So. Have you watched a ton of videos from RootsTech? and have you seen the new
releases coming to FamilySearch? This one might interest you, and I'm also going to
give you some extra advice when we go over to the computer. But what this change does is it impacts
who you're following on the FamilySearch platform because it is a one-world family tree
and how you can filter those that you follow in the Follow List.
You can do this by labeling. Before we go over to the computer, I do want you to know that
labeling your follow list is not the same thing as Ancestry MyTreeTags. And if you haven't learned
about Ancestry MyTreeTags, make sure you look in the description or check out the pop-up screen
that will appear in just a moment. But this is not the same thing. The labels only go on your follow
list. Now it's time to get over to the computer and tell you what all that means. So let's go to
family tree. And go to Following. This is where you're going to find a list of everybody that you
follow on FamilySearch. Now let's stop for a second. Maybe you're thinking, uh, I don't
know what you mean by "following." All right. Let's get you caught up to the same place. So
this is my multiple great-grandmother. If I wanted to know how we're related, there is a link that I
can click- the "View Relationship." And it tells me she's my great-grandmother. And then that's my
grandfather, and that's his parents. Now beside "View Relationship," you notice how there's this
black star and the word "following." perhaps you haven't started following your grandmother yet. To
find.. To watch changes to her family tree, and your star will look white or blank and have the
word "follow" next to it. When you click "follow," it becomes "following" with the black star. And
that way, you know that you're following her. And then she will appear on this Following List. Now,
as you can see right here, I've already started implementing some of these labels. Remember,
they're not tags. They don't show up on your family tree page like I just was at. They're just
here in this Following List. Let's say that I want to find Emma. I can type in her name, and now the
list is filtered to the two people named Emma that I am following in my tree. I'm going to zoom in a
little closer so you can actually read what we're doing. There's a new feature that I just saw.
And I'm so glad I messed up my first version of this video. Because FamilySearch just started
adding something else that wasn't there when I first filmed this video. It shows you how many
people are following that ancestor. Let's go try somebody that I'm pretty sure somebody is going to
be following more than I am. How about Rebecca Dickey? Oh! There's only one person following.
I'm. I'm really shocked. This is pretty handy, but I'm starting to see how many people are
actively researching my tree or following them. I thought for sure John Townley would have a number
of people following. And there's just two. What about my Effingham Townley? There's just two.
So this was pretty eye-opening to see just how few people are following. You probably have a larger
name. But let's go back to Emma. And what we're going to do is we're going to click on "Add
Label." so we're going to add label. Am I actively changing her? Have I completed my research on her?
Is she the end of the line? Am I interested in? Am I researching? Or am I stuck?
Or there's a way to can add a custom label. We'll come back to that in just a moment. I
really wish they would tell us what they meant by these labels. I guess it's up to you. But if I'm
interested, then they would be on my list. I'm not going to be using that one, most likely. I
did for training purposes. She's not the end of the line. She's not complete because I'm sure
there's more records about her. So I'm just going to do "Researching." And then what I can do is add
notes, "writing great-grandma's family history." And save the label. Now you can create custom
labels. And one of the ones that Ron Tanner from FamilySearch recommended is "watch for merging."
now I have an ancestor who is constantly being merged with someone else, Charles Gordon. I've
talked about him on this channel before. People keep trying to link them with Nathaniel Charles
Gordon, and the records just don't line up. So I want to make sure that I am watching him like
a hawk. I'm sure there's other ancestors that you have that people are merging. Maybe they have the
same name, and they live in the same place, and people don't do deep research. Which we've talked
about fixing bad merges here on the channel. Check for the link in the description for that video.
It could also be children that are merged together because parents recycled names. So they had a
Mary. The Mary died, and there's another Mary born a year later. And people think it might
be the same Mary because that Mary lived into adulthood. So you'll want to put those problem
people with the label that says "watch for merging." Now another label you might have
to add to your tree is "Direct Ancestor." because you can watch as many people as you want. But it
might be better if you come to this Following List and you have it filtered to your direct ancestors.
And then you have maybe some other labels. So how do you create a custom label? It really is
super easy. Click on "Create New Label." Pretty self-explanatory. And now I'm going to put "Direct
Ancestor." Create label. Scroll down. It will not attach to Emma until I select the name. Select the
label. And now I can put in a note. I just typed in great-grandmother. You don't have to do it for
everybody, but it could be pretty handy. You know how I tell you not to skip reason statement boxes?
It's fine if you skip the note. But if you want to add a note, go ahead and add it.
Save the label. So now I have researching. And if I click on that, I see researching and notes. And
if I click on Direct Ancestor. Then I see my notes. So it could be actually fairly handy.
Now you're on your master list. You have everybody here but let's say you want to filter this down.
Well, you have the options. Click on "Options." And then you can actually sort your entire list by
last name. And you can do ascending or descending. Descending puts the individuals with no
known last name first/ ascending puts the A's first. I kind of like that you can sort by date
of death. The ones who have no dates first. And then when you actually have dates- you'll have the
furthest back in time to the most present for the ones that you're following. But again, remember
we had those filters where we wanted to filter by interested in? You can do that. Researching.
Watch for merging. And there's my Charles Gordon. So that's pretty handy way to filter your list.
I also like to see that that number is 409 people. There are 409 people out of all the people I'm
possibly related to that I'm actually following. Now I know some of you like to follow and create
these massive trees- 63,000 names in one database over on Ancestry or in your RootsMagic program
and stuff. When it comes to FamilySearch. Please don't try to follow that many. Follow the people
that you're actively researching. Because you can always come back and change it to unfollow
and follow somebody else. But you don't need to follow everybody in your tree. Seriously! So let's
say that you want to clean up your Follow List. How are you going to do that? Well, we're going
to go back. And we're going to take off the filter first of all. And we're going to start looking for
names that you're no longer quite interested in. So let's say you're not interested in researching
Peter Bruce Zumstein anymore. Let me tell you one thing before you go unfollowing. Go make sure you
know who that person is. So I'm familiar with the name, but I can't exactly remember who that
person is. So I'm going to click on Peter Bruce. And notice there is this. I can go look at him in
the tree, or I can figure out my relationship to them. So I'm going to click on this little icon.
When you hover over your mouse over it. It will get this really, tiny, little prompt box
that says "View Relationship." For those of us with really bad eyes, that's not very helpful,
but it is there. So. But the icons are same throughout the platform. That. That's how I
knew it was the "View Relationship" even though I couldn't read it. Peter Bruce is the cousin of my
great-great-grandfather Robert Walter Zumstein. Because here is Robert Victor, the professor that
I talk about a lot on this channel. So maybe I'm just interested in following his father,
Peter Bruce's father, Peter, and not so much Peter Bruce. Because I'm not doing a lot of
Zumstein research at this time. So I can go back, and I can go to the three dots. And I can click
"Unfollow." And then it will tell me you're not following them anymore,
and they're off that list. If you want this prompt to go away. It. It will go away eventually.
So if you didn't mean to make that change, then you can click "Undo." but you can notice that now
I'm at 408 people that I'm following in my family tree. Once again. I have to stress. Don't follow
everybody! When you make that number so large, you start going to see your changes. How do you see
your changes? Go to "Options." instead of "View by people," "view all changes." sort by date changed.
Then you're going to have this massive list of changes. And you're not going to see
the people that you care about most. Maybe you're just going to have to start typing
in names. You know. Zumstein. All right. Now I can see just the Zumsteins that have been
changed. And then I can go through that. Don't try to make this list any larger than you're actively
researching. Now FamilySearch released a number of new improvements for the FamilySearch platform.
Why don't you tell me in the comments below what your favorite one is or the one you've
been excited about? After you do that, be sure to check out one of these two playlists. The top
will be the one about giving you more tips on using FamilySearch, and the bottom one is
going to be one specifically selected for you. Okay, today yeah, I turned onto my mic this time