Access to familysearch for non-members - is it the same as LDS members?

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Michael Wesley Adams said: I was contacted by a non-member distant relation who asked if registered non-members have the same accesses to FamilySearch.org as registered LDS members. I was hoping to find an answer to this in the FAQ page, but there was nothing on the topic as far as I could see. I am not sure how to answer this question should it arise again. My belief is that everyone has the same access to records, but non-members cannot submit for ordinance work and cannot access to the paid genealogy sites via familysearch. Please tell me if this is correct. Could the answer to this question be included on the FAQs page for future reference?

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David Nay said: Everyone sets up a password through LDS Accounts. If you do not give a membership number when signing up for your account then whenever you use FamilySearch you will not see any temple information. The top level temple menu is gone, the icons do not appear, the ordinance tab on the person page is not there. If you as a member wants to see what that experience is like just go to Settings/Preferences and uncheck the Show LDS Temple Information checkbox. This option is useful for families to work together when not everyone is a member.

Regarding partner access to the 4 FREE programs, I believe it is restricted to only the accounts that have a membership number.

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S. said: I have a strange question but it fits in this subject, my question is this can people have 2 accounts.

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Nancy Tychonievich said: Some online records are also restricted to member viewing; many of those are free to view in a family history center regardless of membership status.

Sure, you can have more than one account. But you can only tie your membership record to one of those accounts. Not sure why you'd want two accounts, though. Could get confusing, especially since you wouldn't be able to see any living folks you added to the tree in one account if you forgot and signed in with the other account.

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Rhonda Cole said: The partner access is only for members . I am an Assistant Director to a Family History Center and it is good to see people asking questions.

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Ron Tanner said: To answer the original question - yes the only difference between a member and non-member accounts is the ordinance portions of the site does not show to non-members.

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gasmodels said: The above is true for access and Family Tree issues but be aware there are some historical record collections where only members can view the original records. So it is not just ordinances and partner access that is limited for non-members.

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Karen Sevilla said: I have a non-member cousin who wants to work on our family tree. If I suggest FamilySearch. org will she be able to access my tree?

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Gordon Collett said: Everybody in the world, member or non-member, can see every deceased individual in Family Tree and everyone can work on all those individuals because we are all in the same tree.

We cannot see living people, those are all strictly private and can only be seen by the person who entered them, even though they are, again, all in the same tree.

So yes, your cousin will be able to see all your deceased relatives just like everyone else.

If you have entered a lot of living people into Family Tree, she will not be able to see them but will have to enter her own copies of enough living people such as her parents and maybe her grandparents to hook into all your deceased relatives.

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S. said: Maria any one can use family search, Just like what was said above will happen, they will able to help and help in boat loads of ways, they just won't be able to see a few things.

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Garry Evans said: I am very frustrated now that after several years using the Excellent site at FamilySearch.org, I cannot access the actual BDM certificates as previously allowed whilst using the LDS records of FamilySearch.org for my Family Tree Research. They are vital to confirm individuals in any records found. This seems very unfair to users of the Search facilities and is a hindrance to users now. It seems to be a method of making money from non LDS members which I thought was a free to all Service. Not very friendly service now.

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Gordon Collett said: Everything is still completely free. There is, in fact, no fee you could pay for access to records which have been restricted by the owners of the records, which is never FamiySearch.

Which collection of BDM certificates are your referring to?

You might be able to find the same certificates on the website of whichever archive or government owns them. If that archive or government charges a fee to access them, you can be sure that both non-LDS and LDS have to pay the same fee to that organization which, again, will not be FamilySearch.

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Tom Huber said: FamilySearch remains free, regardless of a person’s status as a member.

Access to historical records continues under the control of negotiated agreements with the owners of the original records. That was true of films and it is true of the digital versions.

The owners of the original records can and do change access conditions. That has certainly been the situation for Illinois records controlled by the clerks (state and county).

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Garry Evans said: All Collections in the Philippines... Cant view any certificates for confirmation of data...says I need to logon as a LDS member to view them...as I am not a LDS member how do I get to view them?

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Tom Huber said: Like when you could only travel to a Family History facility to view a film, most collections that cannot be viewed at home can be viewed at a FH facility like a FHC (Center) or affiliate library.

The owners of the records control access, not FamilySearch. That continues to be the situation and that (unfortunately) will continue to be the situation. The moment FamilySearch violates the owners' conditions, it could face major litigation and possibly court action to remove both local access and the films from the collection.

No one wants that to happen, so the owners' access restrictions will continue to be followed.

In some regions of the world, this is a major problem.

But not the Philippines. Go to https://www.familysearch.org/location... and enter Philippines, then search. That will display a map with all the centers located in the Philippines region. There are some 18 or so located on the main body of islands. Zoom the map to locate the one closest to you.

Call the Family History facility before you go to make sure it is open and staffed by a member who can assist you in looking at the records you want to view. In most centers, you can download images to a USB thumb drive or print them out to take with you, just as (while we could keep them running), you could print copies of what you found on a film.

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teebar said: Would those with non LDS accounts be able to access microfilms that are available through FamilySearch catalog for specific places? I am working with a non LDS cousin and trying to keep straight what info is on FamilySearch and what is on Ancestry gets very confusing. I like that I can attach vital statistic records to individuals in FamilySearch because of the microfilms available online.

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Paul said: There is no simple answer to your question. There can be different restrictions in viewing images depending on the particular collection. Many images cannot be viewed at home by non-members but a good deal of these can be viewed by all at an LDS or affiliate library.

Find the record concerned in the Catalog and this should give you a good idea of the limits of its availability. The link below (posted today in another thread) should provide some general help.

https://www.familysearch.org/blog/en/...

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Tom Huber said: Access is controlled by the owners of the original records that are now in digital format.

There are a few instances where LDS are the only ones that can access some of the records. Those are rare, but they do exist.

Non LDS can access records that are restricted to LDS Family History facilities and affiliate libraries. However, they must have an account, which is free, to see the records at those locations.

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teebar said: When I search for records for San Giusto Canavese in Torino, Italy there is an option to click Registri ecclesiastici di San Giusto Canavese (Torino), 1746-1899

When you do it has 3 microfilms available to view but the format has a camera icon. When I am not signed in to my LDS account a small key icon is above the camera. If I am signed in the key goes away. Can I conclude from this that viewing these films is restricted to LDS members?

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teebar said: Thanks.

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teebar said: Thanks.

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Adrian Bruce said: No. Having said that, quite often, it's the case that LDS Members can view the stuff at home and the rest of us need to go to FH Centres. So far as I know, the only way to find out the restrictions is to find someone who can't see them, because then they'll be told what the restriction is... I don't know of a means to predict the answer. Other than very vaguely.

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teebar said: Thanks. I am LDS and can view the Italian records at home but am working with a non-LDS cousin who lives in another part of the country on this line. Trying to figure out if it would be worth her getting a FamilySearch account so we can more easily share info instead of trying to keep track of stuff on FamilySearch and Ancestry.

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Don M Thomas said: I might be mistaken but I am thinking that FamilySearch is making everyone sign into their FamilySarach account before they can view original historical documents.

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Paul said: I thought that would be the case, but I just clicked on the camera icon with the key above it (which is supposed to mean restricted access). I was taken to the sign-in page and when I signed-in on my public account (I am not an LDS church member) I then found myself on image 1 of 3070 of the collection. I was most surprised because I expected to encounter a restricted access notice like "Available to LDS members or those viewing at an LDS or affiliate library". As you say, once signed-in the key symbol above the camera goes away. Perhaps viewing rights have been reviewed, or the wrong icon is showing. This is not connected to signing-in, because you have to be signed-in now to view all FamilySearch records.

Don't expect that your cousin will be able to view all "restricted" records in this way - it might even be a "glitch" that enables me to be able to view this so-called restricted record today. Anyhow, this just confirms there is no definitive answer to this question!

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teebar said: Thanks. That's what I am hoping for. She is calling me this evening so we'll see what happens.

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teebar said: Well I can't imagine there'd be any reason to restrict non-LDS if they are being shared with those with FamilySearch accounts. It doesn't make any sense, but at any rate your experience is encouraging. I can let you know once we try it. Thanks for your help.

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Tom Huber said: As has been said numerous times, access is controlled by the owners of the original records, not FamilySearch. FamilySearch is bound by an agreement with the owners, and regardless of how we patrons may or may not feel about the agreement, we have no control over the matter.

The situation, which I have posted before, goes to decisions that are made with changes of content owner administration. This was nowhere more apparent than what we ran into when we visited a county court house in Illinois, wanting to look at old (1850s) records. We had previously looked at the records without problems, but when we attempted to look a couple of years later, we were informed by the County Clerk's staff that we no longer could do so.

Illinois is one of those states which has had and continues to have a horrid track record with public funds. Graft is common and as a result we are one of two states with the worst taxes in the nation. The other is New Jersey.

Anyway, the Clerks evidently got together and decided that they could add to their own coffers by charging for copies ($17.00 per copy) at the time. They would open the book and answer only "yes" or "no" questions. The visitor could not look at the book or page. If they wanted a copy of the page they paid $17.00 (non-refundable with no guarantee the page would have on it what the visitor wanted) for a copy.

At the same time, access to the digitized images of the microfilms taken by FamilySearch was removed and the only way one could view the images was by looking at a copy of the film, if one happened to be at a local Family History Center.

That is the kind of control the owners of the content have over our access.

For some reason, there are certain digital records (don't ask me why, but this was discovered some time ago) that non-LDS cannot access, even at an LDS facility. We can complain, yes, but what I believed before (that there was no difference) happens not to be the case.

If that has changed, it would be nice to know, but as far as I know, the access restrictions still exist between members and non-members. If I recall, these were not church records (some of which cannot be accessed except as part of a special records collection in Salt Lake and only then with a valid temple recommend).

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teebar said: Wow, that is crazy. Thanks for sharing. I guess I'll be able to report back once my cousin creates an account. I will let you know. I appreciate your detailed account.

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teebar said: I am happy to report that my non-LDS cousin already has a FamilySearch account and has been able to access the online records from Italy in her home! I realize this isn't the case for everyone but apparently the northern Italians have no problem sharing their vital statistics with the world:)

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Paul said: Thanks for updating us - that's really good news.