Issue 39.14
One misconception about FamilySearch Family Tree https://familysearch.org/tree/ is that you can’t add living people. That simply is not true. New.FamilySearch, maybe, but Family Tree is for everyone. Family Tree now supports a new feature called private spaces. The addition of private spaces is the result of bringing new.familysearch.org to a close and moving all of that data over to Family Tree.
Each Family Tree user now has a private space that allows them to manage their own private information. The information you add to that space on the living can only be seen by you, the individual user, and no one else. That is why you don’t see your spouse’s half of the pedigree and they don’t see yours. You can add in the living and then search for the deceased. Once you get the deceased people linked, they bring the rest of their pedigree with them.
When you see a gold banner that says Private Person, it is telling you that you are viewing private information and no one else can see this specific view. This is part of a process to move the data of all living people from new.FamilySearch.org to Family Tree. It also is removing links that tie information about living LDS Family Tree users to their Church membership records. All of that is being separated out so that you can make changes without messing up membership information. People who are not members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints never had those links to begin with, so no problem there.
These changes give us all a private space for viewing your own private information, you can add your kids, your grandchildren and any living people you want and no one can see them but you. These changes allow users to modify information for themselves and for living family members who are part of Family Tree. Just remember that if you add your son’s marriage date to your daughter-in-law, your spouse is not going to see it in her account and neither is your son, unless they add it themselves. Plus, since no one can see it but you, no one can mess it up except you!
For more information, contact Shanna Jones (435) 628-4900 shannasjones@msn.com