September 2011 Changes to New FamilySearch

The last major changes to New FamilySearch came last February, 2011. Since then the changes may have involved a great deal of programming, but visually and from the standpoint of the user, very few of the more recent changes have any real effect on the use of the program. Recently announced changes are no exception. The September 2011 new features include some adjustments to the screens for identifying the parts of a name when editing and adding individuals to the database and remove an edit link from the same screen. As stated by the news release, "When you edit a name, the system now lets you review and correct the name parts, the same as it does when you add a new name. Name parts categorize each part of the name (given name, last name, title, and so forth)."

The removal of the edit link is from the Summary Screen. The news release states, "When you add a new individual to the system, the system displays a summary that lets you review the name parts and other information before you save it. This screen used to have edit links. Because using these edit links confused so many people, they have been removed from the Summary screen."

The rest of the news release deals with changes to the User's Guide to reflect the changes to the two screens.

Much earlier in the year, back at RootsTech 2011, there was some discussion of the possible changes to the New.FamilySearch.org program, including the incorporation of source information about specific events and other enhancements to the program. I guess I am still in a wait and see attitude about the possibility of future enhancements that may start moving towards a program that has source citations tied to events and has a way to edit outrageously bad data.