Below are highlights of a number of features that are relatively new to FamilySearch.org:
Pedigree Views
You can now view your family pedigrees in a traditional view, as a fan chart, and as a portrait chart showing photos of ancestors that have been submitted to FamilySearch by your relatives. With a descendency chart view, you can see your descendants and maybe spot ancestral lines to which new information can be added. The charts can be printed and shared with others. One FamilySearch user makes place mats from her ancestral fan chart so her children can have dinner with their ancestors.
Record Hints
With a feature introduced about a year ago, FamilySearch automatically compares people in your ancestry with its vast database of indexed records—the indexing having been done by FamilySearch volunteers—and then offers “hints” of records that you might access.
If the hinted record is indeed a match, you can add information from that record to your family tree. Record Hints can be accessed from two places in the Family Tree section of FamilySearch: the descendency view of a pedigree chart or an ancestor’s individual details page.
FamilySearch Apps
The family history center can be on your smartphone if you use apps such as FamilySearch Tree and FamilySearch Memories, both of which can be downloaded free from Apple’s App Store or Google Play.
FamilySearch Tree lets you view the details of your FamilySearch.org Family Tree. It helps you see connections with your ancestors by looking through the stories and photos. It also lets you add more photos and stories to your family branches.
FamilySearch Memories makes it easy to collect, preserve, and share your favorite family memories. You can quickly record photos, video, and audio to capture events, heirlooms, pictures, and family history stories. You can tag people and events, and all this syncs to FamilySearch.org. You can also make voice recordings and it will turn the audio into text.
Memories
The Memories section of FamilySearch.org lets you upload photos and stories about your family and ancestors. You can then tag them and link them to people in your tree. You can record the stories by speaking into a smartphone and uploading the recording or by copying and pasting from a word processing document or email.
In Family Tree, all of the information for living people is private and can be accessed only by family. Items in the Memories section, such as a photo or an audio file, can be made accessible to a wider audience.
For more information about these features, see the article “New Features You’ll Find at FamilySearch.org.”
I am a family history director. My helpers in the center want to learn how to add media to their family search account. I have one sister that has a cassette tape of her father singing a song. How does she add this to her father’s page in familysearch? I have another sister who has a recording of her daughter singing happy birthday to her on her telephone. Is there a way she can save that to her page in familysearch? I am not too tech savvy, but I want to try to learn how to do this to teach others. I hope you can help me. I do not have a web site.
Ileen,
Thanks for your comment. You will first have to convert the cassette tapes into a digital audio file. There are companies who can do this for you, or if you know someone who knows how, it can be done inexpensively by playing the audio cassette in the cassette recorder and using cables into your computer or smartphone. See a video of how to do it at https://youtu.be/S5ZXjKjNy1I . You would need to buy the cables and a converter box, like this one: http://amzn.to/1Mjf00q
Here are some helpful instructions: http://www.wikihow.com/Convert-Analog-Audio-to-Digital-With-an-Apple-Computer
Once you have a digital audio file, log into FamilySearch.org. Then choose Memories and then Audio (https://familysearch.org/photos/audio) to upload the audio file. It must be in the format .mp3 or .m4a. The file size can be up to 15MB.
Hope that helps!
Larry