Sources into familysearch.org.
I have been putting my documents into familysearch.org. so I can get rid of all my paper documents. I have been bringing a lot of documents over from findagrave.com. and ancestry.com.. If something ever happened to findagrave.com. and ancestry.com., and they were not online anymore, would those documents still be in familysearch.org.?
Answers
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Since FamilySearch depends on a church continuing to fund it, and Ancestry has over 3 million subscribers (26 million have taken their DNA test at a one time fee), I would think their is more danger of FamilySearch converting to subscription based than either of them going away. Of course a meteor could strike at any time … but getting access to Ancestry or FamilySearch restored may not be my priority at that point.
I applaud you uploading your documents. If any of them are the equivalent of a source, you can create a source from a memory. I have done that with my images of birth and death certs that I’ve inherited. I am also uploading my images to Ancestry.
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FamilySearch will never disappear. Is it a fundamental component of the church that it is part of. FamilySearch has been around since 1894 (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FamilySearch ) and has done a great job maintaining records despite changing technologies. Ancestry is a business that could be sold, change its business model, or go bankrupt.
However, no matter what you do: Never get rid of original paper source documentation that you cannot replace. I would not trust any computer system that far.
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Regardless of what type of source, never expect the information to remain on FamilySearch indefinitely. A particularly important action is to download any images, as these are liable to disappear at any time. If Ancestry or a record custodian (such as a County Record Office, here in England) withdraws permission for these images to be displayed on FamilySearch you will no longer have access to them.
I quickly download any images I am likely to need to look at in the future, as I often find the links suddenly fail to work any longer. This problem can even effect access to indexed records (i.e. where there is no image on website), so make sure you keep your notes (on paper or in a database) as you might be able to rely on FamilySearch never disappearing, but certainly you cannot rely on its records (individual or complete collections) remaining for the long-term - they can even disappear literally overnight!
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