23and Me in the headlines

 

https://investors.23andme.com/news-releases/news-release-details/23andme-announces-business-restructuring-streamline-operations

https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Wellness/23andme-dna-data-security/story?id=115818849

It isn't very often that the national news features articles with direct consequences to the greater genealogical community. In this case, many genealogists and family historians have taken DNA tests from 23andMe.com over the years. The simple caution for those with 23andMe tests is to download your data. A quick Google search indicates that downloading your data is fairly simple. Here is one of many links to the process from 23andMe.com

Accessing Your Raw Genetic Data

You can also upload your data for free to MyHeritage.com, the large online genealogy company. Here is a link to the process.

Upload DNA data

What I find online is that Ancestry.com does not allow raw DNA data to be uploaded. There are many posts online explaining about Ancestry's position. 

MyHeritage Holiday Season DNA Sale

 MyHeritage DNA

Quoting from a recent email announcement:

MyHeritage DNA  is now on sale for a great price at https://www.myheritage.com/dna/.

 

What could be a more meaningful gift than the opportunity to discover more about who you are and where you belong? With the most international user base and the most comprehensive set of advanced genetic genealogy tools, MyHeritage DNA is the best DNA test for exploring global roots. It reveals your origins across 2,114 geographic regions and finds new relatives from across the globe — all with a simple swab of the cheek.

I currently have well over 17 thousand DNA matches. MyHeritage DNA enabled us to resolve an old adoption issue with one of my great-grandparents. I have DNA matches in almost a hundred countries around the world corresponding to the historical spread of my family over the world. 

 

Update on the end of the FamilySearch.org Catalog

 

https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/results?count=20&placeId=1927135&query=%2Bplace%3AArgentina 

What is missing from this screenshot of the FamilySearch.org Catalog? The answer is the entire Province of Buenos Aires. I realize that I wrote about this previously in this blog post.

https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2024/10/the-beginning-of-end-of-familysearch.html 

But now I have more information about what is happening at FamilySearch. However, saying anything about FamilySearch usually includes a healthy dose of speculation. The FamilySearch folks are usually responsive in the FamilySearch Community but there is issue with the Catalog and the Images sections of FamilySearch go way beyond leaving a comment in the Community. 

I recently saw a Facebook post from David E. Rencher, Chief Genealogical Officer at FamilySearch, notifying the genealogy community at large about this issue, quoting from the Facebook post:

FamilySearch product managers have set up automatic creation of Full-Text Search collections based upon the primary life event of the image. Internal genealogists have advised that researchers are better served by record collections organized by record type. Product managers feel differently. https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100067913932788

The issue is illustrated by this chart:

The issue of changing the entries in the old FamilySearch.org Catalog and the Image section as well as developing the Full-Text Search capabilities are the same issue: how do we find valuable genealogical information?

Catalogs, such as the FamilySearch Catalog (Old) mirror the reality of where documents might be found. The Catalog is organized geographically i.e. by the places where documents may be found in the real world. 

Well, what about using "Life Events"? One example will suffice: Coming-of-Age. Not only is the category vague and could include a huge variety of unrelated events, it is not found in any existing cataloging system. To illustrate this, do a Google search for "Arizona coming-of-age" and see the results. 

What you will see is a long list of ceremonies performed by Native Americans in the present and the past. There is no mention of records or record sources. You can get another idea from the Library of Congress Classification Outline. See https://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/lcco/  

You can also get some idea about cataloging systems from the WorldCat.org website. Try searching for Coming-of-Age and see the responses. Do you see any genealogically related books or records? 

My example of searches using "Coming-of-Age" is just the same as changing the jurisdictional categories in the Old FamilySearch Catalog by adding Buenos Aires City and dropping the category for Buenos Aires Province (where the records are actually found). Why are these people at FamilySearch thinking that they can somehow come up with a new system of organization for finding genealogy records when all the world's records are organized by location and topic?

There is a lot more to say on this topic but I have stacks of other pressing matters besides trying to explain to engineers at FamilySearch how to do genealogy. But, of course, I will take the time if they are willing to listen. One example is a review of the "New" FamilySearch Library Catalog. https://www.familysearch.org/en/library/our-catalogs which makes no effort at all on organization and looks a lot like the university catalogs I have been working with for the past 60 years. 

Challenges in adding one tag to the FamilySearch Memories almost defeats me

 

I am concerned that the FamilySearch.org website is going through a phase of reorganizing rather than taking advantage of new tools without throwing out the old. 

Recently, I spent about 45 minutes adding two image to the FamilySearch Memories section. I found that the entire procedure for uploading a single memory had changed. The last explanation of the update was a post back on May 11, 2024. https://www.familysearch.org/en/blog/memories-viewer-updates-2024 This short announcement doesn't describe any of the major changes.  Here is a screenshot of one of the two uploads that took so long to do. 

The main issue was tagging a photo. The process of tagging apparently now takes several steps. I didn't think I could yet describe the steps because it is so complicated. When I started writing this post, I noticed that Elias W. Tanner's wife Rebecca P. King was also on his grave marker so I decided to see if I could describe the process. 

Step #1: I clicked on the image with Rebecca's name. Here is what showed up. 

Step #2 I remembered that I needed to have her ID# or name, so I typed in her name. The name wasn't recognized so I had to click on her husband who I already had listed and found her name Rebecca Potter King and ID#. I copied the ID number and pasted in the number. 

Step #3 Remember, I had recently already managed to tag four other people. However, at this step, if I click on the name that says "Add New" the program does not look up the ID# it just adds the ID# as the name for the tag. 

Step #4 At this point I am puzzled. Below the number it says Attach to Tree. Well, Rebecca is already in my part of the Family Tree, but I decide to click and see what happens. Now it asks me to search for the number I just copied from the Family Tree. 

Step #5 I don't seem to remember that it was this complicated just to add one tag. But I click on search the family tree and now I am lost. I am taken to the general search page. 

I already know that Rebecca is in the Family Tree so I change the field to Find by ID and once again put in her ID#.

Step #6 Remember again, that I am trying to tag an image in memories and it shows me her entry in a search field. 

Step #7 So far, I haven't tagged the photo and I am totally lost because I don't know what to do next. I see the normal Select button that takes me to the person in the Family Tree where I started. So, I click the button. Amazingly, this takes me back to the Memories section and there is a tag on Rebecca's name. although the name on the tag is an ID#

Step #8 Now, I can't remember how I got the names on the other tags. I randomly decide to click on the ID#.

Step #8 Remember, I am still just adding one tag to one person and I have spent almost an hour writing this blog post so far. Here is what I am looking at when I randomly click on Rebecca's ID# 

Step #9 I can detach the memory from the Family Tree. This is not what I wanted to do. So, I do what I usually do in these situations, I click on stuff.  I click on the number. Not that there was any particular reason for clicking but I see that the number is blue and that usually indicates a link. 

Step #10 Apparently, I can now edit the ID# tag to a name. So I type in her name. That changes the name to Rebecca Potter King. 

Step #11 Now what? Do I have to do this for every single memory I put on the FamilySearch.org website? There must be a shorter way to do all this. So I look for some instructions on the new changes. Remember, this is me looking for one of my memories. I know how to search since I sit here and do that almost all day, every day. I do not find any instructions. I decide to click in the image. 

I now have one tag on an image with seven potential tags. 

Does anyone out there know of a better system for adding one tag? I do figure out that there is one small shortcut. But I am keeping that to myself until I see the explanation in print from someone who should have stopped trying to reorganize the team. 

RootsTech 2025 Genealogical AI Spotlight on Military Records.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/fV1Rjv93ekc?feature=share

RootsTech 2025 Reel Stories presents your Genealogical Artificial Intelligence Spotlight. This month’s AI spotlight is about the treasure trove in military records. 172 countries have had military forces during the last 100 years and there have been more than 35 wars. Many countries with a miliary kept records about their soldiers. Military Records may be detailed but can be elusive. They are always a valuable source of genealogical and family history information. Artificial intelligence helps make all records, including military records more easily discoverable. The huge video collection on RootsTech.org and the documents and records on FamilySearch.org, with assistance of AI can help you find elusive military records. Sign in for free on both RootsTech.org and FamilySearch.org and begin discovering your military ancestors.

You can register for free at RootsTech.org online and also register for in person at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City, Utah on March 4th through 6th, 2025. 

 

The Beginning of the End of the FamilySearch Catalog or another Beginning?

 

It is common knowledge among those genealogists that I come in contact with that the FamilySearch.org Catalog has not been updated for over two years. What this means is that the millions of digitized records being added daily to the FamilySearch.org website are not in the Catalog. So where are they? I will leave that question for a while as I try to explain what is going on from the perspective of someone who uses the Catalog and other resources on the FamilySearch.org website many times in a single day. 

https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog

The main use of the Catalog is to find stuff (records, documents, etc.) on the FamilySearch website. It has worked sort-of well since the website was first put online on May 24, 1999. Its main use for serious genealogists is to discover the jurisdictional organization of the various geographic areas of the world. Now, I happen to do an extensive number of online consultations with people from Argentina. See the following link. 

https://www.familysearch.org/en/library/genealogy-help

Now some a short (hopefully) look at the government of Argentina and its jurisdictions. This is important because certain types of records are located in specific governmental jurisdictions. Here is an example of the location of the Argentine Civil Registration Records. 

Los registros del registro civil en Argentina son mantenidos principalmente por el Registro Nacional de las Personas (RENAPER). Este organismo gubernamental es responsable de mantener y administrar registros vitales como actas de nacimiento, actas de matrimonio y actas de defunción.

El RENAPER tiene oficinas regionales en toda Argentina, donde puede solicitar copias de sus registros del registro civil. Puede encontrar la ubicación de la oficina del RENAPER más cercana visitando su sitio web oficial o contactándolos directamente.

Hmm, that explanation seems to be in Spanish. What is says is that Civil Registration records are found in the National Register of Persons in various locations around the country. If you search the FamilySearch.org website for Argentine Civil Registration records, a valuable resource for genealogists, you will find that FamilySearch.org has very, very few of these records. The partial explanation about the existence of these records is explained in the FamilySearch Research Wiki,  

Now what is going on with the Catalog? Yesterday, in the morning I did my regular searches in for records in Buenos Aires Province for a potential consultation. By the afternoon, when I needed more information I found that Buenos Aires Province had been removed from the Catalog. See above. Some at FamilySearch inserted a link to "Buenos Aires City" which is probably a reference to the fact that Buenos Aires is an autonomous city and the capital of Argentina. But the other issue is that the entry for Buenos Aires Province had been removed. Buenos Aires City is divided into 15 Comunas. An Argentine "comuna" is a neighborhood or group of neighborhoods in the city of Buenos Aires. However, Buenos Aires City located in Buenos Aires Province. Here is an explanation of the provinces from a Wikipedia article. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provinces_of_Argentina

Argentina is divided into twenty-three federated states called provinces (Spanish: provincias, singular provincia) and one called the autonomous city (ciudad autónoma) of Buenos Aires, which is the federal capital of the republic (Spanish: Capital Federal) as decided by the Argentine Congress.[1] The provinces and the capital have their own constitutions and exist under a federal system.

Here is another quote from an AI search with references to Wikipedia. 

Administrative divisions: Provinces are divided into departments, which are further divided into municipalities. Buenos Aires Province is divided into partidos and localidades. 

There is no real translation of the divisions in Buenos Aires Province. Why is knowing all this necessary? Because any successful genealogical research depends on know where and how to find the records. So now, the FamilySearch Catalog has no entry for Buenos Aires Province. I assume all the records are still there somewhere. 

Now, there is a new FamilySearch.org Catalog. See https://www.familysearch.org/en/library/our-catalogs however, this is what is said on the website.

Either catalog can be searched, however it's best to use the new Library Catalog because it's continually being updated. The existing Catalog on FamilySearch.org was last updated September 2022. 

Let's just say that giving us a list of all the records of Argentina in a list does not help much. Especially, if you do not automatically know the names of all the provinces (see the first image above) and which cities (municipios) are available. Like in the old Catalog. The "New" Catalog looks a lot like a university catalog so that if you click enough you might run across some of the records for a specific location. 

What about the Images? Oh yes, there is another part of the website with digital images of a whole lot of records. These are simply organized by jurisdiction and date. But they are searchable or should I say they were searchable? 

There is an entry for Buenos Aires Province but this is to unindexed and uncataloged records which, for the most part, have to be searched day by day. There is also a mysterious reference in the Images list to Distritos Militar. These seem to be a long list of military draft records with no reference to where the records came from. 

Well, I could go on for a long time but I have other obligations to my time. 

Good Luck at finding anything in the FamilySearch.org record collection if this spreads to other parts of the website besides Argentina. I realize that I haven't gotten into more detail about the Catalog and the Images, but I ran out of time to write. 

 

Please Help The Family History Guide

 thefhguide.com

This was sent out to many of our friends across the world. We are at a crucial stage in our growth and need some help. I realize there are many good ways to donate but this is a way to directly affect genealogy. Here is the text from the email. 

The Family History Guide will soon be exposed to its largest audience ever!  We will be featured on the VIEWPOINT documentary program, hosted by Dennis Quaid, and broadcast nationwide by PBS and other major TV networks. VIEWPOINT will be highlighting Genealogy and Family History and our partnership with The National Genealogical Society.  VIEWPOINT has a viewership of 60 million+.  In addition, we will be both in-person and virtual at the largest genealogical conference in the world, RootsTech 2025.

WE NEED YOUR HELP! We are growing rapidly and so are our financial needs.  We need to raise an additional $25,000 to cover the increasing costs of our outreach program and expenses for broadcast production and RootsTech 2025.

Please consider donating and thereby helping support our mission To greatly increase the number of people actively involved in family history worldwide, and to make everyone's family history journey easier, more efficient, and more enjoyable. Please Remember We have NO PAID staff.  All are volunteers. (Click HERE to see staff) We are a 501c3 charitable non profit We operate ENTIRELY on donations Your donation is usually tax-deductible (See your financial advisor) There are so many ways to support our mission.  Click the DONATE button below to see how YOU can help. Here is where the donate button goes. Remember, The Family History Guide Association, the sponsor of the website, is a qualified 501 (c) 3 corporation and all contributions are tax deductible in the U.S.  Click here to donate My wife and I have been working with The Family History Guide for over ten years and now we are seeing the results of all the work we and mostly others have done to make this a global support for family history and genealogy. We donate time, and some money, but we do need help.  Thanks for your consideration.