Monday, July 27, 2015

Find-A-Record en español

Find-A-Record ahora se puede utilizar en español. Find-A-Record detectará automáticamente si española se configura como el idioma preferido en el navegador. También puede cambiar el idioma mediante el menú de idiomas al fondo de cada página.


Por favor, envíenos un mensaje si usted encuentra una traducción que se podría mejorar.

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Mark Opportunities as Fixed

On Monday we added the ability to hide opportunities. Today we are releasing the ability to mark an opportunity as fixed. The new "Fixed" button will be in the top right corner next to the "Hide" button.


After correcting data in FamilySearch, you can click the fixed button to remove the opportunity from the list. When the button is clicked, the opportunity will be replaced with a summary message that includes an undo button.


Fixed opportunities will be removed from the current list only, not from future lists. This means there is no review list as there is with hidden opportunities. If an opportunity appears again after being fixed it means the data in FamilySearch has not been corrected in the way that Find-A-Record expects. Contact us if you do not understand how to correctly resolve an opportunity.

Please remember that not all opportunities need to be resolved. Find-A-Record is designed to help you focus on what matters to you. You don't have to standardize dates and places; you don't have to find records; you don't have to fix names. You can do what is important to you. The new "Fixed" and "Hide" buttons help you focus on what matters most.

Monday, May 18, 2015

New Feature: Hide Opportunities

We just released the ability to hide opportunities. When opportunities are hidden, they immediately disappear and are not shown again in the future. In the list, you'll see the hide button in the top right corner of each card.


When you click the hide button, the opportunity will be replaced with a message that tells you what was hidden. That message includes an undo button for those whose fingers are sometimes quicker than their mind.


There is also a hide button on the details screen. When you click that button, you will be returned to the list where the opportunity is again replaced with the short message and an undo button.

As Find-A-Record searches for opportunities and finds some that you have hidden, it will show a message telling you how many opportunities are not being shown.


The message includes a link to a page where you can review the list of hidden opportunities. If you no longer want one to be hidden you can click the unhide button.


This has been the most requested feature. We are sure you'll like it. Try it now by signing in to the Find-A-Record Research Assistant.

Thursday, December 18, 2014

Choose How Many Generations to Search

We just added a new feature which allows you to search a specific number of generations. On the left side you'll see a new options titled "How many generations?" This controls how far Find-A-Record will search through your tree.


When Find-A-Record has finished searching through the number of generations you chose, it will show a "Load another generation" button. Clicking that button will resume the search through one more generation. If you started with 4 generations then it will search through the 5th generation after clicking the "Load another generation" button. When the search is finished through that generation it will show the "Load another generation" button again.


This replaces the previous "infinite scrolling" behavior that would only load when you scrolled to the bottom of the list. Now that you tell Find-A-Record how far to search, you can start a search and leave it alone to load automatically. Want to search 15 generations for all ancestors with record hints? Now you can.

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Find-A-Record Firefox Extension

We just released the Find-A-Record browser extension for Firefox. After installing, you will see a gray Find-A-Record pin in the browser's toolbar. If you click the icon when it's gray then you will be sent to Find-A-Record with you as the starting point for generating research opportunities.

The pin will turn its normal blue and orange color when you are visiting an ancestor's page in the FamilySearch Family Tree. Clicking the colored pin will open Find-A-Record with your ancestor as the starting point.


We also have an extension for Google Chrome.

Friday, October 3, 2014

Retiring the Record Search

We regret to announce that we will be retiring the Record Search feature of Find-A-Record before the end of October.

In September 2013 we set out to solve the problem of searching geographically for genealogy records. After many months of exciting and hard work, we took our solution to RootsTech 2014 where we received overwhelmingly positive feedback. But we soon ran into two problems:

1. Only some genealogists really understood how useful Find-A-Record was.
2. Acquiring and processing both the record data and the geographic data was much more expensive and difficult than we anticipated.

We decided to build the Research Assistant to tackle the first problem by showing how the Record Search data was useful for research. The Research Assistant is now much more popular than the Record Search and it no longer relies on the record data.

Inside our desire to search geographically for records was a more fundamental desire to make genealogy research easier and more approachable for beginners. The Research Assistant is an important step forward in that direction and there is still much more we can do. By retiring the Record Search, we can focus our resources on enhancing the Research Assistant and decreasing the barrier of entry for aspiring genealogists.

Find-A-Record Chrome Extension

The Find-A-Record Chrome Extension is a popular tool for making Find-A-Record features quickly accessible from inside FamilySearch and Ancestry trees. Because the Record Search is being retired, the features of the Chrome extension will be dramatically simplified. Ancestry trees will no longer be supported. The only feature that will remain is linking to the Research Assistant from an ancestor in the FamilySearch Family Tree.


If you liked the birth, marriage, and death record search features of the Chrome extension then we recommend trying the RootsSearch Chrome extension as a replacement. It behaves in a similar manner while supporting many more genealogy websites.

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

New Options for the Research Assistant

Today we added options to the Research Assistant. Now you can limit the search to specific portions of your tree via a drop-down menu on the left side.


As the help page explains:
  • Ancestors - Only searches through your direct ancestors. These are the people that would appear in a pedigree or fan chart. This does not include descendants, collateral lines, nor additional spouses of ancestors that you do not descend from (i.e. your great-grandfather's second wife).
  • Descendants - Only searches through your direct descendants. This does not include spouses.
  • Ancestors and Descendants - Searches through both your direct ancestors and descendants. This does not include collateral lines, additional spouses of ancestors that you do not descend from (i.e. your great-grandfather's second wife), nor the spouses of descendants.
  • Cousins - Searches through your ancestors, descendants, and the descendants of your ancestors (cousins). This does not include spouses.
  • Everyone - Searches through anyone connected to your tree. Gives preference to your direct ancestors and descendants, while still allowing collateral lines to be visited if you don't have many direct ancestors and descendants or if they don't have many research opportunities that we can find.
How will you use these new options? Are there other options that you would like to have?