Family History General

FamilySearch Upgrade: What to Do While Site is Down?

Planning Family History ResearchOn Monday June 27th, FamilySearch will be down for up to 24 hours due to a technical update. I am thankful for the heads-up because it gives me a chance to plan my online family history research when one of my most used websites won’t be available. Hmmm… what to do?

Planning Family History Research

I will explore the Chrome browser extension called RootsSearch. Don’t use Chrome or don’t like extensions? Check out the web version of RootsSearch. I typically compose my own Google and site specific search queries but this tool might pick up something I’ve missed.

On Monday, I will run all of my end-of-line ancestors through RootsSearch to see if I locate any newPlanning Family History Research leads. How does RootsSearch work? First, select an ancestor from an online family tree. I selected George T. Rice from my werelate.org family tree (in view mode). Click on the RootsSearch extension icon in your Chrome Browser. If not using the extension, go to the RootsSearch website and copy and paste the life details into the appropriate fields. I opted for a google search. RootsSearch opens a new tab with your results. One thing I noted while searching for George T. Rice is that RootsSearch added the middle initial T to the surname. Instead of Rice the search results returned the last name, Trice. So I deleted the middle initial. There is a reason that George is an end-of-line ancestor. I tried all of the search options included on RootsSearch except for the NLA Trove and didn’t get any leads.

I know it isn’t the 27th yet, but I am going to try another ancestor. I selected Henry Moore Edwards from my Ancestry.com online tree. First thing I noticed is that RootsSearch extracts more data from the Ancestry profile page than it did from the Werelate profile page. When I choose the Google search the query was built with “~genealogy” and this is too restrictive. I basically found my other online trees.

I don’t give up on a tool easily, so I will keep checking all of my end-of-line ancestors with RootsSearch. It will be worth it if I came up with just one new lead. Let me know how you will do research while FamilySearch is down.

 

 

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