Update on changes to New FamilySearch

New FamilySearch is still in pre-release versions and is subject to periodic updates and changes. There are several new changes announced in the February 2009 update.The updates deal primarily with the way records of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) are handled by the program. Many records that were missing from the database have now been added and the Ordinance status for over 500,000 ordinances has been updated.

Although the changes affect only those members of the LDS Church who presently have access to the data, the changes are significant for those who rely on the data for clearing ordinance work in the Church's Temples.

There has also been a renewed reference to the Third-party Certified Computer and Web Programs.

Most of the development of the New FamilySearch program is aimed at the final version of the program, presently available as a development product called Family Tree. The features of the Family Tree program are listed as follows in the announcement:

• When you open an individual’s folder, you can see the contact name of the user who has the ordinances reserved.
• You can easily resize your family tree to show many more generations on the screen.
• When you hover the mouse cursor over someone in the tree, the path back to you is highlighted. This lets you more easily see how you connect to any person in your tree.
• When you display the list of your reserved ordinances, you can see whether the cards have been printed and which ordinances are done.
• You can view the individuals in your pedigree as a list. When you first switch from the pedigree to the list, the list contains the individuals in the pedigree view. Once the list is displayed, you can sort the individuals by last name, first name, gender, birth date, birthplace, or person ID.

The Family Tree is available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.