Issue 8.10
“FamilySearch, historically known as the Genealogical Society of Utah, is dedicated to the discovery and preservation of a record of the family of mankind, introducing individuals to their ancestors through the widespread access of records, and collaborating with others who share this vision.”
Note the part that says “The discovery and preservation of a record of the family of mankind.” It is a lofty goal, but they are making progress!
FamilySearch Labs: Future Tools to Dig Up The Past
As they say on the FamilySearch Labs page: “FamilySearch Labs showcases new family history technologies that aren’t ready for prime time.”
Yes, they are developing, testing, and tweaking these “tools” in the FamilySearch Lab, but some of them (like Record Search) are up and running. Use them now and keep checking back because they add more to their databases all the time.
Go to: http://labs.familysearch.org/ You will find FamilySearch Beta, this is a major renovation to the old familysearch.org web site. Eventually new FamilySearch and old FamilySearch will be combined, and this is the idea they are working on and you can preview it. They hope to make it a place where people can come together and work on their family history.
You can do a search for one of your ancestors in FamilySearch Beta. Record Search is a quick and easy way to search millions of historical records for clues about your ancestors. Click on a map to see what records exist for a geographical area or enter what you know about an ancestor, click search, and see matching records. They are adding millions of new records, as the indexing is completed, at http://indexing.familysearch.org/. These are the records formerly only found on microfilm at family history libraries.
Standard Finder is one of my favorites on the labs site. With Standard Finder you can search for a standardized name. It will present the standards that will be used in new FamilySearch. I use it to find the county names for places as I enter data. It will also give you the Geo Codes for your GPS.
Shanna Jones is a professional genealogist. For additional information, Shanna can be reached at (435) 628-4900 or shannasjones@msn.com.