Some people eat, sleep and chew gum, I do genealogy and write...

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Even more confusing information about FamilySearch Family Tree

It seems as the outlets for obtaining information about FamilySearch Family Tree were confined to official spokespersons, like Ron Tanner, the message was pretty clear and unambiguous. Lately, there has been a series of blog posts sent out to the Family History Consultants and LDS Church leaders that have conflicting information. In a blog post entitled "Benefits of Family Tree vs. new.familysearch.org" there is the following quote:
With the launch of Family Tree pilot this fall, consultants, members, and the general public will get a look at the future replacement for new.familysearch.org.
From this statement, I am not sure what I have been working on since February? Is there a "pilot" program coming out "this fall (Fall)"? What is a pilot program anyway? The presently available Historical Record Collections on FamilySearch.org originally were introduced as "Record Search Pilot" on the old version of the FamilySearch.org web site.  The Record Search Pilot was eventually replaced by the present data base but cause a measure of confusion because many people liked the search capabilities of the Pilot and not the new collections. The Record Search Pilot persisted for a time even after the introduction of the new collections. Does this mean that the present FamilySearch Family Tree is nothing more that a tentative program that will be replaced by the "actual" program that will be introduced later this year?

The post goes on to say:
While Family Tree is currently in pilot, development is aggressive and several features will be added in the next few months.  Some of these upcoming features include:
  • The ability to use Family Tree on behalf of someone else (helper)
  • Additional features to reduce merging of non-duplicate records
  • The migration from new.familysearch.org of individual and family notes as well as user entered sources
  • The ability to print pedigree charts, family group records, and other reports
 Once again mention of Family Tree being in pilot. I understood that the program is live and that changes made will persist. Does this give me cause to be more cautious? Is it possible that present changes might not make it over to the "permanent" version? There is also the reference to reducing "merging of non-duplicative records." Does this mean there will be a function to keep people from merging non-family members with my own family members? If so, this would be great. But right now I would settle for addition of a merging function.

I am seeing a degree of confusion just because of the name of the program, but it seems that as more information comes out that there is a possibility of even more confusion. This is a really good program and it will be a monumental addition to the genealogical community but I hate to see any confusion about what it is or what it does.

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