Volunteers Needed to Evaluate new FamilySearch Site
Saturday August 23, 2008
A friend forwarded the following email to me from the LDS Church's Family History Department, and I thought others might be interested in evaluating the new Family Search website:
"The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is developing a new version of the FamilySearch.org Web site. This new Web site will help individuals identify ancestors and link them to families, and it will help Church members perform temple ordinances for their ancestors.If you're new to family history this would be a great way to get started!
"Can you volunteer an hour of time to help evaluate this new Web site? Do you know someone else who might be interested? We are looking for feedback to help make the Web site as easy and enjoyable to use as possible. We are especially interested in feedback from individuals who are new to family history.
"Anyone over age 18 interested in participating in this evaluation is invited to go to the following Internet address to sign-up: http://labs.familysearch.org/temple/static/signup.htm
"Thank you for your interest and enthusiasm. We greatly value your time and opinion."
Over the past 2 1/2 years, I have spent nearly 2,000 hours with New FamilySearch–beta-testing, teaching at our family history center, helping patrons, and cleaning my family tree. Several family history consultants asked me to write a manual for teaching New FamilySearch in their wards.
So, I have posted a 66-page manual, entitled How To Use New FamilySearch Correctly, in PDF format, at http://www.usingfamilysearch.com, from which any New FamilySearch patron is welcome to print it.
It provides tips and Do’s and Dont’s. Chapter 3 identifies the most efficient order of tasks to clean your family tree (so you won’t be so overwhelmed). The manual also reviews New FamilySearch’s future plans, and it evaluates the third-party software programs.
I will update it whenever there is a major revision to New FamilySearch, which is about every 3 months. (The next should be in early November.)
I offer it to your readers and hope it will help many.
Best regards,
George W. Scott
GeorgeSonOfCarl@aol.com
Orem, Utah