Each month, FamilySearch publishes a list of new changes and updates to the FamilySearch.org website. This list includes changes to Family Tree as well as other parts of FamilySearch.org. In some cases, these changes will also be published as individual articles where the need to do so exists.
Recently Released
Help Center
Updates to the Help Center
- The Help Center page now contains categories to help you narrow your search.
- The former version of the Learning Center has been brought back so that you can browse for courses in addition to searching for them.
Family Tree
Temple Ordinance Reservation Policy and Expiring Reservations
In the coming months, the Family History Department will begin unreserving temple ordinance reservations worldwide that have been inactive for more than 2 years.
If you have ordinance reservations that you want taken care of before they are released, share them with a family member, friend, or the temple. For some special reservations, you may want to unreserve them and then rereserve them to keep them on your list. If you prefer to have the ordinances released, you do not need to do anything. If you have shared ordinances with the temple, these ordinances will not be released.
The Church previously announced the policy of unreserving ordinances that have been reserved for more than 2 years and has encouraged members to complete ordinances in a timely manner. Unreserving inactive temple reservations has become a priority because of the large number of ordinances that have been reserved longer than this 2-year window.
This policy now applies to reservations made by members from all countries, not just the United States and Canada.
Please see the FamilySearch Blog for more details.
View My Relationship
The View My Relationship link will be updated to calculate the relationship between you and a specific person in your tree. In some cases the search parameter has been expanded from the current 4 generations up and 1 generation down to 15 generations in both directions.
You may be related to an ancestor in more than one way, including through a spouse. Family Tree will show you the relationship that is calculated first.
Memories
Updates to Memories
- In the Gallery view, you can now hover over a thumbnail to preview a larger image.
- In the Gallery list view, you can now add a title.
- In the Gallery list view, you can now see whether an image has been restricted:
- When you are looking at a specific memory, you have the option of adding another location or performing other actions (favorites, sharing options, and other functions) will also appear.
Mobile
Several improvements have been made to the Family Tree mobile apps:
Android Tree App
- You can now check for possible duplicates for a person.
- You can now tag persons in photos. This will even let you tag a region in the photo, such as behind the faces of multiple people, and then “attach” that photo to persons in FamilySearch.
Android Memories App
- You can now tag persons in photos. This will even let you tag a region in the photo, such as behind the faces of multiple people, and then “attach” that photo to persons in FamilySearch.
Note: This feature has been available in the iOS version of Memories and Tree but is new in the Android version.
iOS Tree App
In November the Family Tree app released a major update in the way you navigate between features using navigation tabs at the bottom of the app. This gives you 2 new functions:
- You can now have 4 tabs or windows open at a time, which means you could have 1 or 2 tabs with persons, 1 with the tree pedigree, and 1 with a source or hint (or you could have any combination of these). The changes make it easier and faster to do research, find new persons, and contribute information to the tree.
- Each tab can navigate forward and back to previous views, much like a web browser.
Note: This feature is also being developed for the Android Tree app for a future release.
Share Your Comment or Question
The bottom of every FamilySearch page has a “Feedback” link. Clicking that link is the best way to provide suggestions, compliments, or complaints to the people at FamilySearch who can do something about it. While they may not be able to respond personally to every suggestion, FamilySearch engineers personally review each piece of feedback and consider what might be done. Your voice will be heard. Don’t be shy!
