in new ways. Once all of the features are in place, the Family Tree will replace new.FamilySearch and will be freely and publicly available to people around the world.
 

The Family Tree will let you:

• Connect and collaborate with others who share an interest in a common ancestral line.
• Add, edit, and delete relationships between individuals in the Family Tree.—Coming Soon!
• Edit vital and other information for all of your ancestors.
• Discuss and source family tree information to improve conclusions over time.
• View the history of changes to your ancestors, providing increased understanding and control over changes and revisions.
• Add specific ancestors to a personal “Watch List” to receive notifications whenever information about those ancestors is added or changed.
• Try out new features and functionality as they are added over the coming months.

Get started today! Please follow the instructions below to activate your account and pioneer this new approach to family history.
 

First-time Account Activation
for Access to the Family Tree

To activate your current FamilySearch Account for access to the Family Tree, just sign in on the special access page. Go to http://familysearch.org/invite/familytree_tab to sign in using your normal account credentials. This will be the only time you will need to access this page.

>> Activate your account to access the Family Tree

The first time you sign in, you will be automatically redirected to your family tree section on the main FamilySearch.org website. That’s right, you will now be able to access your family tree information right on FamilySearch.org! All of the information from new.FamilySearch.org has been conveniently added to the Family Tree, and any changes you make in either system will be available in both systems. Your family tree and other features can be accessed when you click on the Family Tree tab at the top-left of the web page.

Once you activate your account, you can then access the Family Tree anytime you sign in to the FamilySearch.org website. Be sure to always sign in. If you are not signed in, the Family Tree link will not appear on the site.
 

Got a Question?

If you need help, contact Support at 1-866-406-1830 orsupport@familysearch.org. Please note that help is currently limited to enabling access to the Family Tree. 

A complete user guide for the Family Tree is available online to help you get started. Additional support materials will be available soon.
 

Your Feedback Is Important

During the initial stages of the Family Tree, your experiences, insights, and ideas will help us to refine the process. Please take the time to share your thoughts by clicking the orange Feedback tab on the top right of the web page. You’ll also be able to view the comments of other users.

We hope you enjoy exploring the Family Tree and that you find much joy as you discover more about your family history.
 

Thanks!
Family Tree Team at FamilySearch

Policies for Submitting Names for Temple Ordinances

The following is from FamilySearch and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Notice Date:       March 13, 2012 To:          Registered Users of New.FamilySearch.org From:      Family History Department Subject:  Policies for Submitting Names for Temple Ordinances Recently, the First Presidency of the Church reiterated the policies, first stated in 1995, concerning the submitting of names for proxy temple ordinances. As a user of the system (new.familysearch.org) where temple ordinances are cleared and submitted, you should follow these important policies. You will find the policy letter attached to this e-mail. In a related Church News article, Brother Dennis C. Brimhall, managing director of the Family History Department, reported that “the searching out of our family and preparing the names for the work to be done in the temple is . . . a responsibility, but it is also a privilege. That privilege is extended to the members by those who hold the keys to [do] the work. The[se] keys . . . are held by the First Presidency of the Church” (Sarah Jane Weaver, “Family History—Church Asks Members to Understand Policies,” Church News, Mar. 1, 2012). (Click here to see the article.) The First Presidency set these policies. Accordingly, the Conditions of Use for users ofnew.familysearch.org and familysearch.org require compliance to the policies before you can submit names to the temple. Noncompliance by a user could mean the loss of his or her privileges to use the system. Should you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask your local family history consultant or anyone serving at a family history center. You may also e-mail questions directly tobranchout@familysearch.org.

NFS Migrating over to www.FamilySearch.org

This past Saturday night was the annual Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group (UVTAGG) Board Member Christmas Party. Besides having lovely conversations over dinner we had Ron Tanner there to give us a private presentation on what's happening with FamilySearch. 

New FamilySearch is being redesigned for it's placement into the www.familysearch.org website. The new design is live but with limited functionality and access.  If you currently have access to NFS and an LDS Account Login you can go to http://familysearch.org/invite/familytree_tab and sign up for access to the new design inside of the www.familysearch.org website.

The next time you login to www.familysearch.org you will see a tab at the top for the FamilySearch Family Tree link.  We need to start referring to NFS as the FamilySearch Family Tree going forward.

FamilySearch Family Tree is in read only format, but live. You can not edit a person's card but you can view it.  The part that you can add to is the sources and discussions. This isn't beta it's the real thing.  I love the clean views and easy access to information by scrolling or hovering over the hot spots.  You can see some views of the Family Tree below. (Click on images for larger views.)

Pedigree View

Person Card

Pedigree View showing drop down of children.  You can also view additional spouses and parents.

You access this view by clicking on "View Ancestor" under the "Person Card" for an individual. 

I haven't had a chance to play with sources yet but it looked really good during the demonstration. The big news is all the duplicates have been removed from an individual's file.  They will now just link back to the Ancestral File, Pedigree Resource File, IGI, Membership Records, etc. that were all jumbled up inside of NFS.  This is a wiki format so it's open edit. Anyone can change anything and we will have a record of the changes to revert back to.

This is a place for your research conclusions so there is only one birth and death field and not a zillion opinions like we had on NFS. The information you see is the summary view for the person on NFS. Currently if you make changes on NFS they will show up in the FamilySearch Family Tree immediately.  Eventually NFS will go away.

Once again access to the FamilySearch Family Tree is limited.  Ron gave me permission to blog about it and let my readers with a current LDS Account request an invite for access to the Family Tree. We are getting close to a design that will work for world access.  They just can't over-whelm the servers letting everyone access at once, besides there's still work to do on it.  They have seen 5 times the traffic on the www.familysearch.org website (with it's new design) than the traffic that was on the classic site. The anticipation is huge for the Family Tree so be patient with the roll-out.

Go to http:familysearch.org/invite/familytree_tab to request your invitation now.

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

Update to "How To Use New FamilySearch Correctly"

The following is from George Scott, author of "How to Use New FamilySearch Correctly".


Dear Friend:

I recently posted an update to my manual "How To Use New FamilySearch Correctly" at my website, www.usingfamilysearch.com.

The updated manual is now available for free download.  This was a major update, as it is the first update in 17 months, so a large portion of the manual has been modified to reflect the many changes which have occurred in New FamilySearch.  So I suggest you will likely want to print the entire manual.

The manual is 81 pages in length, including 3 un-numbered pages at the beginning.  This is about 7 pages longer than the previous version.  Changes include the Watch feature, the termination of Disputes, the new Discussions feature, the rollout to the general public, and many smaller issues.  I also updated the chapter on future changes to New FamilySearch and the chapter on third-party (Affiliate) software programs.

Since many nFS patrons have inkjet printers, it might be cheaper to get a copy from Stevenson's Genealogy Center in Provo.  Stevenson's sells the manual in a spiral binder for $4.25.  Their phone number is 1-800-374-9600, extension 2.  I don't receive any proceeds; that is their photocopying expense.

I greatly apologize for the delay in this update.  I was providing 24/7 care to my wife for 9 months.  Shortly after she deceased, mom suffered a massive stroke, so I took care of her for 5 months until another family member recently took over.  Again, I apologize for the delay and promise to keep the manual better updated in the future.  (In the future, I will identify the pages that have been updated; I didn't do so for this update, since so much was changed.)

I promised to make a video tutorial based on the manual.  I also have to apologize for the huge delay on that project.  I am working on it once again and hope to have the first segments available on the website in September 2011.  It will also be available for free download.  

Again, I am very, very sorry for the delays.

I hope the manual has been helpful to you.  I have received a great amount of positive feedback.  There are currently over 50,000 copies of the manual in use.

Best wishes,

George W. Scott
Orem, Utah

New FamilySearch API is Down

It was noticed around 5:00 p.m. MST that the new FamilySearch API appears to be down. You are able to login to the http://new.familysearch.org website - but not through a third party product.  Trying to access NFS through Ancestral Quest, Legacy and RootsMagic return either a 401 error or invalid login message.  Third party products access NFS through the API which uses a different portal than what users access through the website.

No word from FamilySearch on how long the API will be down.

It's been a tough month for New FamilySearch Affiliates

If you have tried this month to test any of the FamilySearch affiliate programs you may have noticed long delays, freezing, issues with logins, slowness, etc.  This probably did not give you confidence that these programs worked. This has not been the month for testing affiliate programs.

A couple of weeks ago Amazon had server problems.  FamilySearch uses Amazon servers and there were connection issues using NFS depending on which servers you were being routed through.  While this was happening FamilySearch was dealing with their own server issues. The FamilySearch affiliates that sync with NFS can only work as good as the connection is to NFS.  Bad NFS connection = bad response in affiliate software.

No sooner did we think things were resolved than a new situation comes up.  FamilySearch gave the following notice Monday to the affiliates, updating them on what was happening.

Affiliates,

Beginning Friday May 20th between 5:00 and 6:00 PM we have been experiencing some extreme internal network issues in our data center. This has caused major performance issues with our Production APIs. Our Operations Team has been working on the issue over the weekend and will continue to work around the clock until the problem is resolved. We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused to both you and your customers.

I will be sure send out another email when the problem has been resolved.

Thank You!

FamilySearch Developer Support

FamilySearch did send out another email today on the situation.

From FamilySearch support:
Affiliates,
 
Our Operations Team was able to locate a bad piece of network equipment that was causing the issues. The equipment was removed and replaced last night and things have returned back to normal. Again we apologize for the slowness over the weekend. Thank you for your patience as we worked through these problems!
 
FamilySearch

I would encourage anyone that has been trying to test out any of the affiliate programs during this past month to take into consideration the problems going on with the new FamilySearch website.  Please try the programs again, if performance issues made a big factor in your decision on which program to use.

Popular Affiliate Software: Ancestral Quest, Family Insight, Legacy Family Tree and RootsMagic

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