NEW FAMILYSEARCH AND AFFILIATE PROGRAMS I

W ELCOME AND INTRODUCTION TO CLASS

Welcome
Instructors are Donald R. and Diane M. Snow ( snowd@math.byu.edu and dms34@juno.com ) of Provo, Utah; St. George, Utah; and Nauvoo, Illinois.
Spiritual thought
These notes with active Internet links are posted on the Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group website http://uvtagg.org under Class Outlines , Don's Listings . Many other class notes for family history are posted there, too.

NEW FAMILYSEARCH AND AFFILIATE PROGRAMS

New FamilySearch (nFS) is the new software that the LDS Church is producing to help LDS members with family history and temple work -- has been released in all temple districts except for the Orient
Some things you want to do in New FamilySearch
- Combine records, separate records, enter another opinion, dispute data, upload or download data, learn of changes in nFS database
- KnowledgeBase articles on FamilySearch about benefits of keeping a desktop copy of your own genealogy, even though it's on New FamilySearch -- https://help.familysearch.org/publishing/69/105366_f.SAL_Member.html -- and on using PAF -- https://help.familysearch.org/publishing/547/102204_f.SAL_Public.html
Affiliate programs are programs certified by the LDS Family History Department to help you work with New FamilySearch

See link to a list at https://new.familysearch.org/ at lower right-hand side of screen; or can get to it directly at http://www.familysearch.org/eng/affiliates/index.html
Also more details at https://devnet.familysearch.org/certification/affiliate-program/AffiliateCertfied
Janet Hovorka's talk on Comparing Certified Affiliate Software at Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group (9 Jan 2010) -- pdf handout is available on http://uvtagg.org/old.htm
Developer's awards for Certified Affiliate Software by the FH Dept 11 Mar 2009 -- https://devnet.familysearch.org/news/vote-for-developer-choice-award-winners

PAF compatible programs -- relate nFS to PAF databases (Personal Ancestral File freeware from http://www.familysearch.org )
- Ancestral Quest -- commercial, but has 60-day free trial and is free at FHC's -- available from http://www.ancquest.com/index.htm ; video tutorial at http://www.ancquest.com/tutorial.htm
- Family Insight -- commercial, but free at FHC's -- available from http://www.ohanasoftware.com ; video tutorials (36 minutes total) at http://www.ohanasoftware.com/?sec=lessons
Other database format, i.e. programs relating nFS to other types of databases (will usually read a PAF database, but must use a GEDCOM to ever go back to PAF again)

Ancestral Quest -- commercial, but has 60-day free trial and is free at FHC's -- available from http://www.ancquest.com/index.htm ; video tutorial at http://www.ancquest.com/tutorial.htm -- listed both places since it works with a PAF database, but can also use its own format with more options
RootsMagic -- commercial, but free at FHC's and has a freeware RootsMagic Essentials -- http://www.rootsmagic.com/ -- connects your RootsMagic database with nFS; video tutorials at http://www.rootsmagic.com/RootsMagic/Tutorials/
Legacy -- Deluxe version is commercial, but Standard version is free and Deluxe version is free at FHC's -- available from http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/ -- connects your Legacy database with nFS -- video tutorials at http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/Videos.asp

COMPARISONS AND DISCUSSION

Each program is better in some ways and does some things the others don't do, so there is no one "best program" for everyone
Decide what you want your genealogy program to do, try them out, and decide -- change later, if you want to
For simplicity, if you don't already have a genealogy database in some other format, use PAF -- can change later, when and if you want.
Some comparisons of software
- Janet Hovorka's talk mentioned and linked above
- From readers of [FHCNET] which is an email list of FHC workers -- comparison spreadsheet http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AiU7VL7hmPe-dHlBazVTY2U5QTNoU0ZkZWNPaWxQaVE&hl=en
- Comparison chart of Ancestral Quest, Family Insight, and RootsMagic on Ancestral Quest's webpage, so slanted towards Ancestral Quest, but still helpful -- http://www.inclinesoftware.net/files/CompareFS/MostComprehensiveSyncComparison.pdf
Examples and discussion -- will be continued next time

ASSIGNMENT

Use your LDS Membership Number and Confirmation Date to register for an LDS account that will get you into FamilySearch, New FamilySearch, LDS Distribution Centers, etc., all with the same user name and password.
Go to a FHC and try out Family Insight on your PAF database to see what options you can use there.
Try out Ancestral Quest on your PAF database by downloading the 60-day free trial and/or going to a FHC to use it there.
Download RootsMagic Essentials and experiment with it. Again, this will save your database in a new format, so be sure you have a good backup before experimenting.
Download and try out Legacy. Legacy will save your database in a new format, so be sure you have a good backup before experimenting.

Return to Don's Class Listings page or to the home page of Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group .