FamilySearch log in

Why is it getting more difficult to do genealogy? Logging in to FamilySearch to link numbers is getting harder! What can we do to stay logged in longer? Having to do this every day is too much!

The likely cause of such changes is the recent data breach at 23andMe. It seems likely that other genealogy sites are trying to prevent similar breaches at their own sites. As a retired IT person, I do have a little sympathy with the genealogy sites. It’s very difficult to make access both easy and secure.

RM has no control over how long FamilySearch will let you remain logged in. As long as you don’t log out on FamilySearch Central or their website it should automatically login, going to the website and back when you open RM up again. It has to check the login each time.

This is especially interesting when DNA info is involved.
For 23andme, one wants to share detailed DNA match info with DNA matched people, who are presumably, family. The problem is if you may not want to share that detailed match info with the world, you have to trust that the person you are sharing with has a secure account. 2FA is a big step in that direction.
The matched person may think I have nothing that I think is private, but he has other people’s data that may be considered private.

This is the sort of thing employers worry about too. They give their employees access to data systems that the employer wants to keep top secret, but to the employee, the main issue is how convenient is it to log in.

What I do is the log into ancestry sites with “login with google”, then it’s up to me to secure my google account. Google has top notch security and these days I use a passkey to authenticate with google- no password required and no 2FA required !