Family History has changed greatly over the years.

 

Until the 1990s the focus used to be research by mail and by personal visits. Each person kept their own genealogy in a Book of Remembrance.

With the arrival of the internet, the Church created www.familysearch.org and family history went online.

Members and non-members could now work together on research. The data from Books of Remembrance could be shared with everyone online. Books of Remembrance remained important for storing old photos and stories.

Then the FamilySearch Family Tree became a shared repository for these "Memories", and Books of Remembrance became treasured curiosities.

Temples used to be few, so travel to the temple could require days or weeks. Now temples are much closer.

The process of finding a family name to take to the temple used to take months of personal research. Now it takes 5 minutes, as Ordinances Ready can quickly search the 1.3 billion records in Family Tree for a relative needing ordinances.

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I hope that everyone who has a Book of Remembrance will go through it carefully to make sure  that the photos, stories, and documents are uploaded to the FamilySearch Family Tree for long-term preservation. (We are asked to not upload patriarchal blessings, but there is a permanent record of these available directly for those who need access.)

Documenting living people

In my role as a stake consultant I sometimes receive interesting questions, This one arrived recently.

"My uncle had 22 children and some are already dead, they're not close, and I'm trying to document them all. Question is should I put the living in FS or not?

"No members on their side but a few giving me some info, usual non-member interest in family I'm guessing.  Thoughts or rules. Thanks "

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That is a good question. 

I watched a video from the BYU Family History Library, where James Tanner was pondering this. He felt that with the widespread use of social media, total privacy is probably not possible, but that the Church has a responsibility to protect privacy, where it can. Finding that balance is a personal choice,

Any records of living people that you add to the FamilySearch FamilyTree can only be seen by you. As you mark them Deceased they will become visible to other users. At present, these records will remain hidden when you die, but this may change. (I hope it does. and that they become automatically marked as deceased at the age of 110 years, but this is not currently happening.)

Memory items that you add to Family Tree will be visible if they are tagged to deceased people. (My parents are deceased so all their Memory items are visible, including photos that contain living family members.)

Memory Albums containing living people can be viewed by anyone with whom you share the link to the album, (I recently used this feature to share about 200 photos I received about a great aunt's family in England.)

So FamilySearch is not ideal for documenting living people if you want to share the information with others. Another alternative would be RootsMagic or Ancestral Quest, which can easily create gedcom files to share with relatives.

Like I said, it is s good question. I wish I had a better answer,

Best wishes for a wonderful 2023.

Bill