nFS & merged data

Discussions about using and improving the new FamilySearch online application.
edwardlalone
New Member
Posts: 31
Joined: Sun Apr 01, 2007 3:17 pm
Location: Orem, UT

#11

Post by edwardlalone »

scion wrote:Good for some circumstances, but in preparing templework, the only workaround is to completely ignore the system and type in what I want to print. This defeats the purpose of preventing duplication. However, that is where I am now. My "official" response when others ask me about nFS is to refer them to others who sing its praises.
There is no reason to re-type anything into nFS unless a person isn't already listed in nFS. Simply combine any records and if the work has been done then you don't need to worry about it. If it hasn't been done then make any edits to the information you believe are necessary to correct the information. The edits you make will be the ones that show up on your printouts and screen. Dispute information you feel is incorrect but this information won't be deleted.

nFS keeps all the information in the same file (or folder). So we aren't going to delete information that is incorrect in nFS. That isn't the purpose of nFS. This is probably the hardest thing to understand about nFS but it is something that those of us who have studied history understand. BAD INFORMATION IS GOOD INFORMATION.

That information is out there and will never disappear. Many people will come to nFS assuming information they have is correct and when they search for an ancestor they will use that information. To avoid duplication every error that has ever been committed will remain a part of the nFS so those people will find the right person using the wrong information. This is how nFS was designed. It was meant to be wrong. So let the mistakes stay, dispute them and over time the data will be corrected by the sheer number of people who are pushing the correct information to the top.

What you would like printed should be what appears on your summary screen. Go to your Summary Screen, and choose what information you want to be shown by clicking on the arrow next to the information such as birth and select the one you want to print or show on your records. If it isn't there then go to the Details screen and add the new information.

I hope this helps. Just remember that it's important not to get confused by the sheer amount of incorrect information because it is meant to be there. :eek:

Historians are crazy!!!!
lajackson
Community Moderators
Posts: 11460
Joined: Mon Mar 17, 2008 10:27 pm
Location: US

#12

Post by lajackson »

Edward Lalone wrote:BAD INFORMATION IS GOOD INFORMATION.

Historians are crazy!!!!

I might rephrase that to say that bad information is useful information, and I will leave it to the historians to agree or disagree with their state of mental being. [grin]

I agree with the concept, as hard as it is to grasp, that there is some advantage to having all of the information gathered into one big pot to parse and sort and contest and discuss and process.

I have a challenge when information that is not correct leads to unnecessary work being done in the temple. I see this happening quite frequently. So my challenge, as a user of nFS, is to sort out what is correct and what it not, and that is a difficult task.

So much work has been done on my family that the program cannot support a combination of all of the information for some lines. Rightly or wrongly, when the end of the four-generation program was announced, several dozen relatives added all of their less-researched (to put it nicely) information into the mix. It is now very difficult to sort it all out without a super cray processor and a web site that does not quite yet have the power to support it.

Nevertheless, I am appreciate of the system and am doing my best to work within it. I am glad I do not have to go through the floppy diskette system at the Family History Center to clear a name for the temple.

But, in our family, I have some success using nFS because I am considered to be computer literate. And I have a difficult time with it, because there is so much conflicting information to wade through. My wonderful wife, on the other hand, has no clue where to even start, and nFS is not yet friendly enough or intuitive enough for her to figure it out.

I think this is the challenge that most members are facing who are trying to use the system. I still am learning how to get nFS to display what I ask it to display, instead of everything it thinks I want it to display.

But that is a problem with most computer programs anyway, because the programmer and I usually do not think alike.
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