FamilySearch's Struggle with Duplication

 

I recently discovered the second installment in the history of FamilySearch.org (aka The Genealogical Society of Utah or GSU). I have written about the first book in the past but it is still required reading for anyone interested in understanding the monumental task faced by FamilySearch to eliminate duplication of entries submitted to the temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Presently, with the FamilySearch.org Family Tree, the historical problem is still abundantly present. 

The concern over duplication was one of the main motivating factors for the establishment of the GSU. Here are the two books that explain, in great detail, the challenges faced by the GSU and its trade name FamilySearch. 

Allen, James B, Jessie L Embry, and Kahlile B Mehr. Hearts Turned to the Fathers: A History of the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1894-1994. Provo, Utah: BYU Studies, Brigham Young University, 1995.

Kahlile Bliss Mehr. Dawning Of The Digital Age: The Family History Department, 1995-2011, 2014. http://archive.org/details/MehrDawningOfTheDigitalAge.

Before you start wringing your hands or bemoaning the issues with the FamilySearch.org Family Tree especially about duplicate entries, you must read both books from cover to cover. The Hearts Turned to the Fathers book is still available from Amazon and Deseret Book. The second book is available to read on Archive.org. You can find an ebook edition of the first book from Barnes & Noble. 

From what I have read, the main issue confronting the GSU (FamilySearch) all along has been the technological challenges of attempting to create a tree for all mankind. So far, the FamilySearch.org Family Tree is the best that we have. I can also say that recent developments in the Family Tree are heading in the right direction and the issue of duplicate entries is still in the forefront of the development. But from my standpoint, if you come to me an complain about duplicates, changing entries, or any of the other issues with the Family Tree, I will simply say, wait and see what happens. Technology is changing rapidly and the Family Tree is changing as rapidly as the new technology is available and can be adapted to the development of the Family Tree. 

How about thanking FamilySearch for its efforts and praising them for trying to invent and use technology that was not available until the last few weeks before this post was written. 

How up to date is the FamilySearch Research Wiki?

 

https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/England_Genealogy

The FamilySearch.org Research Wiki is one of the most valuable genealogical resources currently available. With more than 100,000 articles, it covers more information than can easily be comprehended. It was designed as a "wiki" for the purpose of allowing users to create and edit information. However, it has been a long time since the days when any interested contributor was allowed to edit information. In July 2024, all the remaining long-time editors were blocked from further edits. I speculate that FamilySearch is working on adding an AI search capability to the wiki and need to "freeze" the wiki while that development goes on. Meanwhile, the articles are aging rapidly. Of course, not all the wiki is affected by the passage of time. But some of the major articles about specific countries are basically become out of date due to both historical and technological changes. Here is an example from the article on England and the subsequent articles linked to the main England page. See link above.

There is a page in the wiki that explains much of what is outlined below but the page has very few useful links and cannot easily be found. See https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/England_Jurisdictions 

There are 40 counties in this list. Currently, there are 48 counties in England. The statement in the text before the county list states that "The England counties listed below are based on historic boundaries pre-1974." Some of these counties no longer exist. As of 2025, there are 48 administrative counties in England. Some of these as listed above are purely traditional and do not appear in the current list. These missing counties include Cumberland, Huntingdonshire, London, Middlesex, Sussex, Westmorland, and Yorkshire.

These current counties are not separate articles or in the list above from the Research Wiki: Bristol, City of London, Cumbria, East Riding of Yorkshire, East Sussex, Greater London, Greater Manchester, Isle of Wight, Merseyside, North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Tyne and Wear, West Midlands, West Sussex, and West Yorkshire. 

In 1851, England had 40 counties for the purposes of census reporting, which were known as "registration counties". From 1851 to 1911, the "registration counties" were used for census reporting and administrative purposes. It's important to note that there are different definitions of "county" in England today: there are ceremonial counties (48), metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties for local government (84), and historic counties (39). The England 1851 map shown above is based on the 40 registration counties. 

Now the issue with these differing lists is that each of current 48 counties has its own archives and family history resources. Some of the administrative counties, such as the Isle of Wight, have been a county since 1890. See https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Isle_of_Wight,_England_Genealogy But some of the other counties do not have separate pages. 

This is just one example of the difficulty of administering and maintaining a collection of over 100,000 articles without the help of a willing and able community. For whatever reason, the editing of the Research Wiki has been limited to those inside FamilySearch. I might mention that most of the information about the Canadian Provinces is also out of date. 

Some of the countries of the world, such as Chechnya, are almost completely missing from the Research Wiki. 

I realize that traditionally, genealogists record events and sources with the places as they were at the time of the events in an ancestor's life. When changes occur, the name of the place changes. This means that without moving some of my ancestors' places entries change. The main challenge illustrated with my example above about England is locating the present jurisdiction so that a search can be made in the historical jurisdiction. The best example of this challenge is Yorkshire County, England, which is now North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and East Riding of Yorkshire. 

It will be a great loss to the genealogical community of the Research Wiki continues to go further out of date. 

Origins going back 10,000 years from MyHeritage

 https://blog.myheritage.com/2025/02/introducing-ancient-origins-trace-your-origins-back-10000-years/

If you obtain enough DNA information from enough people, it is possible to draw conclusions about ancient origins. Here is the promotional video for the MyHeritage.com new Ancient Origins.

https://youtu.be/LlRKBp_YUp4?si=n4jjD7d8X2FaGyFM

Here is a link to the blog announcing the new DNA feature. https://blog.myheritage.com/2025/02/introducing-ancient-origins-trace-your-origins-back-10000-years/

I have had both my MyHeritage.com and Ancestry.com DNA on MyHeritage.com for some time. I currently have 18, 502 matches. My matches span the globe. 

If you think that projecting DNA matches back 10,000 years is a gimmick or imaginary, you don't know what is going on in the world-wide DNA community. Here are some links to articles explaining other long DNA projections. 

https://www.templeton.org/news/revising-human-history-through-ancient-dna

https://www.nature.com/articles/s43586-020-00011-0 

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096098222100436X

There are probably hundreds more articles along the same lines. 

Now what about my own ancient DNA? There is a lot to explore on MyHeritage.com.

Each of the areas have futher analysis (I think I look just like the person used as an example except for the hair)

You can continue to explore more with the links given to support the conclusions. Here is one link.

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aat7487 

Have fun learning about this new extension to your DNA origins. Of course, you have to have a family tree and a DNA test on MyHeritage to get the full results.

Google Gemini's Deep Research does genealogical research like a pro

 

RootsTech 2025 is only back one week when AI to a larger than life leap in its ability to do "real" research. This screenshot shows the product of Gemini Deep Research prompt to tell me about my great-grandfather Henry Martin Tanner. This lengthy bio is supported by more than a hundred relevant and accurate source citations. The whole process took about ten minutes. 

I am still in the process of learning about the options and any problems with using this new tool, but initially it looks like a major advancement. Here is the link to the Google explanation about this new AI development. https://gemini.google/overview/deep-research/?hl=en

I will be doing a online presentation about using AI to do Family History Research on 30 March 2025 for the BYU Library Family History Center. This will include some of my observations about using Deep Research from Google Gemini. See https://familyhistory.lib.byu.edu/learning for the link to our Virtual Family History Classes. After the class has been presented, the video will be uploaded to the BYU Library Family History ¥ouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@BYULibraryFamilyHistory

More later.

23andMe files for Bankruptcy two weeks after RootsTech appearance

 https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/24/23andme-files-for-bankruptcy-anne-wojcicki-steps-down-as-ceo.html

For sometime now the news about 23andMe.com has not been good. Because I read the news, I was surprised to see their booth at RootsTech.org this year. 23andMe.com was a Gold Sponsor. 

Quick Google search indicates that customers of 23andMe.com can download their raw DNA data. Here is link to Accessing Your Raw Genetic Data from the webiste. 

What can you do with your raw DNA data for free? There are several options: FamilyTreeDNA.com, and MyHeritage.com are two examples. Just ask the question about uploading your raw DNA data in a Google search. 

All about Greek Genealogy with the Hellenic Genealogy Geek Facebook page

 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/118224528189671

In the past few weeks, the subject of Greek or Hellenic genealogy has come up. At the recent RootsTech 2025 conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, I met Historian and Genealogy expert Gregory Kontos. He has a website at greekancestry.net. 

I met him in conjunction with talking to MyHeritage at the conference. MyHeritage is building a collection of Greek records. 

FamilySearch.org also has a sizable collection of Greek records. See the Research Wiki for Greece: https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Greece_Genealogy

From the map of Greece in the Research Wiki and the list of Regions (Perifereia) and Counties (Prefectures), it looks like Greece is one of the more complicated places to do research including learning the alphabet and language. 

I am now interested in learning more about Greek genealogy.

Guidelines for the Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Genealogy at RootsTech 2025

See CRAIGEN.org

The Coalition for the Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Genealogy will have a panel discussion at RootsTech 2025. The presentation will take place Friday in Ballroom B at Salt Palace and will also be live-streamed at 4:30 p.m. MT. There is a link for submitting questions.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfQmg3ZefeLMDbYt85OCZJGQCWGo_Dp67KmVNpp2p6Xqv6qQg/viewform

Here is the link to the panel discussion. 

https://www.familysearch.org/en/rootstech/session/guidelines-for-the-responsible-use-of-artificial-intelligence-ai-in-genealogy 

The panel discussion will be broadcast live.