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FamilySearch.org

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We may receive referral compensation from some of the companies on our site. This compensation does not impact their reviews or rankings. Why you can trust us

We may receive referral compensation from some of the companies on our site. This compensation does not impact their reviews or rankings. Why you can trust us

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FamilySearch.org

FamilySearch.org

Is This Your Business?

4.8

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815 User Reviews

4.8

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815 User Reviews

Author: Kalicia Bateman

LAST UPDATED: February 17th, 2022

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The Good

Features
Free membership
Mobile app

FamilySearch.org is a top-notch site which has many features integrated to make family research easier. These include:

Access to census records (1790-1940)
SSDI database
Family tree building (with several layouts to view and print data - traditional pedigree, fan and dependency)
Free membership (upon signing up with a membership, users can determine the level of privacy which they want as far as allowing other members to connect to them and contact them via email)
Access to obituaries, newspapers and books
Multiple language platforms
Comprehensive blog with educational and informative articles on family history
Helpful WIKI to guide research
Ability to upload images, documents and create life sketches of family members to bring their records to life
Data protection - when duplicates or errors are found, members email their notes through on onsite system with their information corrections and documentation to try and reduce duplicates and correct errors
Puzilla.org (run by FamilySearch.org) gives additional opportunities to research dependency and find cousins (also free)
Mobile app allows for quick additions on the run
Volunteer opportunities for all to help digitize (index) records from home to increase the digital databases available
Huge network of Family History Centers (worldwide) at which to receive free help from other genealogists
Social Media presence with helpful tips - Facebook, Twitter and Google+
YouTube Channel with instructional videos

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The Bad

Web freezes

Our review team noticed that when adding family members into their family trees (especially when importing them from another member's tree), the page can freeze up and needs to be reloaded by clicking another link and then going back into the tree page. This seems to happen during the times which internet traffic is higher. While not a full crash, this can become frustrating when working on building your trees. The developers obviously worked hard to make the site user friendly. There is a learning curve to its use and it is not always intuitive.

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The Bottom Line

Our review team is confident in recommending FamilySearch.org for anyone wanting to begin their family history research or to expand the branches of their family tree. This site is well-planned and offers access to records which other sites charge (sometimes hefty fees) to access. Having so many venues for personal help, not only with the functionality of the site (technical), but with the research itself make this site a real bargain - indeed a treasure even.

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User Reviews

Star Rating

4.8

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815 Reviews

Review Breakdown

5 grade

80%

4 grade

16%

3 grade

2%

2 grade

1%

1 grade

1%

Sentiment Criteria

Value

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Quality

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Service

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Trustworthiness

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Sav Flo

I like how the LDS church has been able to find thousands upon thousands of records. I have had a hard time looking for my ancestors on other websites but this website is the place I turn too when I want accurate results. I also like the feature of being able to index because when I don't have much luck finding my own ancestors I have a chance to help others through indexing.

9 years ago

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Ruth Loughlin Hatboro, PA

I found the site very helpful. Yes I do have problems with the page freezing up but only at times when there are alot of people using it. So, I try to do on off hours. I do have some trouble find the family member, but that is because they did not want to be found, or they are Native American Indians. I did find info I did find very helpful and made me search a little deeper. I would recommend this as a good first place to search as it is easier to use then others.

11 years ago

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Cindy Turner Dodd Omaha, NE

I have used Family Search for many years and love all the information provided. However it is a disappointment that you have partnered with paid sites. I understand not wanting to duplicate information but in these financial strait days it was nice to be able to access information with paying out tons of dollars. Please continue to provide information to all.

11 years ago

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Jen Paxman Lehi, UT

I have just recently started doing family history. I am still learning how to navigate the website but I like that I am able to see what family members are working on what line. I still have a lot to learn but I do love the ease that you can reserve family names so that the work can be done.

7 years ago

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Angie L Hanzel Saratoga Springs, UT

Family Search was a little intimidating for me at first but once I learned how to use it I love this site. I really like how I can search or add memories right from my phone when I have some down time. I also love the help they give you by sending you links to possible ancestors. Their site is very user friendly!

7 years ago

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Linda Milwaukee, WI

Love the records and genealogies! Creating your family tree seems like a nightmare. I would like to be able to upload my gedcom file and use it as it is, with out all the extra steps. Perhaps, I am using it incorrectly. Sure wish I could figure it out.

11 years ago

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Mark Troxel Provo, UT

I have found FamilySearch to be a free service. The main problem with it is that there is a lot of information that is inaccurate. Parent listed as siblings, wrong spouse information. You need to confirm any information that you use. It has improved over the years and there are ways to correct info but it can be cumbersome. The reason I rate FamilySearch 4 stars is that the service is free. Compared to what you get versus the sites you pay for, FamilySearch is the best deal around. It is maintained by one of the largest collectors or genealogy information in the world.

5 years ago Edited September 14, 2021

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Dayna Brown Logan, UT

I wouldn't claim to be a professional family historian, but with family search, you don't need to be! It is so easy to navigate and you can see so much in just a short amount of time! I love being able to see names and photos of my ancestors right as you log in. I have a 'type A' personality, and the organization and presentation of the charts really makes me happy!

5 years ago

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Kent Logan, UT

I use Family Search casually to look into interesting facts about ancestors, and how far back various lines go. I understand why privacy laws and account security dictate how you need to get started with the program, but I dislike having so many logins for so many online services and wish it didn't take remembering a unique password to access geaneology.

5 years ago

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Eliza Jane Arledge Smithfield, UT

I have loved using FamilySearch.org to learn more about my history and my ancestors. Family Search has been a great way for my family to grow closed together while still being educated on something we love. Family Search has made many ways for you to be able to determine if the information you are being told is true or not. My experience with FamilySeach.org has been good all the way around.

5 years ago

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Madison Scott Pleasant Grove, UT

As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints this has been one of the best inventions ever! I have enjoyed every minute that I have spent delving into my past and getting to know my ancestors. I love that you can upload pictures and stories. As I have read through the pages of my ancestral past I have learned more about myself. This is priceless.

7 years ago

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Sierra Beck Herriman, UT

I've used Family search for years now and I like the updates that have been made with the searching software. It is now easier to use than it was before. It is cool that I can put in my name and look at my ancestry and see people and how they are related to me. I love how you can add stories about people so it is not just a name but has more to the person.

7 years ago

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Brenda Spanish Fork, UT

I have loved using FamilySearch to connect myself to my ancestors. I love the tips service. This helps me know if there are potential records that I can link to someone in my family tree. It is also linked to the records of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints so its easy for me to take their records to one of our temples and do work for them.

7 years ago

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Julie Kincaid Soldotna, AK

This is one addicting site, and I think it should come with a user warning. Seriously though, it works great for Family History, and I use it several times a week. I will say that I would like to see their internal search feature updated and improved. It is very clumsy to use, so much so that I avoid it if possible and use other sites like ancestry.com to search for records.

7 years ago

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Leslee Muramoto Draper, UT

I use familysearch for all my ancestry data. I’ve spent hours adding photos and information. My biggest complaint is how hard it is to link living people to dead people. I would think it would be just as easy. I was making severa duplicates on living people before I realized it was pointless. Now I just stick to adding information for the dead but it’s hard to link all of it together. My first husband passed away, and I have since remarried but I have no access to my current husband’s lineage because he is still alive. So that part is frustrating.

7 years ago

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Alora Gilbert, AZ

It is nice that everything is free. It is interesting to find ancestors and read their stories. The design of the website is attractive and overall easy to use. I personally have had some errors with my family tree but it may be because some of my ancestors records are Chinese. Also, another thing to note is that it does not show living relatives that are not direct (aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings, etc)

7 years ago

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Julia Halliday Pleasant Grove, UT

FamilySearch.org is an amazing website! I would recommend learning how to navigate the website before trying it yourself because it can get confusing. FamilySearch.org has an enormous amount of records, so finding your ancestors is pretty easy. The website has a variety of thing you can do. I find it cool that you can put stories and pictures of your ancestors on the website. Overall a really good website that does a good job with finding/connecting you to your ancestors!

7 years ago

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Rischelle Mikkelson American Fork, UT

Family Search is great because it has so many record already available on it. It also has easy connections to the other sites I use. I like that they are constantly trying to improve the program with new features. I especially love the hints section. I don’t love that anyone can change info on my ancestors. It can cause a mess. But they are usually good to help fix errors if you can prove the error.

7 years ago

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Bob Conley Crestwood, KY

I love the service. I just wish that strangers with too much time on their hands can add or DELETE correct information that I have put in. In many cases, I have attached personal family records for documentation and people STILL think that their misspelled input from a census record without a birthday is superior to honest to God well-done genealogy work.

8 years ago

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Tim Farr

Search on this site doesn't seem to be as good as on ancestry. It's harder to find the correct person. Also Ancestry has better record suggestions and allows you to enter alternative info and spellings much more readily.

7 years ago

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Sara Jane Crestwood, KY

I do love FamilySearch. It really is top notch. But the bigger it gets, I do find my self wishing I would protect my genealogy from others who are constantly messing up my line.

8 years ago

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Christopher Haueter Salt Lake City, UT

I love using Family search, it's a lot of fun reading about my family and where I came from. There is a lot of good things about it. I do find that it's hard to use unless you take class that teaches you about it.

9 years ago

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Quen Wilson Ogden, UT

Family Search has provided me with the services to learn about my heritage and family history, although it isn't necessarily user-friendly. I have enjoyed the features that allow you to add in memories of ancestors.

9 years ago

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Robynn Peterson Woods Cross, UT

I love and do work on my genealogy using FamilySearch.org several timers every week! It still has some glitches but over all it is very user friendly and the best out of all the other cites for genealogy.

11 years ago

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Pauline Causse Provo, UT

I really like using FamilySearch not only to find ancestors, but also to keep a journal of all the memories that I have of my relatives and my own life to pass on to future generations. You can add pictures and stories, which makes family history more fun!

5 years ago

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Holly Magnusson ,

Honestly at first this website was a little confusing, but once I got going it made more sense. Also it becomes a little addicting, like in a good way. I love the side game / facts such as the maps of where my ancestors are from, my look alike, famous relatives and so much more. I feel geeky saying this but I have fun with this app.

5 years ago

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Emily Harrison Pleasant Grove, UT

It is so fun to see my family history layed out. It lays it out in a comprehensive and organized way. But sometimes the way other things on the website are set up are confusing and once in a while it takes a very long time to load the pedigree chart

5 years ago

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Marlee Jones Tucson, AZ

This is a great tool to find names and information about ancestors. You can find pictures, stories, and documents related to people. I don't like that it is so LDS based and it is hard to do anything with anyone still alive, including children/spouses. Otherwise it is a great resource!

5 years ago

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fabulous_finn Gaithersburg, MD

So this is a free service, and I still enjoy using it for my genealogy needs. It's only drawback is that the majority of FamilySearch centers are small and located within Mormon churches, so for some people I know this is a turn-off.

6 years ago

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Dallen Howes Provo, UT

FamilySearch is a very useful tool for me to be able to look at my genealogy. There are a number of errors if I go too far down my family line because other users may submit erroneous or duplicate information. I love the Relatives Near Me feature on the app!

6 years ago

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Martha Gourley Pleasant Grove, UT

Family Search has been my number 1 family search website. They are accurate and have given me the things I have been searching for in my geneology. It does take a little time and training to learn how to use the site. I do not pay for this myself, I get it thru my church.

6 years ago

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Garrett Mingus Provo, UT

Family search is great, I feel like over time they are making it more and more user friendly. I like the feature that allows you to work with other genealogy sites to compile information on ancestors. I love seeing the memories of ancestors on there too.

7 years ago

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Miles Strother American Fork, UT

FamilySearch.org is an amazing website for building a collaborative family tree. It's the best site for getting information from others due to it's public nature, but it can also be frustrating when other people enter wrong information on your own tree. It also has a huge amount of records useful for research

7 years ago

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Dani Provo, UT

Very difficult to use on mobile devices, but as long as you’re on a computer it’s very user friendly and easy to figure out. It helps you find records with info about your ancestors which makes it so easy to learn about them

7 years ago

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Christine Farmer Littleton, CO

I use FamilySearch.org almost every week. It is a very helpful site for doing family history. The record hints and links are great! I appreciate that we can email other users with questions. I found that using this site with someone who knows it better than I do has been the best way to become familiar with all that is available.

7 years ago

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rcurtis Pleasant Grove, UT

Family search is a great website and I use it a lot for religious purposes. It's nice because it sends you emails every once in a while if they have found an ancestor. One time my sister was looking hard for an ancestor on a different site, and couldn't find her but when I recommended family search she found her almost imediently!

7 years ago

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kelsey Saratoga Springs, UT

I love Family search, the app has been so helpful to help me find my relatives. i do wish it was a little easier to use on the phone because sometimes when i accidentally click a button it wont let me go back to where i was. but other than that it has been fantastic!

7 years ago

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Brooke Jones Gilbert, AZ

Love family search- it is a great way to do family history work and find your ancestry! The only thing is that I wish it was possible to transfer data from family search from one LDS account to another, because I accidentally made two accounts.

7 years ago

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ally blackhurst Pleasant Grove, UT

I love family search! It has been so awesome to discover more about my family history. One of my favorite features is the “relatives around me” on the mobile app, where I can see who I am related to around me if they have family search as well!

7 years ago

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Irene Anders Folsom, CA

I use them all the time. Service is free and they have a large data base. They provide hints to additional documentation. They only negative is that others are working on the same tree and anyone can make changes to individuals, which are not always correct.

7 years ago

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Mallory Millett Lindon, UT

I use family search weekly and spend quite a bit of time teaching others to use it. Overall, I think it is fantastic, but every once in a while there are glitches when you use it with Chrome. If you switch to another browser, they usually get worked out though. (this is a free service)

8 years ago

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RJ Provo, UT

One of the most challenging parts of this is that if someone has a connection to my relatives, that person can change things that I know are correct. Verifying information would be tremendously difficult, but it would make the quality much better.

8 years ago

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Hunter Nobles Olivehurst, CA

Great way of discovering your distant relatives and your family’s origins. I always thought my family was Dutch, but really we’re from all parts of Scandinavia!

6 years ago

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Eliana Randall Sandy, UT

I’ve really enjoyed housing this website. I’ve been able to upload pictures of family members and stories from their lives and my favorite part is that anyone in my family can see these things!

4 years ago

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Timothy Rich Herriman, UT

It's really cool how you can look at your family line and how you are related to people and what their life stories are. It just gives insight into your family and what they did while they were alive.

4 years ago

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anna blaser CA

One thing that I love about this website is how easy it is to use. There’s so many difficult functions, but it’s so easy to figure out. Being able to write the stories of ancestors is a great touch, and I love it.

4 years ago

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valérie Caussé Draper, UT

I like that FamilySearch allows you to add documents and memories to someone's profile. The search engine is also pretty easy to use and has allowed me to find quite a few of my ancestors

5 years ago

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Lex Midway, UT

Pretty easy to use, I don't look at it all the time but very interesting to see the family tree. They make it easy to find relatives and add them to the tree, My mom uses it ALOT

5 years ago Edited September 14, 2021

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Sherry Bateman Port Coquitlam, BC

I like this company because I am able to not only see my family tree and add to it but I appreciate the weekly reminders that are sent regarding my ancestors including timelines, historic information, grave markers etc.

5 years ago

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Colby Victoria, TX

What I really like about family search is the ability to find family that I didn't know I had and being able to learn about them and as for dislikes I don't really have anything that I'd change

5 years ago

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