Family History or Family Future?

Braeden has been bitten by the family history bug lately.  We spent a few hours this weekend signing him up for and exploring the new Family Search web site.  I haven't had much experience with the old site, but the new one feels fairly slick and isn't too hard to use.  It's a simple premise.  The site sits on top of a massive genealogical index maintained by the LDS Church.  You log into the site and enter your personal information.  Then you start building out your family tree one person and generation at a time.  If the person next in your tree is living, then you enter the personal information you know about that person.  If the person is dead, you search the index for a record of that person.  If you're lucky, the record of your ancestor will already be linked to other ancestors and your family tree will begin to fill in on its own.  You suddenly have access to the work of others and others can benefit from the connections and corrections you make.

You will come across mistakes and not all corrections are easy.  Thelma's great uncle, Shirley, is listed twice--once as a man and once as a woman.  He was born before Shirley Temple came on the scene and forever relegated Shirley to the long list of names taken over by girls.  Thelma has been trying to figure out how to restore his honor by correcting the mistake.

There are other tools to help you collaborate.  For example, I noticed that some of the details were missing for my great-great-grandfather George Ira Brewster. I have an interest in him because I was able to locate his grave a few years ago in Appleton, Wisconsin while on a business trip.  The new Family Search pointed out a possible duplicate record that had been created by my sister Morgan a number of years earlier.  It contains some of the missing detail about George such as a few of his daughters and the year he died.  I can now combine the two records.

It feels a little bit like Facebook or LinkedIn, only I'm adding relatives instead of friends.  I just hope I don't get a message one day saying that a long departed loved one has blocked or disowned me.

One thing the site is missing out on is a great marketing partnership.  Just below Braeden's name in his family tree is a link that says "Add or find a wife".  Why not link it up to eHarmony or LDS Singles Online?  I'd prefer, however, that the link not show up until he's at least 16 and old enough to date.