FamilySearch Reviews 

A person who stole my identity and is harssing people while pretending to be me. I just spent an hour with FS support, and had to listen to the support person explain to me over and aover and over that this didn't happen and I got frustrated because-just like always, calling for support is a big fail. The two women I spoke with just don't want to offer any sort of assistance> I'm reporting it to cyber crimes FBI. Second woman kept arguing with me, trying to explain how this is NOT possibly happening. I offered to send her the screenshot, she argued that it's not possible to create a screenshot of the webpage. she also told me NOT to send her the screenshot. She didn't want to see it She gave me a headache. I hung on on her when she wouldn't stop arguing. You recall when this began four years ago. It has taken away any pleasure I once had doing geneaology. This has been a constant for four years. Each time, it's reported, Family Search support claims it's not true

what on earth has happened to Familysearch!!
Up until the recent changes made by FS tech design team the site used to be an invaluable asset to researchers and an easy to use and helpful site. But now it is just a complete and utter shambles!
Even though you can still enter all the details of the person you are searching records for - including country, the results you get are for every other country in the world and more annoyingly, a vast selection of birth dates(even if you enter the closest dates).
Familysearch now is a complete and utter waste of search time.
The tech/design team have completely ruined it.
I used to recommend this site to anyone who was having difficulty finding info....but now I will not recommend it and will in fact tell people that it is a useless site and waste of time.
Yes, it may be free but if it cant show any records or names the person is looking for then its a useless free site.
Is this the issue Familysearch??
Is it because you dont charge that you have now made the free version useless?
I have tried to find a contact number to speak with someone at Familysearch - but this doesnt exist! there isnt one!

I'm surprised at all the bad reviews. I'm happy. Found a lot of ansesters from the 1700s I thought I'd never find. Being so old. I'm on find my past as well. I use both. I've been doing this on and off for years. So this is just trying up lose ends. Never bothered with the on line tree. Only interested in information.

The tree is a total mess and any advanced genealogist would know that. Why bothering spending time uploading or entering information when any Tom, Dick or Harry can change it at bey. No thanks. I'll keep my tree on my computer and in my family and not somewhere on the internet where buffoons like certain members of FS can mess it up. As for support several members on that site were reported for abuse towards others but what do FS do? Allow them to keep their membership. Best advice I can offer to others just starting with FS is to not add your information as it will probably be changed in a matter of days by the FS bullies. The records are good on the site but the tree itself is totally corrumpted.

The familysearch program had it's faults, but for a free site it provided a large amount of information. It's records search was very flexable, but from time to time upgrades were installed that created lockups and missing data. Some months back a major "upgrade" was installed that has made a records search very limited and results the same. If this was a way to drive researchers to pay sites then it is well on it's way to success. I have used the "old" program for many years and collected a large amount of data and it's hard to complain about a free program. I have tried to use this system and I have found little data. Not worth the effort.

I appreciate the "wiki" structure of this site and would like to think that all editors of information are trustworthy and careful. Unfortunately, not all are. I wish that there was a way for them to designated trusted editors for certain ancestors.
Another annoying feature is that the site permits the "attachment" of sources paid-subscription sites that are not visible to people without the subscription. Many birth, death and marriage "sources" are behind a paywall of some kind (Ancestry.com is the most common) and so are not verifyible without the subscription. If FamilySearch was serious about having this be a truly public service, it would permit anyone to verify a source.

FamilySearch.org does not respect the privacy of living persons, nor does it care about the accuracy of its data.

Someone started posting false information about close, living family members of mine, including labeling them as "deceased" when they are not. Legitimate genealogy websites will exclude some data about living persons.

The FamilySearch.org website did not allow me to correct the info in any way, despite numerous attempts on my part, and writing to the person who published the misinformation did not solve the problem either.

I reported the misinformation to FamilySearch.org and told them to correct the misinformation as it is false and a potential violation of privacy, and they refused. They would prefer to let complete lies that a stranger posted, for no reason, about my family stand.

I did a quick search, and apparently FamilySearch.org has a record of privacy violations: (link censored)

FamilySearch.org is disgraceful for willfully perpetuating falsehoods about living persons. This reflects poorly on the integrity of the Church of Latter Day Saints, owner of the site.

FamilySearch is a brilliant free website for compiling your Family Tree and finding historical records and data.

The main complaint from people seems to be that others can edit the tree (as it's a global shared collaborative tree, not your personal private tree) and that ancestors can't be 'deleted', but this is a GOOD thing! This means everyone has access to information about our ancestors and that information about real people doesn't just get selfishly destroyed when someone decides they don't want to use this site anymore.

Individual people do not "own" their ancestors - even a few generations back, ancestors could have links to hundreds of living people and I don't understand why people think that they have the right to keep research and information about ancestors to themselves when so many others will be related too.

The more people use FamilySearch, the more accurate the information will become! More people should use it!

Familysearch-- I am a user for as long as it is online. I would have given you 5 stars a few years ago. However, I have degraded you down to four stars.
Why?
I never had any problem using your website. 30 years and more genealogical work and most of the time spend on the Internet.
Many years spend in your research center made me realize that you didn't improve the websites but made them harder to use. There is a saying in life : "you don't change things if the work fine".
The changes you made within your website make it a lot harder to navigate through your website. Your programmers are capable to work easy with the sites, but your older users have to change every times with new designs. Getting older doesn't mean you can change all the time. It also means you have less time left in your life. So stop changing your searchable sites, please. The were always fine in the first place.
You are a free service and that is in today's time very much appreciated. But if you do advertise something for free you should give it for free. It's not a good way, especially for a church, that you tell us things are free but you still can't have them.
I am talking about all the films that are coming online that have a key and are not viewable from a home computer. Many are not falling under the privacy act, because they are way too old to do so.
Country restrictions may be in place, but I am sure that in most cases that has changed too.
Right now, we are in a pandemic and can't visit any history center to view the films.
How long will this last? Who knows. It would be great if you could consider to open the films at least the part that is not within data protection.
One star less from the five star years ago? Stop improving and changing things within your search site and stop advertising something free that is not accessible. Thank you.

YOU CANNOT DELETE YOUR COMPLETE INFORMATION. DO NOT PROVIDE ANY INFORMATION. YOU CAN ONLY DELETE YOUR ACCOUNT!!!!!
I emailed them and they gave me the same BS view of their terms of blah blah blah. I wanted to look for my family history and then it occurred to me my parents moved away because other family were.... abusive. So, I changed my mind and "deleted" most information a week later. The info is not DELETED. It shows that I've made changes and who I made changes to. Not very "church" like if you ask me.
They say its private information and no one can access it but me. If that was true, the site wound be endorsed by Facebook for its data security and we all know Facebook just had phone numbers stolen to be sold. This site is ran by people with rose colored glasses. I want my information I entered permanently deleted with the account. PERIOD.
STAY AWAY FROM THE WEBSITE AND ANYTHING ASSOCIATED WITH THIS SITE.
FamilySearch, spare me your reply. Keep it where the sun don't shine.

I am a former member of latter days saints church. I still use family search. But since I have quitte my church membership very often my family tree was erased. It happens now about 5 times or more.. I don't know if they want to tease me because I'm a former church member or that it is an error in the program. But it makes me sick.. Who has also this expérience.?

Positive - it is free and because it is run by the Mormon Church has a lot of information that might not otherwise be available.
NEGATIVE - It allows ANYONE to make changes to your family tree. In other words, they can add information whether or not it is accurate (kind of like taking every hint in Ancestry and deciding all of them are relevant) and they can also delete information.
When I asked Family Search about this, they said that of course people can, because it helps their genealogical research???? In my opinion, it is exhausting deleting incorrect information and putting back information someone else deleted. You can contact the "contributor" through the site and ask for them to show you their relationship to your tree. However, I found that people who were changing my tree did not, or would not, reply to that. I have, as a result, deleted about all of my paternal lineage (where they were willy-nilly adding and deleting) and will absolutely no longer use their tree app. Too many other sites will help you develop your tree.
You can still use Family Search for info, but download it and do not add it to a tree if you have a tree elsewhere

I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Even if I wasn't, I would still be interested in using FamilySearch. It truly is the best (I mainly use FamilySearch and supplement with other services such as Ancestry, etc.).

The layout is quite simple, the graphics are nice, there is a lot to do to further the work of the Lord in connecting families, among other religious practices within the Church.

As a 10 plus year member there is no better free genealogy research site out there. You can also be a part of their online indexing service. I have found a few family members in my few years of indexing. because there are so many people helping with the indexing familysearch.org remains free to all and in some cases there are source papers added to the family members. There is an old saying "Try it you'll like it". Have fun researching

familysearch.org is one of the best genealogy sites out there. And it is free to everyone. It is constantly changing and improving and a great place to share your genealogy with others.