Tag Archives: FamilySearch

Let’s Talk About: What’s New at FamilySearch

by Donna Phillips


Here is the latest news regarding FamilySearch which I learned during RootsTech 2025 presented by Todd Powell, Tree Product Manger:

  • FamilySearch has nearly 24 million monthly visits
  • 1.68 billion persons in Family Tree
  • 156 million persons added to Family Tree in 2024
  • “a person is never deleted for good!”
  • “FamilySearch is the largest linked tree as of 2024”
  • Nearly 20 million memories attached
  • Nearly 3.5 billion sources added (up 1 billion in 1 year)
  • Nearly 5.6 billion digital images
  • Nearly 700,000 digital books
  • Nearly 20 billion searchable names
  • Can search in 48 different languages (Arabic the latest)
  • Are 6580 FamilySearch centers in the world
  • The goal is to correctly/accurately identify each person
  • Striving to slow down inaccurate merging

Todd smiled and said, “As each of us improves the documentation for each ancestor or person in our tree, we can increase the odds of folks making goofy changes….that does drive us crazy!” And he explained that they’re really concerned about and working on fixing wrong matches and “people changing stuff without documentation.”


He ended his lively presentation with this:  “Quit complaining… learn to use the available tools to full advantage!!’ 

Let’s Talk About: FamilySearch Record Collections

by Donna Phillips

It’s back to learning time, back-to-school time, right? How about taking a deeper look at the Major Records Collections offered for free at FamilySearch.org?? Think you might oughta take a looksee??

  • US Census
    • 1790-1950 federal censuses
    • Various state censuses
  • US Vital Records
    • B-M-D indexes for many cities and states
    • Social Security Death Index
    • Find A Grave Index
    • BillionGraves Index
  • US Probates & Wills
    • Various state and county records
    • Freedman’s Bank records
  • US Military Records
    • WWI and WWII draft cards
    • WWII enlistment records
    • Civil War service and pension records
    • Revolutionary War pension and service records
  • Canadian Records
    • 1851-1911 censuses
    • Passenger lists
  • UK Records
    • B-M-D register indexes
    • 1841-1911 censuses
    • WWI service records
    • Outgoing passenger lists
  • Irish Records
    • Civil Registration indexes
    • Catholic parish registers
    • Valuation Office books
  • German Records
    • B-baptism-M-D records
    • Germans to America index
  • Mexican Records
    • Baptisms – M- D records
    • 1930 census
  • Immigration Records
    • LOTS of passenger lists
    • Border crossing records from Canada and Mexico
    • US passport applications
    • Naturalization records and indexes for various states and counties
  • Newspapers
    • Obituaries from GenealogyBank and various publications

Let’s Talk About: FamilySearch Mobile App

by Donna Phillips

Note: The FamilySearch Mobile app is a simplified version of the web version and does require that you are comfortable using and navigating a mobile phone or tablet. 

Have you ever had to fill up some too-long minutes waiting…. at an appointment at Les Schwab, for a prescription to be filled, or for the doctor or for the kids’ game to get over?? Here is something to help made that “empty” time productive (and to keep your blood pressure down from waiting). Viola! Try the FamilySearch Mobile App!

The FamilySearch Mobile App consists of three major parts:

1. Family Tree — is a full featured genealogy app to add, edit and share your family story and use record hints to grow your family tree branches.(You likely have already used this feature.)

2. Memories — is a way to capture important family events as they happen, to use your phone to preserve photos or documents or to record audio stories from older generations.

3. Get Involved — is a fun way to help make historical records searchable for free online, to make it possible for people to find their ancestors online, to give back to the community in a simple and easy way and to use your spare time in a meaningful way.  

Here’s how to download the FamilySearch Mobile App:

* Open the Apple App Store or Google Play Store or go to www.familysearch.org/mobile-apps.  For Kindles, first download the Google Play app or ta the Play Store for Android.

*Search for FamilySearch

*Once found, download thusly:

    ** Android: tap INSTALL

    ** Apple: tap GET

    ** Kindle: tap GET APP

    ** When the app finished its installation, tap the icon to open it and login using your FamilySearch credentials.