I’ve been looking at the viewing statistics for my blog, and despite the dust and tumbleweed blowing down the deserted main street, the page views are on the up. There still seems to be a purpose for this blog, and people are finding the content of interest. That certainly pleases me, but also shames me.
To cut a long story short, at the end of 2015 I left the Findmypast organisation, where I had led the technical team both for Genes Reunited and the Findmypast Tree, and my motivation for genealogy dived. Thus the abrupt end to my blogging. 😦
Earlier this year, I had some time off from work, and managed to delve back into building my tree(s). Incredibly after all these years, we realised that we’d never researched my father’s grandparents and so my enthusiasm was rekindled, and we discovered some wonderful new stories.
But I also took the opportunity to explore this new avenue using all the usual websites for genealogy research, Ancestry, MyHeritage, Findmypast and TheGenalogist.
And I have reconfirmed to myself the conclusion that when researching UK focused ancestry and building your tree, then one site stands heads and shoulders above the rest, and that is Findmypast. The depth of records they now offer, and the quality of the hints that are provided on the tree, along with the straight forward hint/accept/merge process is second to none.
My only reservation in trumpeting this out too loud is that since the end of 2014, when the Tree team were disbanded at Findmypast, the tree feature has been left to stagnate. Incredibly, features that were almost complete, or had been prototyped back then, have not been finalised and rolled out. Items such as private tree sharing, hints across trees, media searching, media viewing and hinting, WhoDoYouThinkYouAre media view of your tree, etc.
Despite not knowing what the future may hold, and therefore making recommendations that your tree is safe long term on Findmypast, I would be keen to know if writing articles on how to get the best out of the Findmypast tree would still be helpful.
Let me know, and also suggest what you’d like to be able to do on the tree. Maybe you already can, it just needs to be explained. I would love to write some more articles on getting the most from online tree building and genealogy researching.
In The Green 