In the past, I’ve mentioned what a great finding aid the FamilySearch research wiki is. It took a while for users to catch on, and I still think it is regularly used by far too few people, but it is gradually coming into its own.

I found out about the wiki several years ago, while I was in Salt Lake City at the Family History Library. One of the staff guided me to it as I searched for Danish resources and the number of links has increased astronomically since then.

Not long ago, FamilySearch announced that the Research Wiki would be undergoing a makeover and it is partially completed. The new wiki home page now looks like this:

FamilySearch Research Wiki Home page

There is a section to help you get started using the site – the box at the bottom center – and the search engine allows place and topic entries. There is another box link for those just starting out researching their family history and, for those who wish to volunteer, there is a link at the bottom right.

It’s not just the home page that had the face lift – the entire site is being updated and I suspect the process will take some time.

Some pages appear to have already been redone – Kansas, for example. There is now a clickable county map.

I can choose to click on a specific county and discover court, land, newspaper and military record sources. I could also browse general state-level tools, like Kansas GenWeb, and links to archives and libraries. There is a whole section on migration routes through Kansas, links to FamilySearch resources and links to outside sources. Towards the very bottom, there is even a link to Facebook communities.

Note the warning in red at the top about the current updating project.

However, when I took a look at Slovakia, this is what I found:

The same red alert found on the Kansas page is found here.

Top part of Slovakia screen

Much of the page has been redone, but I don’t think it has been completed because when I scroll down to jurisdictions, there are only a couple of live links. I know there is material covering Presov, because my family came from there:

The FamilySearch research wiki will always be a work in progress, because that is the nature of a wiki. However, it has fabulous information and tons of links to both common and rare records.

Don’t let the current upgrade deter you from checking out the wiki. If you are a current user, you may notice new categories and links. First time users will be shocked to discover their sleuthing time has been cut in half or more because the FamilySearch research wiki has done much of the work for you.