Comments on: Answers to some search questions

By: Anne Mitchell

Anne Mitchell — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 15:41:20 +0000

This blog posting is now closed for comments. My latest posting is: State and country pages

By: Robert

Robert — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:32:47 +0000

Good Day Anne,

The folks in tech support suggested I drop you a note here about my search problem / s.

I spent several hours last evening reading the arguments about exact (Brings back many memories).

My problem is much simpler to define. The search results are “Wrong” the under lying reason should not be my concern nor should I have to “learn work around’”.

Here is my search request which was done on Jan 28th, 2009.

The result is the TOP result:

1. Search for BIRTH: 1888-1890 the Result is in
1892
2. Search for DEATH: 1957-1959 the result is 1911
3. Search for FAMILY MEMBERS: (Father) John Connor the result is Patrick O Connor
4. Search for FAMILY MEMBERS: (Mother) ellen Morgan the result is Mary Ann Cahill
5. Search for FAMILY MEMBERS: (Spouse) Otto Thum the result is George Fredrick Sale
6. Search for MARRIAGE: 1907, Denver, Denver, Colorado the result is 1914 Madras, India

No item in the found data matches an item in the search request. This is just “incorrect / wrong”

No matter all the esoteric issues discussed, many of which are valid I am sure the point here is quite simple. The result/s Ancestry provided were WRONG.

So per Susanne in Member Solutions

“Dear Robert,

We appreciate your message.

Let me refer you to our blogs. These are being monitored by our website developers and they can answers your questions better than I can.”

What must I do to get a correct search? I would appreciate a detailed matrix of what I must do to get a CORRECT search result.

Thanks so much for your time and help on this matter.

Good luck on your new job.

By: seashelli

seashelli — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 05:13:38 +0000

I have using FTM for years and really enjoy it. I have gotten my husband involved and last year he picked up FTM 2008. Now he wants to get me the FTM 2009.

I have different trees going and the ones that have the French Canadians included seem to be somewhat of a problem. Some of the people have “dit” seperating thier last name (i.e. first name (Xxxxxxx) last name (FORTIN dit BELLEFONTAINE)), but the Index lists these people as (last name DIT BELLEFONTAINE FORTIN, first name (Xxxxxxx)). Is there a fix in the works for this or possibly have a box for the first name and one for the last name. One of my ancesters married an Indian and there is only one name. When I “Convert Names”, it makes thier name as though it is a last name.

By: Roland Richards

Roland Richards — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 22:57:30 +0000

Where have I been?? What’s with this NEW & Old search? How does one know which is which? How does one get(find) either one?
Thanks, a computer dummie

By: Laurie

Laurie — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 21:42:29 +0000

What I forgot to say in my previous post is that when I found the ancestor in the 1850 census by paging through the whole county, his name was spelled right and his age was right, so why didn’t he show up in the search? I actually seems more accurate to me to go to my local library and look up the soundex info and order the census.

By: Laurie

Laurie — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 21:39:30 +0000

I am new to Ancestry (about 3 months) and did not even realize there was an old search. What frustrates me about the search I have been using (and I don’t know if the old search can do it) is that I can’t find some ancestors that I KNOW are there. I would like to be able to search just a certain county in 1850 for example. I had to use the card catalog and go to the correct county and the page through to find them – then I could not save that page to my tree from there. I also would like to be able to merge files. I have found some information, but it is so complicated to add new information to my tree in ancestry that I can’t update it there, but I don’t want to upload a new file because I have a lot of census pages saved to the one I have.

By: Ben Woznick

Ben Woznick — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 21:37:33 +0000

We do need much better control over the order of results. It is hard to tell what the algorithm is, and when you can quit looking for an hit. It would be especially nice to provide a clickable heading for each column, so you could reorder the results you would like to.

You can get rid of helpful remarks like “We didn’t find any good hits, but you might like these.” We all know that sometimes you don’t find anything helpful, and that sometimes semi-random results can be illuminating. This non-apology just takes up space on the screen.

Better methanisms for selecting databases would be helpful.

Site navigation, never good, seems to have deteriorated. The headings on the home page are obscure.

By: Charlotte Reiter

Charlotte Reiter — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 14:21:22 +0000

I have been able to pick up more names on older censuses by using the town census by googling the request for a town census. Do you have anything like that? (I know you can’t return an answer). I found the willis family members in Wi.with propert numbers and the members living at each property. There were plenty of Willis’ Thank You Charlotte

By: MerryAnne Pierson

MerryAnne Pierson — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 11:37:20 +0000

I still like the old search better. I like to be able to narrow down the search by specific areas and dates and can’t seem to make the new search work for me.

By: deloresdiane

deloresdiane — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 05:42:27 +0000

I am having trouble find my grandmother,on my mothers side,minnie k kelly,on mom birth record,on nella ham,her names is roberson,m charles wesley ham,on birth record he has only wess no other inf.he died jan 3 1954 in sheffield colbert county al minnie k died in chicago,cook county ilb june 20 1880-1883 as minnie feather 4 sons 2 daughter i put on my mother death her names as victery no other inf on her record, she was native american indians,how do i find the real minnie the wess that is buried in oakwood cemty.sherffield al, is not my grandfather,gggrandma name is merry madagline or maggie nothing elsa that you delores dianestafford