Issue 11.15
When mentioning to my computer programming son, that I needed to write another Genealogy Corner article, he asked if I still kept a file of old articles, suggesting I could reuse on. I used to keep a printed copy of the articles, but then found they are stored online at http://seniorsampler.com/. We can click the name of the columnists and read the prior articles. After glancing through a few of the articles from just a year or two ago, I was amazed at how fast the changes are occurring. There is a definite hastening of family history work.
Attending RootsTech in February was the perfect place to learn about all of the new improvements, programs, partnerships, apps and upcoming changes to family history software. You can watch a lot of the recorded RootsTech presentations online, free at https://rootstech.org/.
FamilySearch has created a list at https://familysearch.org/apps/ of apps to help you discover more of your ancestors by searching historical records, staying organized and building your family tree, preserving and sharing memories, and apps to uncover areas of your family tree. There are two new complimentary partner sites for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You can find them at https://familysearch.org/partneraccess. In addition to Ancestry.com, findmypast.com and MyHeritage.com, you can find AmericanAncestors.org by New England Historic Genealogical Society. The other one is Family.me which you can go directly to and join using your FamilySearch account or your Facebook account.
There are quite a few partnerships. FamilySearch has over 60 certified partner applications. Some are able to add to and change Family Tree data and others are not. During 2014, they added 36 new partner applications. They have another 98 new partner applications in the works for 2015. They do this to help us and pull in information from many different cultures and geographies that FamilySearch cannot do alone. FamilySearch is not in competition with any of the partners because they have two totally different objectives. Having help from these partners makes FamilySearch and Family Tree much better.
FamilySearch is going to create an in house messaging system so that you can communicate and collaborate with another user, even if they didn’t make their email address public. On the person contact card you will be able to send a message and it will give them the ID number of the person you are asking about. That is coming sometime in 2015.
For more information, contact Shanna Jones 435-628-4900 shannasjones@msn.com