Changing contact information

I am trying to help a person who submitted names to the Ancestral File several years ago buy has since moved and needs to change her contact information, Is this possible?

I do not think she can change her contact information on the Ancestral File submission, but if she is able to use new.familysearch, she will be able to establish a login and then "claim" the Ancestral File submission as hers. At new.familysearch, she will be able to update her contact information as needed.

Unfortunately, new.familysearch is not rolled out into very many temple districts as yet. Give it a year and it should work just fine.

zaneclark wrote:I am trying to help a person who submitted names to the Ancestral File several years ago buy has since moved and needs to change her contact information, Is this possible?

newFamilySearch should be available in Las Vegas soon, it was announced in November 2007 for Las Vegas so Priesthood Leaders and Family History Workers can get accounts now. As stated in the previous post she can put her new contact information in newFamilySearch and it will be attached to her Ancestral File submissions. She will even be able to claim her submissions and correct them.

GarysTurn wrote:newFamilySearch should be available in Las Vegas soon,

To members. Non-member access to nFS is still a ways off.

RussellHltn wrote:To members. Non-member access to nFS is still a ways off.

I have access to NFS as a consultant but the lady I am helping is not a member. Is there any way I could change her contact information with my access to NFS?

zaneclark wrote:Is there any way I could change her contact information with my access to NFS?

Well, you could try logging in as a helper to see if that works. I think I've read that you can help people who haven't signed up yet. It's worth experimenting.

You can help someone who is not registered, but since that person is not registered, you are not able to change that person's contact information, as far as I can tell.

RussellHltn wrote:Well, you could try logging in as a helper to see if that works. I think I've read that you can help people who haven't signed up yet. It's worth experimenting.

I checked the help screens on NFS and the "helper" option is only for members helping members. You have to use the "helpee's" member number in order to help them... Back to the drawing board...:rolleyes:

Interesting. I do know that you can help a member who has not yet signed up. I am on nFS and have done so. And yes, now that I think about it, I needed the last five digits of the record number to do it.

I also tried to claim Ancestral File submission information for the member, but the match did not work because the member did not get registered by the time they processed the request.

I searched through the help screens on the "old" Family Search and found the following, which is probably as close to a solution to the problem as I can find.

Q:*
How can I update a GEDCOM file that I submitted through Share Your Genealogy and that is now viewable in the Pedigree Resource File?


A:*
To update a GEDCOM file that you submitted to FamilySearch, first make the necessary changes on your own computer in your own genealogy software program. Then resubmit the GEDCOM file to FamilySearch through Share Your Genealogy. The original file plus the new submission will both be preserved and shown.


In the updating, I am assuming that you can add your new contact information. The catch is that you will now have both old and new contact information. I just checked and there is no indication in the contact information on the date they submitted the information.

What that will actually do is submit the new GEDCOM to PRF. Presumably anyone searching AF will also search PRF. Hopefully they'll notice that this PRF contact has different contact information and will try it.

I have to say with nFS that's a ugly solution as it will force you to combine your new submission person-by-person, spouse by spouse, etc with your prior submissions. In other words, you've just made a bigger mess that will have to be cleaned up.

My recommendation is to wait until nFS gets far enough along for this person to sign up and take ownership.

RussellHltn wrote:
My recommendation is to wait until nFS gets far enough along for this person to sign up and take ownership.

Unfortunately the person is not a member so she will never have this option....

zaneclark wrote:Unfortunately the person is not a member so she will never have this option....

Actually, the long term plan is for nFS to be rolled out to nonmembers as well. They're just rather late in the rollout plan. So never say never....

RussellHltn wrote:I have to say with nFS ... it will force you to combine your new submission person-by-person, spouse by spouse, etc with your prior submissions.

It is worse than that. In nFS you can combine the whole shooting match with one click. They you have to uncombine them one by one as you fix them or if they were combined in error.

I believe the nFS folks are working on a different solution for this.

zaneclark wrote:Unfortunately the person is not a member so she will never have this option....

The plan is to include non-members in nFS. Keep in mind that at this point nFS isn't even up to version "1.0". I think I've read elsewhere that when nFS can handle non-members, then it becomes "1.0".

zaneclark wrote:Unfortunately the person is not a member so she will never have this option....

Waiting for non-member access to newFamilySearch is the best option. Resubmitting data will not change anything in Ancestral File. In newFamilySearch you will be able to claim your submission name and change it to your correct contact information and even be able to edit your former submissions.