While attending RootsTech the end of February, I sat in on two classes to learn more for myself and to share with all of you. The two presentations were on the FamilySearch Library Catalog and the FamilySearch WIKI. 

You most likely cannot read that small print, but there are currently 106,000 articles on the WIKI. . “The WIKI is your online genealogy guide which links you to all known records of the entire world.” Did you catch that? “To all KNOWN records of the entire world.” And new free links and websites are constantly being added. The presenter, Danielle Baston, advised us “to search by locality because that’s were things happen.” Some countries, she said, have pages of links and info (like Denmark) but some (like Bulgaria) don’t have as much. “The FamilySearch WIKI is your Researchers’ Golden Ticket,” Danielle quipped. 

Becky Loveridge, another FamilySearch library employee, gave the news that as of Feb 2022 there was a whole new catalog:  libcat.familysearch.org/library . There is a new home page making it much easier to narrow down your search to specifics. Most surname books are now digitized but some are restricted to in-library use. The new catalog integrates with the WIKI. And when you click on a specific book, other books are suggested. I think we all need to take an hour or so away from TV and check out the updated FamilySearch catalog. Treasures await!

I did get to spend two days in the library and did explore something “fun.” On the top bar, just to the right of SEARCH, was MEMORIES. This was fun! I went through my pedigree chart’s brick wall problems to see if anybody, anywhere, had posted something new. And I did find some new leads. But let me make clear: these were items from online trees, Ancestral File, Pedigree Resource File, American Ancestors, and other similar databases. Which meant, and I recognized this, that they might or might not be correct. If you want to have some careful fun, search for your chart names under Memories….but do remember the old adage of “buyer beware.”