Changes in FamilySearch’s Family Tree Person Page

Wednesday, September 19, 2018




If you look at FamilySearch’s Family Tree, you will notice a new look. FamilySearch has given their Person Page a big update. At first glance, it seems the same, but as you study the page, you will notice a lot of changes. FamilySearch states that these changes “will make learning about your ancestors easier than ever before.”

The menu tab across the top of the page now includes buttons that take you to Details, Time Line, Sources, Collaborate, Memories, and Ordinances. These tabs include the number of documents in Sources, Collaborate, and Memories.

The Time Line section is new and is a great tool that gives you a glimpse of your ancestor’s life in context. This timeline helps you to identify missing events. It even adds the record hints that may lead you to sources to help fill in the missing events. There is a map function inside the timeline section too, and this shows where events and the record hints included in the timeline took place.

The Collaborate tab now contains the previous notes and discussions. This is great that they kept these. There can be valuable research information included in these notes and discussions.

There are edit buttons visible next to the information on your ancestor. This makes it easier to edit the information. It also lists the number of sources used to verify the vital information. If there are no sources on the date of birth, this is a good heads-up on where you need to research next. The Data Problems alert not only lets you know if your data is not formatted correctly but will alert you to possible duplicates and includes a number to show you the number of issues with this alert.

Another nice feature is the number included with the Record Hints tab. If you have ever tried to add record hints and the hints seem to go on forever, you can now see the actual number of hints you need to check out.

These changes are a great asset to FamilySearch. They help you to see where research is lacking and what information has no sources. Now at first glance, we can see what information is reliable and what is not. By adding a timeline and map section, we can see our gaps in information on our ancestors in a more visual way.

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