Goodbye, new.FamilySearch.org. Hello, FamilySearch Family Tree!
We have some bad news, some good news, and some great news.
Bad News, Good News
The bad news is that FamilySearch will be shutting-off the ability to make changes to their (old) new.FamilySearch.org website on Sunday, June 30, 2013. This means that previous releases of RootsMagic (4, 5, and pre-6.1) will no longer be able to write data to new.FamilySearch.org after this date.
The good news is that the latest update to RootsMagic (6.1) already works with new.FamilySearch.org’s replacement- FamilySearch Family Tree! In fact, RootsMagic is the first software certified to share data with FamilySearch Family Tree.
How will this affect me?
If you use RootsMagic 4, 5, or 6.0 to work with new.FamilySearch.org, beginning Sunday, June 30, 2013 any attempt to make changes to data on new.FamilySearch.org will give an error message. This is not due to any bug or breakage in RootsMagic. It is simply because FamilySearch is shutting off that capability as they replace new.FamilySearch.org with FamilySearch Family Tree. Note: This does not affect any other features in RootsMagic 4 or 5. Only new.FamilySearch.org features are affected.
What should I do?
If you are using RootsMagic 6.1 or RootsMagic Essentials 6.1, you don’t have to do anything. RootsMagic 6.1 does not work with new.FamilySearch.org. It works directly with FamilySearch Family Tree, the replacement for new.FamilySearch.org.
If you are using RootsMagic 6.0, simply download the free update to RootsMagic 6.1 by choosing Help > Check for Updates from the main menu of RootsMagic or download the update from our website.
If you are using RootsMagic 4 or 5 and you want to continue interfacing with FamilySearch, you’ll need to upgrade to RootsMagic 6 or download the free RootsMagic Essentials 6.
What is FamilySearch Family Tree?
FamilySearch Family Tree is a new way to organize and record your genealogy online. It is free, is available to everyone, and provides an easy way to discover your place in history with free tools to help you preserve and share your family’s story for generations to come.
With RootsMagic, you can search FamilySearch Family Tree for matches for people in your file. Once you have found a match, you can copy any data that FamilySearch has about that person into your own file. You can also copy any data that you have into the FamilySearch system. You have full control over what data is copied in each direction.
RootsMagic is the first software certified to share data with FamilySearch Family Tree and won the awards for “Easiest to Sync”, “Best Dashboard”, and “Trailblazer” from FamilySearch.
Wait- what’s the “great news”?
Hmm- we better save that for another day. We don’t want to overwhelm you all at once. Stay tuned for an exciting new announcement in the very near future!
I am hoping to better work with family tree and make corrections..