Why is FamilySearch making changes to your family tree?
In today's video we're going to talk about that
pesky FamilySearch and the mistakes
it's making in our tree.
When we look at the change log in FamilySearch
you may see the name FamilySearch as somebody who
made changes to your ancestor's profile.
A lot of these changes actually happened in May,
April,
and even all the way back.
Let's see the earliest date on this profile
January of 2012.
And you might be thinking to yourself,
"Why is FamilySearch in the business of changing a tree?"
Well, we have to talk about how the FamilySearch family tree came to be.
In 2012, FamilySearch released the online version
of the tree that we're looking at today.
But they had to seed that tree with some different databases.
The first one they seeded it with is the International Genealogical Index or IGI.
If you've been around genealogy for more than 10 or 15 years,
you've heard of the IGI collection.
So FamilySearch built this collection based on two types of data input.
The first was they had a team going around the world looking at vital records:
birth, marriages, and death.
Baptisms in locations that didn't' have birth records.
They looked at these documents and they created
a database that then became searchable using
CD Rom Drives and very slow computers. But it was incredible
in the 1990s because we didn't have the powerful databases we have today.
So the names in this IGI database are based on
someone looking and image in a collection.
The other part of IGI was user-submitted family trees.
So before 1975,
a lot of people had submitted their family tree to
the precursor to today's FamilySearch.
And those names and those trees were compiled and put into this database and made searchable.
So all of this information was dumped into the FamilySearch family tree that we have today.
There are a number of other collections that were dumped into this initial
push to a tree out.
With the invitation that people will go through and start merging
people together to build one world family tree.
Now you can see on this chart right here
2012 rolls out and I was just to understand,
use the platform. But by 2013 and 2014,
I was making a lot of changes.
And a lot of changes had to do with merging duplicate
profiles that were created by "FamilySearch."
If you want to learn how to do merging, I have videos
on Family History Fanatics. But the focus is
why it seems FamilySearch
is the person I see on the change log.
Well, when you make a change to the FamilySearch family tree,
FamilySearch wants somebody to
"blame" for it? Okay, not really.
It's a collaborative tree.
If I made this change in 2012
that created a couple of events, click on this name
and be able to send me a message. And ask me,
"Oh, what do you know? Why are you doing that?" So on and so forth.
But FamilySearch had this information that
was from these different databases and they just simplified
everybody's life back then in 2012
and just said, "FamilySearch is the person
that created that initial profile."
Since that time,
FamilySearch is not using an algorithm
to change the tree. It's people!
(in most cases.) In rare instances, they might be doing a little tweak here and there.
But in most cases, it's gonna be people.
So you see my name a lot
Now, this FamilySearch is coming because I combined
records together. But then there's other people. And I don't want to show any more names,
more modern.
But every change is attached to a person.
So that is why FamilySearch is there.
And you're going to find those changes usually
in 2012, 2013,
maybe even as late as 2014. But by and large,
it's not going to be anything modern.
But what's really great.
Since the rollout back in 2012, I've noticed that within the last year or so
anything that was from the IGI collection,
FamilySearch will mark,
"This extracted IGI record was used to create this person."
i.e. FamilySearch used this to create this person.
"This record came from this set of images."
How about you go check it out?
And now it's taking me to the image
so you can now or this in and link it to your family tree.
So that's actually one of the neat things
that FamilySearch has been able to do since those early days.
I hope that helps you understand
why FamilySearch is "changing" your family tree.
They're not really doing the changing.
It's people doing the change
But that's how FamilySearch made those initial changes
when they created this database that we're working on since 2012.
Be sure to check out these tips right here to extend your knowledge base
on using FamilySearch.
If you're ready to move from FamilySearch,
try out this playlist right here.