Is it a FamilySearch goal to have the Surname Directory drill down to any Person Rec in Family Tree?
Will it allow users/patrons to learn definitively the answer to the question: Is there a person record in Family Tree for each deceased person in history, and if not for a specific person, any person registered with FamilySearch may create a person record for that specific person?
Answers
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@Douglas McPhaden A knowledge article in the Help Center titled, "What is the purpose of FamilySearch and Family Tree" explains that Family Tree is a collaborative tree. As such, the goal is to have one record for each person who has ever lived on the Earth.
Here is the article:
What is the purpose of FamilySearch and Family Tree?
The overall purpose of Family Tree is to help you discover your family and, in turn, discover a bit about yourself.
- Family Tree is a little different from other similar sites in that it is a single tree linked together in families, rather than a site that allows users to create and manage their own private trees. This difference means that everyone works together on the same data, allowing for the potential to connect every member of the human family.
- Family Tree compares records and sources in order to help you resolve mistakes or duplication in records. It also provides messaging and collaboration tools, as well as free expert phone support, to help you resolve errors.
- Family Tree draws from FamilySearch's enormous database to provide record hints. This makes it easier to link you and your ancestors to earlier generations.
- The Memories section can help foster deeper connections to ancestors. It provides a place where you can preserve and share photos and histories.
- We want Family Tree to be accessible to as many people as possible. You can view it through a variety of means, including on mobile devices, with the Family Tree and Memories apps, or in areas with low bandwidth, with the Family Tree Lite website.
It is our hope that, through Family Tree, we can work together to create the best-sourced, public genealogical family tree in the world and allow family members to connect both in the past as well as the present.
To learn more about FamilySearch, visit FamilySearch.org/about.
Another article "How do I search Family Tress to find possible duplicates" answers your question, "Is there a person record in Family Tree for each deceased person in history..."
How do I search Family Tree to find possible duplicates?
Family Tree automatically searches to see if it has other records that might be about a person. It might not, however, find every possible duplicate. You can easily search Family Tree to find other records with similar information.
Using this feature can help you find possible duplicates that Family Tree does not find automatically for you.
Steps (website)
- In Family Tree, display the person page of the individual that you want.
- If you do not see Vitals near the top of the screen, click Details.
- In the Tools section, click Find Similar People. A new tab opens with search results. The person's name and other information is automatically added to the search fields.
- Review the results.
- If you do not find the person you want, modify your search criteria.
- In the panel on the left, make your changes.
- Click Find.
- Review the results again.
- In the search results, click the name of the person to view the person card.
- On the person card, click Person.
- Review the record.
- If you find someone who might be a duplicate, merge the duplicates using the ID numbers.
Steps (mobile app)
The Family Tree mobile app currently does not have this feature. However, if you find duplicate records, you can merge them by ID number.
Steps (Family Tree Lite)
Currently, Family Tree Lite does not allow merging. Sign in to the FamilySearch website or the Family Tree mobile app to merge duplicates.
Related articles
How do I merge duplicates in Family Tree by ID number?
How do I merge duplicate records in Family Tree?
How do I know if I'm merging the right records in Family Tree?
Finally, anyone with a FamilySearch account may contribute to Family Tree by adding people to the tree and create a person record for each person added.
We hope this answers your questions and wish you success in your family history endeavors.
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I am very familiar those articles. They do not address my question. The Surname Directory is not the Family Tree. Neither is it something used to search Family Tree. It is a facility used to Find people using a manual, alphabetical drill down technique.
I am asking for a FamilySearch statement about it it direction, and the user's ability to depend on that direction in the future. That is pretty much a yes, no, don't know, or outside the scope of this forum question. I ask the question in the Community because I have failed to find an answer online.
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Is this what you are referring to: https://www.familysearch.org/en/surname
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Here is a video I highly suggest:
WHY USE FAMILYSEARCH FAMILYTREE
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I picture what you are referring to as being what they use in the Family Group Sheet Archive record collection where you start with a letter of the alphabet and work down from there until you find the person you want:
Basically bringing back the IGI to have a linear listing of everyone in Family Tree arranged by last name, first name, birth year, birth place, etc., (It would need to include all alternate names so many people would be listed multiple times) in hopes of avoiding that nagging question when searching in Family Tree as to whether a search has really been formatted sufficiently to definitely prove the person one is looking for is not in Family Tree and should be added.
I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for an answer. Rarely do the designers discuss any future plans or post any such answers as you are requesting here.
However, if you present here sufficient detail as to what you would like to see with such an index, why it would be more useful than the current search function, and full rational as to why it is needed and your presentation is persuasive enough, it might make it to the desk of one of the designers for consideration.
You are most likely to get some type of an answer by taking part in one of Ron Tanner's YouTube Live Question and Answer sessions and asking this in the comments live during the presentation. These are usually Thursdays at 7:30 MST or MDT, at most twice a month. He doesn't have any scheduled right now, but if he has more in the future, they will appear as scheduled events here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwJDNC5Ehtxqt1o4rs-0AKg/featured
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Douglas, I share the other commenters' confusion: what exactly is this "Surname Directory" that you refer to in your question?
Are you talking about the other way of getting at "discovery pages" (https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/surnames/latn)? Thankfully, only a small proportion of Family Tree has those pages, so its directory is naturally not an accurate representation of the contents of Family Tree.
Or are you referring to the fluff piece on name origins that Amy linked to?
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Gordon,
I disagree with your IGI statement. Like it says "Surname Directory". Alternate names aren't necessary since all surnames/fore name pairs are listed. My question is "do we have a deductive way to answer" that nagging question" for every person in Family Tree. It does not have to be true now, or at some point in the future, but a goal with some method for achieving it.
Can you give details on how to attend Ron's Thursday evening meeting?
Explore Ancestor Discovery Pages • FamilySearch is the blog post for "New Ancestor Discovery Pages Provide a Rich, Engaging Family History Experience". That has a link to Browse Surname Directory . The www page linked to (at the URL) is the same the one linked to by the URL in your comment. And yes this is one way of getting a "discovery pages".
Julia,
See paragraph 3 in response to Gordon.
Yes it is one way.
What is a small portion? 10%? 33% That is now. My question is about the future.
My response to Amy's piece is above.
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You attend Ron's Q&A sessions by clicking on the link I posted above. If there is one scheduled, it will appear as a scheduled event. Currently, there is not one.
So you envision not a listing like a telephone directory where each individual is listed on a separate line but rather a listing of all surnames in Family Tree on which you would click on a surname to open a list of all fore names that have that surname on which you would click on a fore name and get a list of all ID numbers that have that pair?
Or would clicking on the fore name open a list of all birth years of people with the pair to narrow it down farther? At one point would the directory show just the name you are looking for? And if the person you are looking for did not have his or her name spelled the way you expect it to be, how would you account for that? Would the initial listing of surnames group them by equivalent groups (Smith, Smithe, Smythe, Smyth, Smyth, Smed, Schmeid, Schmeit, etc.)? Or would you just plan on checking all of the dozens of spelling variations a last name may have in the initial listing?
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I think the Surname Directory may be contributing to the creation of new duplicate pages on FT. If a reader drills down and does not find a page for the person, wouldn't they naturally conclude FT has no page for that person?
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In Family Tree - - when you go to add a person - FS lets you know of matching records already in the system - before you confirm your record creation.
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In Family Tree - - when you go to add a person - FS lets you know of matching records already in the system - before you confirm your record creation.
Sometimes. When the existing PID has no standardized vital details, usually not.
I know this because very often I try to find a PID, don't find one, create a new PID and after I get enough historical records attached then I get a hint about the duplicate record. For context, my contributions include over 16,000 PIDs.
Merges are not counted, but I think I have merged far more PIDs than I have created. I wish merges were counted.
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well yea that is true
but for records that are formatted correctly - yes it will detect matches.
and even if not formatted exactly correct in many cases it will still locate a match.
but it gets to a point that YES - if there are no valid dates - etc. - it loses its ability to find a match.
but my statement was general - - FS does have logic in place to catch most duplicates. (but not all)
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