Talk:FamilySearch

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the FamilySearch article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

This page is not a forum for general discussion about FamilySearch, related products, services, organizations, &/or genealogy/family history. Any such comments may be removed or refactored. Please limit discussion to improvement of this article. You may wish to ask factual questions about FamilySearch, related products, services, organizations, &/or genealogy/family history at the Reference desk.

This article was nominated for deletion on 16 November 2006. The result of the discussion was Keep.

This article has not yet been rated on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
It is of interest to multiple WikiProjects.

Please add the quality rating to the {{WikiProject banner shell}} template instead of this project banner. See WP:PIQA for details.

Latter Day Saint movement Start‑class Mid‑importance

	Latter Day Saint movement portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Latter Day Saint movement, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint movement on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Latter Day Saint movementWikipedia:WikiProject Latter Day Saint movementTemplate:WikiProject Latter Day Saint movementLatter Day Saint movement articles
Start	This article has been rated as Start-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Organizations

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Organizations, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Organizations on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.OrganizationsWikipedia:WikiProject OrganizationsTemplate:WikiProject Organizationsorganization articles
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale.

Websites: Computing

	This article is part of WikiProject Websites, an attempt to create and link together articles about the major websites on the web. To participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page.WebsitesWikipedia:WikiProject WebsitesTemplate:WikiProject WebsitesWebsites articles
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the importance scale.
	This article is supported by WikiProject Computing.

Please add the quality rating to the {{WikiProject banner shell}} template instead of this project banner. See WP:PIQA for details.

Genealogy Start‑class High‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Genealogy, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Genealogy on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.GenealogyWikipedia:WikiProject GenealogyTemplate:WikiProject GenealogyGenealogy articles
Start	This article has been rated as Start-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
High	This article has been rated as High-importance on the importance scale.

Archives

1

This page has archives. Sections older than 90 days may be automatically archived by when more than 1 section is present.

FamilySearch no longer allows open access to public domain records

The article claims that it allows open access, but the site changed this for no obvious reason in late 2017. Now the whole FamilySearch site is useless unless you sign up for a FamilySearch account; and all previous links to FamilySearch URLs are broken for the general public to access. The article should be revised (if the community can't get them to undo the process of closing up the site). — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gnuish (talk • contribs) 05:35, 30 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Looks like this has been fixed: "While access to the records is always free, some records have restricted access, and can only be viewed at a Family History Center, an Affiliate Library or by LDS members." Tea and crumpets (talk) 20:48, 2 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Tea and crumpets, it isn't fixed. In the past, any URL would just work, producing the public domain records in your browser. Now, you must sign up for FamilySearch and log in before any URLs will work. Every access you make is tracked and logged by FamilySearch. "Access is free [of cost]", but restricted to only those people who will agree to be registered and tracked. Gnuish (talk) 20:36, 7 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

While the site may not work how you want, the section in the article reflects the current status, which I believe is what T&C was making reference to. Maybe the sentence could read: "While access to the records is free, a user account is required. Additionally, some records have restricted access, and can only be viewed at a Family History Center, an Affiliate Library or by LDS members." Glennfcowan (talk) 02:40, 8 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I meant the article appeared to be fixed, not the website. You are welcome to change the wording to make it more precise. Tea and crumpets (talk) 03:07, 8 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Most websites these days track your use of their website if you create an account. Unless there is a reliable third-party source that describes a significant use of the tracked information, it's probably not worth mentioning in the article. I agree with Glennfcowan's suggested revision. Tea and crumpets (talk) 03:32, 8 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Licenses and Rights Granted to Us

I think it should be noted that viewing public records made available online via FamilySearch (but not available online from public sources) requires (without any opt-out option) agreement with the following at required registration:

Licenses and Rights Granted to Us In exchange for your use of this site and/or our storage of any data you submit, you hereby grant us with an unrestricted, fully paid-up, royalty-free, worldwide, irrevocable, sublicensable, and perpetual license to use any and all information, content, and other materials (collectively, “Contributed Content”) that you submit or otherwise provide to this site (including, without limitation, genealogical data, images, writings, documents, materials, recordings, discussions, information, and data relating to deceased persons or anything else) for any and all purposes, in any and all manners, and in any and all forms of media that we, in our sole discretion, deem appropriate for the furtherance of our mission to promote family history and genealogical research. As part of this license, you give us permission to copy, publicly display, transmit, broadcast, perform, distribute, and otherwise use (and allow others to use) your Contributed Content throughout the world, by any means we deem appropriate (electronic or otherwise, including on the Internet). You also understand and agree that as part of this license, we have the right to create (and to allow others to create) and use derivative works from your Contributed Content by combining all or a portion of it with that of other contributors or by otherwise modifying your Contributed Content. Alannyny (talk) 19:05, 23 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]