Comments on: A more powerful way to search

By: Margaret Chaney

Margaret Chaney — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 00:23:16 +0000

Since first becoming a subscriber to your site I have had recurring problems when searching census records. The problem occurred when I was either browsing a specific census, page after page, or when searching just one person and deciding to look at the previous or next page(s). Everything would go just fine for various periods of time and then, seemingly for no reason at all, the next page wouldn’t load. I tried advising you of the problem through the channel you provided, i.e. “image doesn’t load”, but that produced no results that I am aware of. Then I started calling you (you don’t actually have a “Support” line, but I called to advise that I was cancelling my subscription unless you could resolve the problem. Time after time I got the same response, “If you have a virus program running, it is causing the problem. Contact your Virus Program provider for help.” I use Norton’s and they tried to be helpful, offering suggestions that took substantial time and effort on my part to follow, all to no avail. The problem continued. It was frustrating. Then by accident I learned that if I closed the record I was searching and left the Internet, then immediately came back afresh, the problem was corrected and I would continue my searching until it would happen again, then I would repeat the process.

I am not a computer guru. I am an 86 year old woman who is self taught as far as computers and software are concerned. I began to analyze what was happening and suddenly one day it became clear. I have to believe that I am not the only person this happens to, and if I am correct then there must have been many others who complained, or maybe just cancelled their subscription. What was happening was due to my way of searching! Let me explain. I would start looking through the names on the census page as soon as the image began to appear on the screen and would follow it as the rest of the names were displayed. If I didn’t find a name that was of interest to me, I was through looking as soon as the last name was shown, so I would immediately click the “Next Page” arrow. If there was still more of the image to be displayed, i.e., usually the left half of the page (which contains the names) is displayed, then the right, when I clicked the “Next” arrow, the program terminated my previous page request and attempted to commence the current request, but apparently the program is written in such a way that unless each request is allowed to continue all the way through and allowed to terminate on its own terms, then an internal error occurs. There is no error message denoting this, however, only failure to download the next requested page.

I have now learned that I must sit patiently after checking all the names as they appear, waiting for the rest of the page to be displayed. Not until the green “progress thermometer” disappears do I click the “Next Page” arrow now, that is, unless my mind is completely absorbed in the information I am finding and I forget to wait, in which case I close the window, leave the Internet altogether, and then return to the exact same page to continue my searching.

Is there a “fix” for what I consider to be a frustrating experience, if not an actual flaw, in the search process?

By: Jo Davies

Jo Davies — Sun, 25 May 2008 19:24:05 +0000

Would just like to say that although the system is not perfect, I now know where my Grandmothers family original came from and have actually met living relatives living in Wales.
You are to be congratulated.

By: Susan Howell Mock

Susan Howell Mock — Thu, 15 May 2008 21:58:25 +0000

I have been trying a long time and I cannot find my mother and father and I have my birth certif. with names and dates and I have paid and not paid for info and I still get no where maybe you can help. I don’t know where to go from here, I hope you can point the way time is getting short for me and I would like to know before I go.
Thank You
Susan

By: Jem

Jem — Mon, 12 May 2008 20:29:34 +0000

Quote from Kendall Hulet above (thread author):

“I heard that comment frequently enough from customers like you, that we completed a project some time ago that I believe addresses a lot of these issues”

I still get either lots of nonsense, or nothing at all (depending whether “exact” is used or not). Of the too many records that do appear, I’ve yet to find a relevant one after three pages of scrolling – one simply loses heart!

And what’s with the image viewer lately?? Or perhaps I should say “lack of”. I am rarely able to view anything!

By: Jem

Jem — Mon, 12 May 2008 20:19:15 +0000

I can only (very frustratedly) echo the comments from Deborah Sweet and David Lawson at posts 10 and 11 respectively. Well said!!

By: judy adams

judy adams — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 00:05:22 +0000

i have not read the comments on the subject as i did not want to be iflenced in what others said so you got my honest of the top of my head opinion which will provide you with a better response

type ahead is a right pain in the butt on the presant system i constantly have to remove the unwanted entry in the father box when searching the trees PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE

give us some credit we are quite able to decide for OUR SELVES wether or not WE want to fill in the other boxes. not having tried the new system
i am guessing here but if it works in the same way as another program i use the moment you type in a couple of letters on the box it automatically fills in a word. i find this very ANOYING TO SAY THE LEAST. so for instance if i start to fill in the box and want to put ‘WEST’ the program because i have previously entered ‘WESTBROOK’ automaticaly fills in the box as ‘WESTBROOK’ The moment i have put in ‘WE’ meaning i have to remove the ‘BROOK’ part a compleate waste of my time. as my tree is full of such names i can see nothing but a very painful process for me.
correct me if i am wroung on my asumption. but because the feature is advertized in the discription that is why i have opted not to TRY the system out

By: Harlene

Harlene — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 03:47:58 +0000

I finally found my great grandmothers real name which had been listed wrong in a family-based geneaology book when I found it on my grandmothers death certificate in ancestry.com.

By: Harlene

Harlene — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 03:35:05 +0000

I do not think I have been using it correctly. I have found a great deal of information but never more than I asked for.

By: Jim

Jim — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 10:41:16 +0000

Fuzzy returns are fine and necessary but you need to also allow the ability to specify some fields to be *exact* in which *only* records matching the exact field are returned.

By: Mary Williams

Mary Williams — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 12:10:50 +0000

I have been doing searches for a number of years on Ancestry. First, I believe it’s the best search engine out there.
I would like one catagory on the advanced search. Place of birth for parents. My person is not living with his or her parents. The information of place of birth is very important.
I have found that sometimes the person is just not there.
I have used the tools of birthplace, date of birth +1 sex, race and sometimes relationship to head of household. True you may get more hits, but if you no the approximate location-that narrows it down. I don’t even use a name. When I was desperate, I searched each page of each township in a very large county in a very large city. It took me almost a week. I could not find him (my Great Grandfather) anywhere. I knew where he lived,he just wasn’t on the census. Some of the problem is not search it is the transcription of names. I have done a lot of correcting.