Whole New Interface on FamilySearch.org

Well, the long awaited facelift of FamilySearch.org finally appeared. Unfortunately, I was traveling today and did not get a look at it until late in the evening. It is different. Here are some first observations;

1. The FamilySearch logo introduced at RootsTech only partially made it into the new facelift. The font of the name "FamilySearch" changed and turned green but the tree has yet to appear. Here is a screen shot of the new startup page:

The image at the top keeps changing every few seconds. So the page is more animated.

2. Family Tree also got a new look. Here is a screen shot of the new look:

There is a link at the top to Family Tree Photos and here is the new startup page of the Photos program:

3. The new Search link takes you to this redesigned search page.

4. For LDS Church members there is a new Temple link that takes them directly to their Ordinance reservation list.

5. A new fan chart option has been added to Family Tree.

6. The Learn page with the links to the FamilySearch Research Wiki and the Videos seems to have disappeared even further into the dark reaches of the website. I spent some time looking for them and finally found a link on the Volunteer link to the Wiki. The Videos are buried in the Help Center under a further link to the Learning Center. Hmm. I finally found a link to the Research Wiki buried in the Help Center then further buried in the Research Assistance link. It is now down four levels instead of two. They must be afraid it will scare people away to find out that genealogical research is somewhat complicated. So make the website complicated to find the resources to help.

Recent statements and the changes to the website make me wonder where those of us who are researching the source records to find and document our ancestors (i.e. genealogists) fit into this new emphasis by FamilySearch? Well, the FamilySearch.org website has some very useful things on it. Unfortunately, the most useful things for genealogists are now buried past the startup page. Am I to guess that they must not want us around any more? Do we make things too difficult for beginners scaring them with citations and sources?

Well, then the website crashed so I had to restart.

I am sure I will get used to the new site.

I will probably have quite a few questions. Here is one for a start:

You can do a beautiful fan chart but where do you get the names to fill it in if you don't have to do any research?