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Day one of our Federation of Genealogical
Societies conference in Knoxville, Tenn., started off bright and early with a
FamilySearch-hosted breakfast to update the genealogy media on recent and upcoming
changes to FamilySearch.

Most exciting are the developments on the FamilySearch
beta site. Eventually, this site will seamlessly integrate all the FamilySearch
tools that now live on different sites: the Record
Search Pilot, Family
History Library catalog, pedigree
databases, FamilySearch Wiki, FamilySearch
blog, online videos and other learning tools, “new” Family Search (the family
tree feature that’s currently available to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints) and others.

The Record Search Pilot and library catalog search (already on the beta site) are
far more sophisticated than those on the Record Search Pilot site and FamilySearch,
respectively.

According to FamilySearch product manager Robert Kehrer, all the records now on the
pilot site will be searchable on the beta site within a month. FamilySearch isn’t
big on giving launch dates, but Kehrer says some major updates to the beta site will
take place by the end of the year, others will be ongoing.

FamilySearch beta eventually will replace the current FamilySearch site, whose technology
doesn’t allow it to host all these useful tools. You can see what’s on the beta site
so far at beta.familysearch.org.

In other FamilySearch news, FamilySearch is hosting a Rootstech conference
Feb. 10-12 in Salt Lake City to bring together “technologists” and genealogists. The
goal is to encourage innovation in genealogy. Ancestry.com,
the New England Historic Genealogical Society and Brigham
Young University also are sponsoring the conference.