Demo account

JackClerk

It would be great to have a Demo account to teach how to use Family Search.

Gordon Collett

For some reason the links given in the two posts above did not paste in correctly. Try typing in this: https://beta.familysearch.org

I did not put the underlying link to make it clickable on purpose.

Julia Szent-Györgyi

@JackClerk, it has nothing to do with your location. It looks like the "unsafe" label was "helpfully" added by the Community software, for some unfathomable reason. I wonder if a mod could go in and edit Gordon's post to fix that, somehow? (By removing the link from the text, if nothing else.)

Note that it is a good idea to use a different browser than you use for the "live" site (or a different session, if your browser allows you to do that; not something I've played with). This will minimize browser conniptions over login sessions.

Gordon Collett

You can't to everything on it, but a good place to demonstrate and play around is at beta.familysearch.org

They do not copy the entire website there but you can certainly show the basics of working on the site and in Family Tree. The Family Tree portion of beta is erased about every six months and replaced with a fresh copy so you can try anything you like. Working there does nothing to the real Family Tree database.

You will also run into new feature there that are being tested out before being released.

Alan E. Brown

@Gordon Collett , that's a good suggestion. It's much more practical than the suggested "demo account"; all changes made to the production Family Tree will actually affect the tree, regardless of what account does it. So you really need a separate tree, and Beta is available for that purpose.

One slight clarification: the Family Tree on beta is updated once a year (not every six months). That update starts in late November and generally finishes in mid-December. During the update process, the beta tree is not very usable.

JackClerk

Thanks, but no directions of how to access or use beta sight.

Alan E. Brown

@JackClerk Gordon provided the link to the beta site: beta.familysearch.org

Using the beta site is simple. When you go to that site, you can sign in with your regular FamilySearch account and do everything you might otherwise do on the usual familysearch.org site. Just be aware that any changes you make there will have no effect on the actual familysearch.org site, and those changes will be undone in early December each year.

JackClerk

I am in the UK, the link you posted does not work. It says it is unsafe in Chrome.

Alan E. Brown

@JackClerk You don't need to follow the link from Community if Chrome considers it unsafe. Just type beta.familysearch.org in your browser.