Puzzled by recent color changes to icons.

LegacyUser

Earl Garrett Morris said: Our family have been avid genealogists for generations. As such, because our lines have been researched by so many for such a long time, I have shifted my emphasis to Descendancy research. I have been deeply involved in this work for five years. With the recent changes in the FS program it is not productive to do Descendancy research any more. I am puzzled as to why such an all-encompassing change was deemed necessary. As I read the many "posts" on this situation it would be helpful to we users if an explanation could be shared so we can appreciate what the intended benefit would be to the Family Search user population as a result of this massive change.

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: What Jim is saying is that while many users made use of the green icon for research, the idea at the time was to provide more names for the temple(s). That is no longer the case. As the restrictions continue due to the pandemic, the backlog for vicarious ordinances continues to increase. It was already large when the discussion and intimate decision was made (long before the pandemic) to start emphasizing taking names to the temple.

Anyone who has shared a name in past is likely well aware of how long it can take before the vicarious ordinances were completed. For men it was far worse than for women.

And so, while the color remains the same (it has always meant that the name has sufficient information to reserve and take the name to the temple), the emphasis is now to get those names taken care off.

And because it was never intended to be a flag for research, we users should not have been using it for that purpose.

But the choice is up to the individual user how they want to use FamilySearch. That's why I use my local database family tree management program. I can set up the citations properly, so that they are consistent from source to source and can be easily used to go to the original record, especially if another repository is accessed.

LegacyUser

Jordi Kloosterboer said: How do temple icons help you do research? I have seen many times that temple work has already been done when the person in question still needs to be researched. In fact, sometimes, their temple work has been done when it did not even need to be done because the person who submitted the name did not research the death of the person. More times than that, I see temple work that needs to be submitted/done and the vitals have been researched quite a bit (I can't say it is done because I can't prove that necessarily). Therefore, temple work does not indicate how much a person has been researched, and, therefore, should not be a hindrance to researching.

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: I never use the FS descendancy pedigree to set up my research goals, but then I use a local database to do my research, which fully interfaces with FS FT.

A lot of people have come to rely on the icons in the Descendancy Pedigree. The following statement from Jim Greene explains a bit about what is going on.

We are no longer in a position where names submitted to the temple is more important than to have the ordinances performed. Therefore, while not changing the meaning we are changing the emphasis of the green temple. We need to think of it as "This ordinance is available for temple work to be performed." It does not mean "This ordinance is ready to be requested/reserved or submitted/shared with the temple." (This clarified statement was made by Jim Greene on June 17th.)