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Friday, November 1, 2013

Major Adjustment in FamilySearch Family Tree Access?

Note: Please read the subsequent posts on this subject for answers to my questions. 


If you take a close look at the Products page for Windows based programs for FamilySearch.org's Family Tree, you will see a major adjustment has been made very recently. It takes a little bit of explanation, but basically there is now only one program that can share data with Family Tree. Basically, FamilySearch has eliminated the Tree Share category of programs. That means that the programs such as Ancestral Quest, Celebrating My Family Tree and Legacy Family Tree have been essentially "de-certified." They have been reduced to "Tree Connect" status which means they are limited to "The product references online artifacts such as records, photos, documents, and media that can be attached to persons in the Family Tree."

The only program that has certification for sharing information with Family Tree is RootsMagic available at RootsMagic.com. I did not make this up. Read what it says on the Product Page. I can only speculate as to what the users of the de-certified programs will now experience. I would appreciate some feedback, but I will probably have time tomorrow to get into the programs. If this says what I think it does, the three programs will not be able to upload or download information to Family Tree.

Stay tuned.

1 comment:

  1. James:

    This does not mean what you "think it does." Users of programs whose certification label has changed will experience no difference. This is a change of label, not a change of functionality.

    FamilySearch decided to remove the "Share" category of certification at the end of October. Programs that had been "Share" certified, but are not yet "Share+" certified, now have a different label. This has nothing to do with the capabilities of the program, only how many labels FamilySearch wants to use in describing their certification levels. Speaking for Ancestral Quest, it still uploads and downloads information to/from Family Tree as well as ever, getting closer to Share+ certification with every released 'build.' All it means is that these programs have not yet completed the requirements for Share+ certification, and FamilySearch has removed the "Share" label. See www.ancquest.com/FSCertDetails.htm for a more complete explanation relating to AQ.

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