VIrginia P.

This may sound overly dramatic, but genealogy is my main hobby. I have spent (wasted) hundreds of hours entering things in FamilySearch. Did you know that when you attach documents or photographs, they become the property of FamilySearch? My mother's high school graduation photo now belongs to FamilySearch. They monitor your activities and LDS "volunteers" track you and "format" what you do, which means removing accurate information, including documents, because they have already "sealed" a person and they don't want any contradictory information showing up. Many of their "volunteers" (I'm referring to people working at the direction of FamilySearch, not everyday users) do not know the difference between towns and states, and interchange them. They also merge people because they have the same FIRST name. They do not know common nicknames. (I could go on and on.) Many of the LDS users are very rude and send you messages that a part of the "shared family tree" belongs to them and you cannot enter things--even when you have provable verification. This harassment is not only allowed, but reinforced by FamilySearch. They are constantly changing the "shared family tree" in accordance with "projects" they have going on, for example: I have 0% Native American DNA in my DNA tests, but in the last few months I have been given over 50 Native American ancestors in the 17th and 18th centuries. Many of my ancestors who came from Europe, with their names on ship passenger lists, and a continuous line of documentation after arriving in America, have "disappeared." There are several LDS members who send me harassing emails on a regular basis, even thought I have not worked on their part of the "shared tree" for over a year. FamilySearch has no sense of accuracy or reality, they are using you to do their work for them, then changing it to be they way they want it to fir their view of reality. Overnight, huge chunks of your family tree may disappear, but nothing shows up in the change log--they are just gone. If you call the help desk, the first question you are asked is about your religion. By the way, some of the glowing reviews here are written by FamilySearch staff--I recognize their grammatical errors and vocabulary. By all means use their collection of sources, but don't spend time actually constructing your family tree. Also be aware that many of the record "transcriptions" have no corresponding original record--they have been created to match information that has already been attached to someone. Don't invest any time building anything on this site, and double-check all records that you find!