"Authorized Software" in FHC?

[rtcowgirl]

Pandora's Hope Chest is a great tool to identify families that need to be fixed in FT. Open the person page and fix the families with an unknown spouse, check for duplicates, look up whatever records are available. Follow your own fan chart out until you get to about 1700 and let Pandora Hope Chest analyze the descendants of a known ancestor, according to Temple policy. Look for spouses. Expect each identified green arrow to take a couple hours research and FT corrections to be ready to reserve an ordinance. I do not think it would work well at a FHC. It takes hours to run and you would need to clear it between patrons. Be sure to view the "presentation", especially those who have already passed judgement against it without regard to its intended use. Those who are tempted to reserve ordinances without cleaning up the records also need to see it.

[cmmpcmd]

Hmm, that is something interesting I should look into and could perhaps advertise to users in there.

[jamesdavismoore]

Pandora's Hope Chest has become FamilySearch Hope Chest. It has moved from the familysearch.org location to a brown chest icon at the far right of the address bar. Thus it only appears if one is signed into Family Tree. Currently (v 7.0.6?) there are two flavors to the extension. Hope chest and Hope Chest Plus, the latter costing $10.

One of the nice additions is that you can limit the search results to only those name which appear to have no duplicates. You can also search descendants (which was available previously, but not mentioned in this thread). And you can limit the search to only "Needs more information" results thus helping one search out problem individuals.

Another feature is that the search results are completely individualized based on the LDS account login name. Another patron cannot see your names unless they are logged in as you.

Another nice addition is the ability to place "labels" on the search results. Thus you can build lists of descendants from each of your 4th or 5th great grandparents, and have the results placed in your hope chest with a "Dunbar Roger 1782 Descendants" label as an example.

And you can also limit the search results to only specific ordinances, like baptism or sealings.

Eric Vance, the author of the Hope Chest, has done a great job of helping researchers find names needing ordinance work. You can view a introduction video if you google "hope chest familysearch" and open the Hope Chest Chrome Webstore page. It may not be "authorized" by FamilySearch, but it definitely enhances ones ability to clean up family records and search for qualified missing ordinances. Of course, submitting any name for ordinance is sacred work and needs to be done carefully and be "worthy of all acceptation."

[moabgirl91k]

We have several staff members who feel that the church's blog post, about cautioning members about the accuracy of "Pandora's Hope Chest", mean that the LDS Church/FamilySearch are saying "Do Not" show/train people on using this extension, and that it shouldn't be used at all until it is on the official Tree Share Certified list. Is this true?

We have many guests and staff that feel that the things that are not good in it such as "doesn't point out that you may have duplicates" and "May not be your line, because of inaccuracies in your tree" and "may not be sourced" are all problems that currently exist in FamilySearch if you are only looking for green arrows, and even exist with programs like BYU's Relative Finder, which is on the official site list. How do we resolve this?

[russellhltn]

We have several staff members who feel that the church's blog post, about cautioning members about the accuracy of "Pandora's Hope Chest", mean that the LDS Church/FamilySearch are saying "Do Not" show/train people on using this extension, and that it shouldn't be used at all until it is on the official Tree Share Certified list. Is this true?

It looks to be a local decision to me. The FHC Operations Guide doesn't say what can't be installed other than it can't be done by patrons without permission and it must be properly licensed.

[steph.younger]

I think it's important to differentiate between "authorized software" which is, I believe, a local decision, and "certified software" which is a familysearch decision. In our own center, we don't install software with read/write access to patrons' familysearch data unless it's certified, but we have authorized a few programs that didn't come from familysearch (ie: image editors) after discussing them as an executive board and determining that they enhance the functionality of our center with a minimal risk of disruption.

[gabeus]

I have used Hope Chest with good success. It does not promote an oversight of the FS rules, just helps you find and have a list of people to work on without reserving them. It is entirely up to the user to abide by the rules of relationship and also to do the diligent search for duplicates. I treat it as a work list from which I pick "candidates" and then do the clearing work as normal. This allows me to resolve some duplicates and then return to the Hope Chest list and continue at a later time. This is very useful for those with 100+ possible duplicates. If a patron simply finds the green arrows and reserves them for a working list, it only complicates the duplicate merge process for themselves and others. I highly recommend Hope Chest to be used as a tool to find and hold a list of possibilities. Good hunting.

[NormaSLarsen@gmail.com]

My name is Norma Larsen. My genealogical line goes back to Adam on several lines. I have entered more than 3000 names. I am not interested in memories or pictures. I am interested in working on what President Nelson has said which is to take people to the temple for their ordinances. I used to use Chrome, Puzzilla and Hopechest. I could go back 12 generations, click on a name and the programs would search all the people in that decendency list and bring up a list of names that needed ordinances done. I then could click on each name, find out if was a duplicate and if it really needed ordinances done. If yes, I could send the name to the temple or do it myself. With so many temples, I am certain the church needs all the legitimate names it can get. Hopechest no longer works. I paid for a subscription. It still runs the search but does not produce the list of names that need temple work. I know the church has many intelligent, capable people working for it and it uses IT. PLEASE purchase the program from the owner and make it work again OR create a similar program so people that have a lot of names entered into Family Search can find many names that need temple work. Finding only one name at a time is extremely tedious. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION AND HOPEFULLY YOUR CREATION OF A PROGRAM THAT FINDS LISTS OF PEOPLE WHO NEED TEMPLE WORK DONE. Please contact me to let me know your response. normaslarsen@gmail.com, 971-212-1059.
https://community.familysearch.org/en/s ... =community

[russellhltn]

Hopechest

I'd suggest re-downloading and installing the extension. I'm sure it needs to be updated regularly to keep up with changes at FamilySearch.

[jonesrk]

Have you tried using FamilySearch's Ordinances Ready? It looks like it does something similar. This article talks about how it finds names. The 6th bullet ("Green temples" from your tree) sounds like what HopeChest was doing for you.