> So if you are not an LDS member then all this new FamilySearch > functionality that is now in Legacy is useless? This new stuff is for > LDS only?
Yes, that is true for right now. The new stuff with Legacy FamilySearch is only useful to the members of the LDS Church. They need this feature to interact with the new FamilySearch data base that is currently only available to members of the church. If Legacy does not provide this interface the those customers will be have to leave Legacy for another genealogical software that does. But there are many great resources available to everyone right now. Such as the regular FamilySearch site http://www.familysearch.org that give you access to many great records and even online tutorials on how to do research around the word. Or the http://labs.familysearch.org/ website where you can find access to the images and indexes that are being done by volunteers around the world. The LDS church has over 24 million rolls of microfilm with information from around the world. You can look up in the catalogue and have your local Family History Library order them for you at a minimal charge. They are currently digitizing all of these rolls of file and then indexing them at a rate of around 1 million names a day. This is then being put online for free though this website. IN THE FUTURE the new FamilySearch website will be open to everyone. At which time you will be able to access it through the Legacy FamilySearch. SO WHAT YOU ASK. On Ancestry or Roots web and other site you upload you family tree for other so see. So does you brother, your Great Aunt, and your Cousin twice removed. And a lot of the data is identical and some of the work may be your own research repeated a few times. But yet they are STILL SEPARATE FAMILY TREES. What the new FamilySearch is doing is merging all the trees and information that it has into ONE FAMILY TREE with all those people linked together. This is a collaborative effort. So if someone has something different you can contact each other and get the real facts correct. When it is finished I think you will find it a great asset to your own research. But currently there are a few difficulties. One it currently takes some 650 serves to run the website. Some 350 just to do the searching. The backup takes some 21 Tera Bits of hard drive. And you thought your data base was large. The family tree currently contains some 1.4 BILLION names. That will be helpful in anyone's research. Another problem. Currently there is only a place for notes. No Sourcing. But I am sure it will be available someday and maybe even linking images such as census images or the SSDI. But that really will take a lot of computing power. So for EVERONE there is something usefull from the regular FamilySearch and in the FUTURE more great stuff in the new FamilySearch. Rick Merrill Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages after Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Archived messages from old mail server - before Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
