Standing on the main RootsTech stage on Thursday, Feb. 29, FamilySearch senior product manager Todd Powell introduced the audience to a fictional character named Jan.
Like many people attending RootsTech, Jan is her family’s historian. She gathers photos, records important dates, finds stories about relatives and attaches all of this information to her personal, “living” family tree in FamilySearch.
However, she’s the only one who can edit her living tree. Sharing all of this family history with her living relatives is a challenge — and so is getting them involved in her efforts.
But now, FamilySearch has new collaboration options for thousands of people like Jan around the world.
Introducing Family Group Trees: a new FamilySearch feature that allows living family members to collaborate with each other on uploading photos, attaching stories and otherwise recording information relevant to their shared ancestry.
The audience broke into applause as Powell made the announcement. “This is something that you have been wanting and asking for [for] a long time,” he said.
The feature is still in development and is currently available as an early release in the new “FamilySearch Labs” section, with a full rollout expected by summer 2024. The early release is available in English, Spanish and Portuguese.
“Keep in mind that everything in FamilySearch Labs is experimental and support is limited,” the lab webpage states.
Powell said FamilySearch users can be part of more than one Family Group Tree, such as one tree for their side of the family and another for their spouse’s side of the family. Only those that group administrators invite to a shared tree can access it, he added.
How to access Family Group Trees
To access the Family Group Trees feature, log in to FamilySearch and click on the FamilySearch logo in the upper lefthand corner. Scroll down until the “FamilySearch Labs” section is visible on the right, then click “view experiments.” Once on the labs page, click “try it” under “Family Group Trees” and follow the feature’s setup guidance.
Continuing with his example of a fictional family, Powell said “Jan” has a granddaughter, “Abby,” who loves taking photos at weddings, graduations and other events. With Family Group Trees, Abby can upload those photos to a shared family tree and tag her living relatives in them. And for family members who perhaps don’t know where to start on FamilySearch, Jan can assign specific tasks through the shared family tree, passing on her skills and knowledge to relatives.
Family Group Trees is currently only available on web browsers, but Powell said his team is working on the app — “Together by Family Search” — as well.
“Family Group Trees will improve opportunities for families to... gather and connect,” Powell said, adding, “We’re inviting you and all those who are interested to become early [users] and to... provide your feedback and your input to us.”
RootsTech attendees can learn more about shared family trees on Friday, March 1, during an exclusively in-person session titled “Introducing Family Group Trees to FamilySearch.org,” held at 4:30 p.m. in room 250.
Other “experiments” in the FamilySearch lab includes full text searching, which uses artificial intelligence to transcribe complex, unindexed images on FamilySearch; and “Find Help with AI Search,” which FamilySearch portfolio director Bill Mangum said uses open AI technologies to search across all FamilySearch help content.
“This is like having your own personal expert sitting next to you, helping you whenever you need it,” Mangum said.
Breakout sessions delving deeper into the possibilities of AI within the genealogy realm are being held throughout RootsTech.
What is RootsTech?
RootsTech is a three-day global event taking place in-person at the Salt Palace Convention Center and free online from Thursday, Feb. 29, to Saturday, March 2.
The conference is organized by FamilySearch, an international family history website sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
