FamilySearch Redesigned New Person Page

FamilySearch has redesigned the New Person Page. In a blog post titled: “Your Ancestors Have a New Person Page! Come Try It Out”, written by David Nielsen and Lynne VanWagnenen, provides information the redesigned new person page.

In the blog post, they state that the old person page was growing more and more outdated, and less and less in synch with the rest of the FamilySearch website. The new design is more readable, has a new look and feel, and has a new tab that can help you make quick discoveries about your ancestor. A few other significant upgrades are included, such as being able to see the source for specific information and record non-family relationships.

The most prominent change or addition to the new person page is the About tab, located near the top of the page. This is something like a get-to-know-you page for your ancestor.

If you have only 5 or 10 minutes to explore your family history, this is where you’ll want to spend it. This tab summarizes important and interesting information about your ancestors and is meant to help you get to know them quickly. (Note, this tab is just for exploring information. For building or editing your ancestor’s history, you’ll want to spend more time with the Details, Sources, and Memories tabs.

The other features on the About tab aren’t necessarily “new”, but several of them have been revised to make the experience more interactive, and some are activities that have been imported from other areas of the website, including the ancestor discovery pages.

Different features may include:

Life Summary: A snapshot of your ancestor’s life, including information about important life events and where that ancestor lived. This summary pulls from information in your ancestor’s other tabs and will always update when changes are made. 

Time Line: A fun look at your ancestor’s life against the backdrop of history and world events.

Name Meaning: A brief history and description of your ancestor’s given name and surname. Here you can learn where the names come from and any meanings attached to them, if that information is available in FamilySearch’s database.

Story Highlight: An excerpt from one of the stories uploaded to your ancestor’s Memories gallery.

Activities: Links to fun activities that could lead to new and fascinating discoveries about your ancestor.

Family Overviews: Quick summaries of your ancestor’s family, including spouses, children, parents, and siblings. Keep in mind that this isn’t the place for editing or adding information. If that’s what you’re trying to do, you’ll want to visit the Details tab, at the bottom of the page.

The Details tab is where you can review – or contribute to – a more complete, source-based account of your ancestor’s life. It’s not that much different than the previous Details, though FamilySearch has made what they think are a few key improvements.

Source Tagging Changes: Have you ever wondered where a birth date or name on your ancestor’s detail page came from? If you look at the new details tab, you can more easily see how many sources have been tagged for each detail, including the Other Information section.

FamilySearch would like you to help test the new person page. To see the changes for yourself, go to the Family Tree and visit one of your ancestor’s pages. If you can’t see the new design, don’t worry. The update is being turned on gradually. At first, you will be able to switch back and forth between the old and the new version by clicking the toggle in the banner at the top. Later, the new design will be fully implemented and will replace the old design for the person pages.

Once you’re done exploring, FamilySearch hopes you’ll tell them what you think! Click the feedback button floating on the right side of your browser window, or leave a comment in the FamilySearch Community.

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