Begat Chat

Arlene Eakle recently posted an update on Family Search acquired from "Elder Marlin K. Jensen, LDS Church Historian and Recorder, Director of Family History and Genealogy. Keynote Address, Northern Utah Genealogy Conference, Eccles Conference Center, 6 Oct 2006."

Here is an excerpt that interested me.

Beta testing is ongoing. Duplicates in the current databases are being eliminated or merged: 1 billion, 200,000 names have been shrunk to 700,000 million names during Beta I. Beta II will be restricted to members of the LDS Church to further shrink their family data to about 500,000 million names. It is estimated that about 130,000 LDS members submit information to the databases on a regular basis. They will participate in Beta II.

I was part of Beta I and had no idea we shrunk that many names. Hopefully we can get Beta II going soon.

There was also a more thorough update in the Deseret News about 10 days ago. It was written by Carrie A. Moore and gives some different details on the Family History Overhaul.