training for new merging program, pass a test before you can merge

LegacyUser

Carol Hutchinson said: I think people should have to take a test and get a "licence" to be able to do merging on this Family Tree website. I would be okay doing training and passing a test whenever they do a major upgrade in the merging process. Until you pass, you can use the site, you just can't merge records. I think that would be a reasonable alternative than having a patron merge everyone with the name of John Langstaff/Longstaff from anywhere in England.

I recently spent at least 5 hours trying to unmerge/restore some horrible merges. I am sure I missed some. John Langstaff PID's from at least 3 counties, numerous parishes, spanning a birth date of 75 to 85 years, and their wives, and their children all merged into one horrific family..

After restoring, I had to remove wrong sources, add correct sources, merge appropriate records, and then I had to go in and put "not a match" on several entries that still came up as "possible duplicate". I did finally mange to get back the correct temple work for my husband's family, but it was very hard to do, and so frustrating.

Famiily Tree has some responsibility in this as well. The search parameters are too broad, as possible duplicates came up for any John Langstaff who had a wife named Margaret. Didn't matter that the surname of the Margaret's were different, that they lived in different counties and parishes, or that the marriage were at least 75 years apart!.

The engineers have not taken into consideration how ill informed [careless? reckless? incompetent?] many users of this database seem to be.

LegacyUser

Cousin David said: There are some very reasonable comments in this list.

The criteria for merging need to be tightened it at least an option (like Ancestry) provided.

Kindest Regards,

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: As has been stated many times by Family Search personnel, and repeated by regular users, Family Search will not obstruct the open-edit nature of FamilySearch Family Tree, even with mandatory training lessons.

This is not my choice. I am in favor of requiring at least some minimal testing.

What FamilySearch has done is to approve The Family History Guide, which is an online training manual, complete with lessons.

But, because FamilySearch does not show favoritism, it will not do more than list the training manual in the Solutions Gallery.

LegacyUser

Paul said: Carol makes good points in mentioning the other work associated with undoing a merge. How many users forget to detach the wrongly attached sources and delete the tagged events, too?

Recently, I had to detach over 20 sources and remove several pieces of Residence detail from census records (found under Other Information) as none of this was applicable to the incorrectly merged person, of course.

There also needs to be clear instructions on the procedures involved in undoing a merge, because many users are only completing half the job.

LegacyUser

Carol Hutchinson said: I understand Tom Huber, and know that we will NEVER have testing or "licences", but one thing good that came out of this is he explained where Family Search has HIDDEN the Family History Guide. I have been looking for it for over a year! {Stop here, this is NOT what I have been looking for, read to the end of my diatribe and I will explain--I want the old 80 page instruction manual for Family Tree]

I have been using Family Tree since 2008, when it was in the Beta format of new.familysearch.org.
The Family History Guide was [is?] a great tool, but hidden under Solutions Gallery, appears as if support@familysearch.org is trying to hide it. Who could even find it? Years ago this manual used to be under the "Help" button and was much more readily available. Most of the patrons and other friends, and even my volunteer staff at the FHC where I volunteer, don't even know what the Solutions Gallery is. So how are novices, or even experienced genealogists supposed to find it? Or even know it exists and that they should search for it?
I just tried the link for "The Family History Guide" under Solutions Gallery [you have to go to Family Tree Management and then search for the Family History Guide. It is STILL hard to find there are some pictures in the middle of the page, the Get Started button just takes you to a video, which is NOT what I wanted.
back to find a button to click on the Family History Guide, I finally found it by clicking on the 2 circles that have halve diamonds on either side of them. click the right half diamond [arrow?] and it brings up a page that says The Family History Guide. Click on this picture and them the page says Get Started or Projects. Nothing happens, then I notice Download or View File Details.which gives me FamilySearch Terms of Use (Updated 2019-12-10) | Privacy Notice (Updated 2018-09-01)
© 2020 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. A service provided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints which is NOT what I want, so I click the back button, and have to begin all over again. There HAS to be an easier way to get to "The Family History Guide" I am determined, but most people would have given up 10 minutes ago. Why is it so hard to find? and get to? I do not consider myself as stupid, but I am beginning to re-evaluate, this is crazy
So I am attempting to download. okay I give up. I am going to get my computer analyst husband to help me as I am too stupid to make this work.

maybe this "The Family History Guide" is not what I am looking for. There used to be an excellent 80 page guide to Family Tree. That is what I want, this The Family History Guide is just a website? Sheesh, I give up. this is just way too frustrating. If anyone knows how to access the old 80 page Family Tree guide I would appreciate the URL. I am so frustrated I am going to stop doing family history for awhile, maybe go poke my eyes out! it would be more fun than trying to find help on this website.

LegacyUser

Cousin David said: Point well taken.

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: About ten or so years ago, the guide produced by the Church for FamilySearch was worked on, but since the program was in its infancy, there were a lot of changes that had to have documentation added, updated, or even deleted.

The approval process for Church publications is a long one, lasting for several years. Editing is done to the wording to make sure it is absolutely clear. By the time the updated manual is ready for printing, it is badly out of date.

Thus, the Church discontinued publishing the manual (there were two versions - one for non-members and one for members). At that time, there were some good lessons available through the Learning Center (which was separate from the help center), but it was also slow to be updated.

Today, not much has changed. The new merge process is not, to the best of my knowledge, documented on FamilySearch or in the articles. There may be some material in the Wiki, but it is largely maintained by people who are researchers. Lessons are prepared and given, but as to whether they remain up to date is another matter.

The solution turned out to be an independently maintained site and even it has problems staying up to date, but for the most part, it provides the users with the "how to" information that used to be in the old manual and is usually kept fairly well up to date by its team. The site is not limited to FamilySearch, but covers Ancestry as well as at least one other popular site.

I will occasionally look something up on the site, but that is rare, so I don't stay current with what it contains.

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: By the way, I have a boookmark that takes me to the Guide's home page: http://thefhguide.com/

LegacyUser

MaryAnne Ashton said: This was "spot on"! People need to be much more careful with families and remember that these are REAL people who we will someday possibly have to give an account to of our work on family search!