Overview
ORA includes full-featured support for FamilySearch.
Record Status
ORA adds Record Status icons to search results and other links to FamilySearch records.
Collections
FamilySearch has thousands of collections. ORA detects collection names and ID numbers from record detail pages and adds them to the collections list on the OraSettings page.
Record IDs
ORA extracts a unique record ID for FamilySearch records when it extracts data from record detail pages. It shows the record ID in the OraPanel, and also constructs a link that will open the record detail page and includes that link in the OraPanel. The link is not particularly useful in the OraPanel except that it triggers the Record Status icon to appear there. That allows you to update the Record Status while on the record details page. You can also copy the URL to the page using the clipboard icon next to the link in the OraPanel.
OraPanel
Record Details
The OraPanel appears on FamilySearch record detail pages where the record details are the primary content of the page. When you click on a row in the search results, that opens a panel that shows the record details, but that is not a record details page. It is a large panel that opens on the search results page.
There are three ways to open a record details page:
- From the search results page, the right-most column includes up to three icons. Click the
to open the record details page in the same tab. - From the search results page, click anywhere on a search result row to open the details panel. In details panel, click the "[View Record]" button to open the record details page.
- If a record details page includes links to related records, you can click one of those links to open a record page.
Image Pages
When Show OraPanel on Image Pages is checked, ORA will add the OraPanel to images pages. The checkbox is on the OraSettings page.
To reduce interference with the image viewer, this option is off by default.
The OraPanel appears on FamilySearch image pages where the image viewer is the primary content of the page. FamilySearch does not include all the transcribed Field data on image pages so the OraPanel will not include the same Fields as the record details page associated with the current image. Instead, ORA shows image-related data. For that reason, you normally use ORA's automated data extraction features from the record details page. However, some collections have not been transcribed or indexed and there are no record detail pages for those images.
Because all the Field data is not available in the OraPanel for image pages, ORA assigns collections that are separate from the collections ORA uses for the associated record details page. ORA appends "(film)" after the FamilySearch-provided collection name.
An example collection with images that have not been indexed (as of April, 2022) is "England, Norfolk, Parish Registers (County Record Office), 1510-1997". If you browse the images and then open one, ORA will open the OraPanel with the Fields that FamiylSearch provides on the page.
ORA extracts the collection name from the citation text provided by FamilySearch. Some collections do not have citation text, as seen here:
For those collections, ORA uses the film number to create the collection name. For the image above, that is "Film #7734085".
Other People
For some collections, FamilySearch includes details about other people listed in the record in a separate list or table. ORA attempts to extract information about those people. Unfortunately, the number of fields that ORA can extract depends on the width of your browser window.
For the wide entry shown below, ORA will extract the name, sex, age, and birth place.
For the narrow entry shown below, ORA will extract the name only.
For the best results when using ORA, keep your browser window maximized.
For both the wide and narrow entries, ORA will use the relationship value as the label for the Fields it extracts for the person. In the example below, the relationship value is "Husband" and that becomes a prefix for the other Field values.
Known Issues
- If you use a FamilySearch [Edit] link to provide a correction to a record, FamilySearch opens an edit panel on the same page. ORA is not aware that the panel has been opened, and the OraPanel will be in the way of the editing controls. In a future version, ORA will hide the OraPanel. A workaround you can use for the time being is to collapse the OraPanel before you click the Edit link.