New FS Features As of June 2010

By Jack and Sylvia Sonneborn, York, Pennsylvania

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New FS Features as of June 2010

Several changes have been made to the new FamilySearch Web site. For a list of all changes made to thenew Family- Search Web site since its first release in July 2007, see Appendix I of A User’s Guide to the NewFamilySearch Web Site. The beta test was held the week of June 21 and ended June 24. The new features have been added.

The June 2010 release adds discussion boards and exact search. It also provides several features to help userswhose ancestors came from Asia.

Discussions

Each deceased individual in the system has a discussion board, where you can do the following:

• Identify yourself as someone who is interested in or actively working on an individual or family line.

• Coordinate the correction of errors and additional research with other interested users.

• Identify incorrect information on the individual’s record.

Note: Because all discussions will eventually be visible to users who are not Church members, please discusstemple ordinances through e-mail.To find the individual’s discussion board, click the Discussions button. It is located in the lower-left cornerof the screen, beneath the Possible Duplicates button.

Exact Search

The search feature now has exact search options for names, event dates, and event places. You can use exactsearch options to narrow your searches.

For example, you conduct the following search without using any exact match options:

First name: Thomas

Last name: Wall

Birthplace: Liverpool, Lancashire, England, United Kingdom

Your search results contain everyone with the name Thomas or a variation of it (such as Tom, Thom, Tomás,Thos., and so forth), everyone with the last name Wall or one of its variations, and everyone born in thecity of Liverpool, the county of Lancashire, or the country of England.

With the exact option on the names, you get only records that contain Thomas as a first or middle nameand Wall in the last name. With the exact option on the place-name, you get only records with a birthplaceof Liverpool, Lancashire, England, United Kingdom.

To see the exact search options, click Show advanced, which is located to the right of the Search button.

The New FamilySearch Web Site June 2010 1

Improved Selection of Standardized Places

The feature that helps you select a standardized place-name has been improved. When you enter a date for

a birth, marriage, death, or other event, the drop-down list gives you more options.

It is also easier to select and change a standardized place.

Records from Asian Temples

The records of ordinances performed in some Asian temples have been added to the system. This willeventually allow Church members with Asian ancestry to see if the ordinances they are planning to do havealready been done.

Note: The Discussions has an advantage over the dispute because you can be contacted for collaboration. Many of the submitters do not have contact information but they will on Discussions.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE NEW DISCUSSION FEATURE

Advantages of the Discussions Feature

The discussions feature provides a cooperative environment where issues can be discussed and resolved. Ithas many advantages over the dispute feature, which discussions will eventually replace.

• Adding a dispute blocks a user’s ability to make the needed corrections. Discussions do not.

• The dispute feature is not cooperative. It is difficult to question a dispute, defend the disputed information,or add additional information that identifies correct information.

• The discussion feature lets you work with users who do not allow the system to display their e-mailaddress or other contact information.

• The sources and reasoning required to resolve a dispute are valuable and should be preserved with therecord. Using the discussions feature to coordinate corrections preserves this valuable information withthe individual’s record.

• A “discussion” sounds less contentious than a “dispute.”

What Happens to Discussions When Records Are Combined and Separated ?

When an individual’s record is combined with another record, the discussion boards are also combined. Ifan individual’s record is separated, the discussions go with the record to which they belong.

If you begin a discussion on an individual and that individual’s record is combined with another record,find the combined individual by navigating your tree or by using search. The discussion may be located ina different place within the discussion board.

If you cannot find a discussion that you were interested in, the record containing the discussion may havebeen separated from the record where the discussion was originally located. Do a search to find the correctrecord. If you cannot find it, the user who started it may have deleted it.

STANDARDIZED PLACES

If a drop-down list with standardized dates and places appears, select an option to tell the system which date or place to use:

• If you want the system to use only the standardized date or place, click the standard date or place in the drop-down list. The standard replaces what you entered.

Tip: You may not need to type an entire place-name. Instead, start typing the place-name. When the correct place-name appears in the drop-down list, click it to add the place-name to the field. This shortcut reduces both the amount of typing that you do and the risk of typing errors.

• If you want the system to save both what you enter and also a different standard, enter the date or place that you want. Then press Tab, or click the mouse outside of the field. If the system can identify a standard, it selects it for you. If the system cannot identify a standard, it indicates that a standard was not selected.

• If you want the system to use the date or place-name exactly as you entered it and not save a standard, click None Selected.

Note: If the system can identify a standardized date, it saves the standardized date, even if you select None Selected.

Tip: To change a standardized date, reenter the date.

To change a standardized place, click the link that lets you select a standard. From the drop-down list, select the one that you want. The system changes the standard but not what you entered. If the drop-downlist does not contain the correct place, change the place that you entered to provide more information, such as a county or country name.

HOW TO RESSERVE AN EXTRACTION RECORD IN TEMPLE ORDINANCES

When you look up a record in new FamilySearch, and the status is "Ready," even though it says "Reserved by Extraction," the patron can take over the reservation by clicking "This individual's temple ordinances are completed." If it says it is "In Progress," submit a case following KD:109130 titled "Ordinances show in progress reserved by Extraction, Unknown, or LDS Church Temple Records in the new FamilySearch". This document explains extraction, unknown and LDS Temple records can now be released upon request. In some cases the temple has already printed record and those will not be released to patrons.
Also note KD:102940 "When and how will names assigned to the temple be processed?" which states if you cannot do ordinances in a reasonable time of a few months, you should make the names available for others to do.

Terry Mason

BETA AND PILOT SITES

searches the "old" FamilySearch databases:
AF, PRF, IGI, 1880/1881 census, (and probably the SSDI, and Vital Records
Indexes for Mexico & Scandinavia).
searches the "new" databases now in Record
Search.
So they are basically different sets of records.
--
Bill Buchanan

IRISH TIMES

You can read more in an article by Paul Cullen published in the Irish Times web site at

TEACHING YOUTH TO INDEX

The keynote speaker at our last local FH conference was a retired" 70 year-old man. His two granddaughters spoke with him. They were about 10-14 ish. They each do 200 names per week during school and 400 during summer--and they are busy girls. I think it has to do with the family valuing it.

He's a former temple/mission president. Saw an old Scottish proverb the other day: "That which may be done at any time will be done at no time." I thought of family history, naturally. We have to learn to put it in our priorities/schedule.

Some kids may have trouble with holographic writing(penmanship) because they use it so little and read it even less these days. They even send notes by text. The style of penmanship has changed over time, as we know. The oldPalmer method I learned is out of favor. D'Nealian or something is in--or was. They won't know the old handwritten r that looks like an upside down dotless i for example. A handout of old letter forms might be useful--the double s that looks like a capital B, the s that looks like an f, the u that looks like a v, the Q that looks like a 2. Just something to refer to at home -- or a website.

If you are trying to teach regular FamilySearch to youth, I ran into something. Kids under 12 need parent approval--and their parental sign-in with their own ID number. The system also didn't care for the kids who had to use the family email address, although it accepted it. We are attempting to familiarize the kids enough with the program so they might possibly find someone's name to take to a youth baptism. It took the full class time to round up their ID number and get registered. Didn't want them out of Sunday School too long, so we're trying one follow-up for questions. But they are comfortable self-navigating.

Jerry

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2 June 2010, FamilySearch

JAWS FOR THE BLIND, etc.

Dear family history consultants, center directors, and priesthood leaders:

We would like to draw your attention to a number of items that can help you in your family history calling or as family history consultants. Please feel free to share this information however you would like.

1. Modern technology provides blind individuals an easy method for working on their family history. The new.familysearch.org Web site can be accessed using the JAWS (Job Access With Speech) screen reader. Keyboard commands support signing in to the site, searching for ancestors, combining duplicates, adding new individuals, and clearing names for ordinance work. Blind individuals can also access PAF (Personal Ancestral File) using JAWS.You can find document- tation on how to access new.familysearch.org with JAWS in the Help Center (from the new.familysearch.org main menu, select Help Center,and then use JAWS as your search term). Also, blind individuals can receive personal training on how to use new.familysearch.org from a FamilySearch Support missionary at 1-866-406-1830 or by sending an e-mail to .
2. A series of online interactive courses on how to read handwritten genealogical records in different languages is available on familysearch.org. Additional lessons for each of the courses are currently being developed. The courses provide instruction and practice in reading documents written in 11 different languages or scripts.

To access the training, go to click on the Library tab, click Research Classes Online, scroll down to find the Reading Handwritten Recordsseries, and select the lesson you want to complete.

1. FamilySearch has announced a new test site where anyone can go and see the next generation familysearch.orgWWeb site being built, test-drive the site, and give early feedback so that changes can be made before the new site becomes official. To access the new test site, referred to as “Beta FamilySearch,” go to beta.familysearch.org.
2. One of the treasures that can be found at the Beta FamilySearch Web site is the following page: The description for this valuable and informative page follows:Listed below are “23 Things” (or small exercises) that you can do as a “possible” way to enhance your skills with Family History and/or Genealogy on any level. The exercises will expand your knowledge of the Internet and Web 2.0 technology. Please provide comments at the end of the various exercises and if so desired in your own blog, which is covered in week 2. As in all educational endeavors, participation is your own personal decision.

Scale-Model Temple Unveiled at Temple Square
By Margaret H. Evans

Temple Square now displays an inside view of the Salt Lake Temple, as of 28 May 2010 in the South Visitor's Center.

At the center of the display is a 1:32 scale replica of the temple, along with interactive kiosks. Also included are touch screens, where visitors can learn more about the purpose of temples and see photographs of the temple's interior. The south and east walls of the replica have been cut away to show detailed depictions of many areas in the temple, such as the baptistry and other ordinance rooms, along with rooms temple patrons usually do not enter, including the large assembly hall and the 4th floor council room where the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles assemble for weekly meetings. Since visitors are often curious about the inside of the temple, this scale model will allow them to see the various rooms and to press the touch screens to learn more about a temple’s purpose.

SOURCES IN NEW FAMILYSEARCH

In the genealogy world at large there is a big difference between notes and sources. Notes are meant to explain or expand the genealogical data you put into the name, dates, places fields. They are also to provide supporting data, such as exact quotes, extracted census data, obituaries, etc., etc.

Sources, on the other hand, are meant to be concise references to where you found the data you put in the name, dates and places fields. Ideally, a source will tell the reader where to find the exact information (the original document) that you found, fifty years or more from now. That's why there are fields for notes and fields for sources.

Editorial comment: Church members in general have a weak reputation in the genealogy world at large because we choose not to follow the research rules that other family historians adhere to. While our ultimate goal is to free the prisoners by doing proxy temple work for them, it would be a laudable bonus if we would also be excellent researchers, recorders, and resourcers of our personal data. We would surely also gain more respect among our peers outside the church membership rolls if we did so.By Venita

Love is the most divine attribute of the human soul, and if you accept the immortality of the soul, that is, if you believe that personality persists after death, then, you must believe that love also lives. Isn’t that sound? And I ask you this: Whom shall we love when we recognize those personalities in the next world? True, we are admonished to love everybody. Yes, we should love everybody now; but you and I know that we love those whom we know best…Family ties are eternal. They should be eternal. David O. McKay

SOURCES IN NFS

Just a thought on sources in NFS --
Remember the days of PAF 2.31 -- before sources could be entered in PAF? We simply entered source information in Notes

I think it may be less important that the information is entered in
"Sources,” and more important that the information is at least entered
somewhere. Typing the source information into notes may not be as
elegant as entering it into sources, but it does the job, and is much
quicker at present. You can just copy and paste the entire source as a
bibliographical entry rather than deal with the special fields for
"title", "author", etc.

If this is a workable solution for you, you might also consider this: If
you are using a local software program like PAF, AQ, RM or other, and put the source info into notes, you should then be able to quickly
upload the notes from your local file into NFS. I can't speak
authoritatively about the other products, but I know that AQ can let you copy your PAF or AQ notes into notes for NFS records (and visa versa).

So you'd only need to enter the notes in one system, and easily copy
them to the other system.

I expect that better methods of handling sources are being developed, but until that happens, notes may be a reasonable short term solution.
Gaylon Findlay

MAC USERS

WHAT CAN I DO IF I CAN’T PRINT A FOR? Knowledge Document 109573

Very often when you attempt to print a Family Ordinance Request (FOR) to take names to the temple for ordinances, you are unable to print it. Here are some trouble- shooting suggestions, all of which can be found in the Help Center of new Family- Search. The number at the end is the knowledge document that describes the problem and solution in detail. Put the number into the search box in the Help Center and click on Search. Power-point By Carol Madsen

1. Clarifying Questions – Is your printer connected? Can you print anything else? Do you have Adobe Reader installed?
2. FOR will not print but legend is green, or no barcode shows - Did you use the small printer instead of the print or reprint request tab? 108659, 105144
3. Print Request window opens but you can’t print a FOR – Disable pop-up blockers 107869
4. FOR will not print – disable extra toolbars
5. FOR will not show up – Adobe Acrobat window may have opened in new tab on IE - Look to see if it is hidden under one of your tabs [ap1.familysearch.org holds the FOR; disable pop-up blocker and add as trusted website] 9079m_en , 107869
6. No Adobe Acrobat window opens, just “Did the FOR Print?” – Configure pop-up blocker to allow print screen to load; Install or reinstall Adobe Acrobat Reader and Adobe Flash Player KD 107869
7. “Document can’t be Printed” message – Run FS Automated Support Utility - will install Adobe Flash Player and Adobe Acrobat Reader 107869
8. “Error 500 – Web page cannot be displayed” – Do you have an UNKNOWN name for a parent? 107978
9. Not all names that you checked printed on the FOR – Likely another patron combined duplicates and found missing ordinances, disabling your reservation 103507
10. No box to left of name – Temple has printed a card and all other ordinances are on hold until first ordinances are completed by temple 108351
11. Names won’t load in the temple list; blank screen – Install or reinstall the Adobe Flash Player at the FS Automated Support Utility Link 107869
12. Can see only two lines of names in temple ordinance list – 107906

1. Increase resolution to 1152 X 864
2. Press the F11 Key or in the View Menu, press “Full Screen.”

1. Disable extra toolbars [In IE8, disable at View, Toolbars, uncheck the extra toolbars] 107845
2. 14. OK button on Print Request is not showing – Check toolbars, screen resolution settings, Adobe Reader 107845
3. Another solution if a FOR did not print or if patron has no printer–

1. Save FOR on flash drive; take to temple
2. Copy the barcode and take to temple
3. Email FOR to yourself or someone else to print 108641 [SHS]

Canada Research? Canada's Online Atlas