I have an interest in building my family tree developed long after I left the LDS Church. It was inspired by a search to discover what happened to my paternal grandfather who supposedly disappeared when my father was very young. I have discovered he was, to put it mildly, a less than savory character. Anyway, I use various sources and recently signed up again for Familysearch.org. It used to be that family group information was available but I can't seem to find it any longer. Is that information still available? Why can I not find it?

I have not used familysearch for a while, but I suspect the general answer to ALL things Internet-related is that information of all kinds is being placed behind paywalls, because the word of the decade is “MONETIZATION”. Free access is pretty much fading away.

I use family search as a secondary tool. Ancestry is the primary one.

My family search "subscription" is free; and I am no longer a member. My member-son urged me to use it so he could copy my stuff to his stuff (he'll never do it).

I may not have access to all the tools that LDS members have. I had to fill out everything from my name to the rest of my family. There were no records available from when I was a member.

I hope that helps a little.

Doing research is overstating a bit in my case - it's more like poking around what's out there - at least until the pandemic lifts and real sources are available.

My husband had a Family Search account from his graduate studies, so I started looking into it to see if I could debunk one of my family's less savory stories, and I got hooked again.

I created my own account and started correcting records. It's amazing what unvarnished crap there is out there.

The dead ends I left 20 years ago are still basically there, although there are more question marks than there were before.

I have noticed that things I posted to message boards back in the day have been hoovered into behind-the-firewall content on pay sites. Funny, I don't recall giving anyone copyright permissions. :|

Tyson

Thanks for the responses. FS is not my main source but I was hoping family group sheets might lead me to a specific answer I am searching for on, among other things, a bigamous grandfather.

Have you ever used find a grave?

I was able to see where several generations were buried. Includes pics of the grave.

I had no idea my 5x great grandfather born in the late 1700s was buried in Brigham city.

Sometimes obituaries are attached. Sometimes photos.

Start with a relative you know then follow the links of siblings, kids and parents.

I know where my grandfather is buried, have been in touch with his bigamous family, but that does not help with the detail I am searching

Do not share any information on Family Search unless you would like it to become the for-profit property of Ancestry.com

Mormon churches helping mormons make money off of people.
How it has always been. How it always will be.