Genealogy's Star Blog

Genealogy's Star: New FamilySearch after almost two years, a commentary: "Almost two years ago, we were introduced to the New FamilySearch program. Since that time, I have spent a considerable time working with and teaching about, this interesting program. Although, it is still not available to those who do not belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), and not even to all the members yet, the program has had a huge impact on the LDS community.

This post is intended to be multipart and comments are welcome and solicited. Nothing in this blog is in anyway officially sanctioned by the LDS Church and contrary to other bloggers who claim inside information, my sources of information come through official channels and my experience with the program is the same as many other users.

One of the more obvious changes, is the dramatic change in family history activity in our area. As I have mentioned before, I volunteer at the Mesa Regional Family History Center. Over this past two year period, the number of people visiting the Center has increased and the ratio of LDS to non-LDS visitors has reversed. During the past years, about 60% of the visitors to the Center were not LDS members. That number has now changed to about 60% LDS to 40% non-LDS. We have also seen an increase in Spanish speaking visitors. I have heard numbers quoted that indicate that family history activity has increased throughout the Church . . . . . ."

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