Genealogy Corner… FamilySearch’s NEW Family Tree – Part 2

PART 2

Issue 19.12

One of the goals of Family Tree is to be the most complete and accurate genealogical database.  To do this FamilySearch has elevated sources to be first class elements and updated them to not only be citations but references to websites and soon actual uploaded images.  Family Tree does not want a collection of all opinions, they want us to come together and find the valid conclusions.  When a user makes or changes a conclusion they are asked to provide a reason why the conclusion they are providing is the most correct conclusion at this time.  The user is recorded as the contributor of that conclusion and changes are placed in the change log for recovery.

This works much the same way as any discussion can.  On Facebook recently my cousins and I were discussing our mutual family on the 1940 US Census.  One child who drowned as a child was noted as missing so the conversation soon turned to when he died.  Then one cousin added the obituary notice.  I was reading it and the date of death didn’t line up with what I had.  So we discussed the date being on a Sunday.  Many of us had heard that the drowning occurred on a Sunday when he was told not to go swimming but went anyway.  Then I was able to locate the death certificate which did prove the date that I had would have been a Sunday and that the obituary had the incorrect date.  This is the sort of collaboration that needs to go into this new Family Tree application to get everything correct.

Family Tree will originate from the data in new FamilySearch, however, since many concepts are different between the systems the data must be copied and changed to fit into the new program.  There will be some synchronization between them as people use both systems during the transition.  But there will be some data in Family Tree that new FamilySearch does not understand. 

Continued next week ….

For more information, contact Shanna Jones shannasjones@msn.com or (435) 628-4900