Descendants with Tasks for Windows or Web

LegacyUser

Kris Bennett said: I find the "descendants with tasks" functionality on mobile devices super super useful in doing my family history. It would be extremely helpful to either write a family history "mobile" app for windows with this functionality OR build this functionality into your website (If it's already available please share how).

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: The home ("landing") page has a section titled Recommended Tasks. Is that what you were talking about?

LegacyUser

Jessie Hearle said: Some of the same functionality is available using the Descendancy Pedigree view.

See https://familysearch.org/ask/productS...

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: After thinking about this, there are apps in the app gallery that can help with research and finding tasks that need to be done. Find a Record (https://www.familysearch.org/apps/pro...) is one of the best and allows the patron to look for specific areas of concern (there are a lot of them) that could use some work.

It is one of the already existing apps that you can use with this site on a computer.

LegacyUser

Denis said: Descendants with tasks on the mobile app has the same functionalities as recommended tasks on the homepage of the FamilySearch website. If there is any feature that you don't see in either one of them, let us know, and we will see if we can do anything to help. Thanks

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: Here's one. Include, in text format, the relationship on the View My Relationship chart. It appears in the iOS mobile app, but not when we use a computer's browser.

LegacyUser

David Graham said: The Recommended tab on the web often shows distant extended family and not those closer to me. The Descendants with Tasks tab is a way to focus this list into specific branches of the tree.

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: Yeah. The pedigree descendancy chart in the web version can provide that functionality.

LegacyUser

Ron Tanner said: Recommend tasks on the home page fulfills the same purpose

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: Not really. It is not set up like the descendancy chart, but appears to pull names randomly from any and all relative lines, including those that, as David points out, are distant extended family.

There is no way, that I know of, to set the ancestral line or distance with the Recommended Tasks lists on the home page.

I keep mine collapsed because it is a distraction, rather than a help.

Chris Knudsen

The descendants with tasks feature on mobile is better than Recommended Tasks and Descendancy view on desktop. On the Descendancy view I have to go hunting for the Record Hints with a lot of clicking. On mobile with descendants with tasks I get them laid out in a list for me to quickly attach as fast as I can. When I'm done with one descendant they disappear and I can go on to the next task. Also, Recommended Tasks gets bogged down for me with cases that are very difficulty and wont go away. I have to scroll pretty far now before I get any descendants that are not from Denmark. I can attach 30 record hints on my phone in 30 minutes. I'm lucky to get 10 or 15 on the desktop because of how much slower the process and the older functionality. Please add descendants with tasks as a feature on desktop.

James F. Carroll

Thank you to those who were able to articulate reasons why we find the "Descendants with tasks" feature on the mobile app so valuable.

In addition to what has been shared, one reason it's so efficient is because it only shows descendants with tasks. In comparison, the "Descendancy" Tree View shows all descendants of the chosen person.

The same efficiency could be added to the "Descendancy" Tree View by adding a "Show only those with tasks" button. Another, more general method would be to add a "Filter", allowing to filter on Temple, Tasks, or both, similar to the mobile interface. My preference would be for the latter.

When showing only those with tasks or temple opportunities, it might be good to omit the relationship lines (on the left) since some of the interconnecting individuals will often be missing.

Thanks for working tirelessly to improve the tools we use to discover, connect, and gather our family.

Nancy Busby

I concur with James F Carroll & Chris Knudsen.

I would like to see the same filter option on the web as the app. I like the feature in the app where from a persons page, I can select 'Descendants with Tasks', for that specific person, and I can choose 'Hints' 'Temples' or 'All'. I use this feature almost every day. I often end up going to the web page to sort out hints attached to a person who may need to be merged or have complicated relationships or multiple family members who need their info updated based on the hint. I do this because I can open & view multiple tabs on multiple screens with my desktop. Once there, I find myself wishing I could do the same search on the web version. 😊 I still love the regular 'descendancy view' associated with the various 'tree view' options, so I can get the full picture of all family members, so keep that for sure. Regarding the suggestions above that 'Recommended Tasks' fulfills this 'hints only' request, I would also state that it is far too random. I specifically use the app 'view descendants with tasks' to drill down on a specific branch of the tree. The app feature makes it so much more efficient.

There have been SO many awesome records & features added over the last 10 years! Thanks for all the hard work to make this program so powerful, helpful and user friendly.