This looks a marvellous resource, thanks for letting me know. However, I don't think I shall ever be able my brick wall breakthrough - one Edward Morgan, born sometime between 1780-1800, and from somewhere in Wales. Georgina On 22/10/2015 13:37, Rob Doe via wrote: > It is a long time since I did much of my own family history research but I > now find myself teaching a beginners course in family history to my local > University of the Third Age in Sussex, a mutual-help organisation for those > no longer in full time work. > > My own experience was largely with Ancestry and Find My Past and some > judicious use of the IGI. I am impressed by the great expansion of > paid-for online sources on Ancestry and FMP since I last looked but the > most surprising development to me is the enormous expansion of the free > records available on the Church of the Latter-Day Saints site Family > Search. Through partnerships with FMP and Ancestry and others there is now > a great deal more census transcript material freely available than there > used to be (no longer is there just the 1881 UK census transcription) and > there has been an enormous increase in other sources. > > Allegedly the number of names now searchable has risen from 700 million in > 2012 to over 5 billion worldwide and the number of record collections > available free has almost doubled. And the search engine hitched to these > records seems to be very smart in many ways - estimating birth dates from > marriage records etc - and highly capable. It is possible for instance to > search a place of birth by given name only or surname only to find elusive > records where perhaps the spelling is odd or mistranscribed. Wild card * > is allowed at the beginning and middle of a surname. And the LDS Church > seems bent on increasing the records available free online with nearly 300 > teams worldwide digitising more sources and the promise of automated > indexing software to convert old microfilm sources to computer searchable > ones. FS has changed the landscape of free online resources as it clearly > aims to do. With longstanding subscriptions to Ancestry and FMP I had > rather neglected it in recent years. > > You are also invited to create an account on the website - in effect to > join something - whereupon you are allowed to store (“preserve” is the word > used) and share your family tree and those of others with such accounts (as > you are on Ancestry and FMP). > > My question is whether anyone else has experience of this new generation > Family Search and any thoughts about any of this? > > Has anyone found a good analysis of how to make the FS search engine work > most efficiently for them? > > Are there any concerns about the ownership of family tree material > submitted to FS (and indeed Ancestry and FMP)? > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to SFHG-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message -- Georgina Colwell www.musicair.co.uk