Enhanced Editing and Image Page

why am I having trouble saving records?

Why do you NOT give priority to the birth, death, marriage states when given?

It is annoying and insulting to look through hundreds of findings from UNWANTED STATES!

Please consider our time is valuable.
Thank you.

Sharon that is a question that i would like to see answered also. Put someone in, go back and they are gone.

carol you wright like you have a handle on this ancestry i would like you to e-mail me or phone so i ncan tell uyou what need, and the cost

The improvements do look wonderful. Can’t wait to give it a try tomorrow!

I’m having difficulty with social security number that sumbitted on be half of my progenitor, George Washington Caulton #712-07-0885, no record sows up, nor can I find his death records for the state of Colorado, sometime in 1950.

Anne:
Great improvements.
In the next version, please pay attention to the requests to prioritize birth and death states; or, if you continue the current default search priorities, consider providing a radio button (check box) to indicate one (birth or death) to be the priority for that specific search.
Thanks for listening.

These sound like great features. I look forward to using them. In the future, I would really like the have a feature added that would allow a user to sort search results by clicking on the various column headings. One click to sort ascending, and a second click to sort descending. In the meantime, I think Ancestry.com is THE best online site!

I agree with other posters – the ability to sort results (by date, state, name, etc.) would be a VERY helpful improvement!

The section for notifying Ancestry of incorrect census images is missing. The 1930 census of Midland City (Ward 1) of Midland County Michigan has many duplicate and missing images. I tried to report it today and the section to do this is missing.

Hi all,
I too think that the old search method is much better than the new one. It gives much more ways to search, much more results for example if you do a exact search and much more. The new search method needs a lot of improvement.
The new feature in the census records I have seen yet but up till now I several times came in a loop while pushing the back button in the upper left corner while viewing a census record. I hope this problem will be solved with this new feature.
Greetings,
Irma

Having trouble enlarging census information. Screen goes blank when I hit the plus button in the toolbar. Do NOT need the transcription below – just takes up useless space. Is there any way to crop before printing? Several years ago, I was able to do that and then the format changed. I waste a lot of ink on the black border of the census pages.

Thanks!
Susan

Will You Please Please Stop Messing Around With This Site.

I Do Not Need This Information On This Page – It Is Just Cluttering Up The Information That I Want To View.

How Many More Feedbacks Do I Have To Send For You To Stop????

As I Said Before To Kenny On The Other Blog Page Referring To The New Design:
” If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It”

I Have Paid Several Hundreds Of Pounds To Use Ancestry – I Have Not Asked For These Changes = Please Revert Back To The Ancestry That Was Much Loved

Anne,

Regarding the 1870 census (which is the only one I’ve seen at this point) It would have been better to allow a correction to the AGE which is actually listed on the census and not the estimated birth year which is an Ancestry.com construct that is not on the 1870 census.

Case in point, for Henry Harrison in South Amboy, NJ, due to a transcription error of age 4 as age 9, doing the math gives an estimated date of birth of 1866, but I have his death certificate which states a date of birth of 14 Sep 1865. Which do I enter as the correction – the estimated year of 1866 or the actual fact of 1865 with no way to explain why?

If I could simply enter a correction to what’s *actually on the census* this decision would not be necessary.

Jo

What happened to the links at the top of the page? You used to be able with one click return to Search or whatever place in the string you wanted to go. Now the only way to do this is to click on the “back” button umpteen times. This is not helpful. Thank you.

Re #29–I should have been clearer. At the top of the 1860 pages are links that can take you back to the county or state; but the only way to search a different census or another category is going “back” multiple times. Major time killer.

Anne,

I like the thumbnail option and the ability to delete, especially to delete from the shoebox when I have saved that record to an individual.

I can’t find the grey double arrows to collapse a pane.

Thanks for this blog.

Anne,

I’m using IE 7.0, but, that said, I can’t duplicate [of course]…

wrt the ‘Report Image Problem’ comment… My suggestion is that the user have the option to include a ‘message’ along with the generic issue. For example, I had a record which spanned two images [the primary page along with a continuation page]. After viewing the image ‘linked’ to the record [which was correct], I moved to the subsequent image on the ‘roll’. This image was in error [e.g. not related to the first image] and caused a portion of the transcribed fields/data to be incorrect. I was able to find the correct continuation page and the ‘good’ data/information. Hard to explain all that with just ‘Wrong Image’

fwiw one interface suggestion/option… From the Ancestry Index on the Image page — if you double click on an entry I note the page ‘updates’ to the newly selected individual. However, you can’t easily get to the transcribed record page for that individual [the 'Return to Record' button takes you back to the original individual]

Cheers

Mark

Ann,
I like the improvements, but there are still problem areas. When we look at “hints” on someone on our tree, we can see that persons info, spouse, children and parents, which helps us identify the hints as valid. When we use “search for historic documents”, we can only see a small box with the birth & death dates. Not much help. I constantly have to write down the other information to help me identify whether a document is about my person or someone else. The other big problem I have is not being able to sort search data by dates, place, etc.

I just entered a comment and forgot to mention that even if I change Image size, the scroll bars are out of the viewing ares , so I will have to scroll to move the image anyway !

NEED SOMETHING BETTER !

Thanks, Anne, I will go make that correction now and attempt to leave a comment.

Oh, and I especially like the ability to remove records saved to my Shoebox! I can finally clear the mess out! lol

Each and every record from the newspaper that I’ve used in the past- Sheboygan Wisconsin is not “image not available”

What gives?

Keep up the great work. What bothers me is in the census search you get the last names in and then get the varieties (which is fine) but then get the names you are looking for later on as well. These could be grouped better.

I am unable to see the newly updated records image page. It still opens as the old normal image view (I tried the 1861 Census of Canada). I tried both Safari and Firefox.

Any ideas?

#22, Pamela Abikhair said: “Is there any way I can get rid of these so called enhancements.”

Answer: Get a Mac. We still get a viewer that doesn’t even let you save the image to disk automatically. You have to open it in a new page and manually save it with a “Save As.”

I love the Enhanced Editing. So many times, I accidentally stumble upon a census record because the transcribed name bears no resemblance to the actual name. Now I can correct the name so in future this person can be found. This is a wonderful addition.

I seem to be having trouble attaching the record to others in the family on that record too. Did this feature go away or is it just somewhere I can’t find it now?

Thanks.

I too am having trouble saving a record when a hint is given. Under the old format this was not an issue.

Also do not seem to be getting as many hints as before.

JULY 29 IMAGE “ENHANCEMENTS” NO GOOD IN NETSCAPE 7.2. The July 29 image enhancements make the images completely inaccessible when using Netscape 7.2 – images flash on and off and don’t last long enough to read. While I can use Ancestry’s census images in MS IE 7, there are times when it’s much better to use Netscape.
Please add some kind of toggle button to deactivate these so-called enhancements, so they stay off until I choose to activate them again some other time.

Here is one thing that I have found that is a huge problem when wanting to correct a record-census record, etc. Using my member tree-when I click to connect a census, there is no link at all there to correct the census. I have to go and search that census independantly of my member tree in order to get the correction page. Why is that? It needs to be fixed promptly. Since Ancstry is emphasizing member connections, it seems reasonable to have the correction page show up when I connect a census to a person on my member tree.

I can’t print and that is really making me mad. Worked fine an hour ago. Now, you open the census and click on print and nothing happens.

Don’t fix something that ain’t broke.

Will corrections that I made to the census images (hundreds of them!) before the new display went into effect still be available for view? Or do I have to do it all over again?

In response to Mike (or was that Mrike? , I have tried it in FireFox and Safari. I still don’t see a way to save the image without having to do a “save as.” There is no longer a “save” option in the new viewer, but If I go to Image-only print, the same popup that’s always come up returns, with print instructions and these instructions for saving:

To save a copy of this image to your computer:
1. Click on the image with your right mouse button (control-click on Macintosh)
2. Select “Save Picture As” (“Download Image to Disk” on Macintosh)
3. Select a name and location for this image on your computer
4. Click “Save”

As an aside, is the image supposed to completely vanish when zooming in or out? The only apparent way to get it back is to click to the next or previous image, which then loads at the newly-chosen resolution. Then you have to click back to the page you were on in order to see it at the new resolution.

How do I send info regarding incorrectly linked census pages? For instance in 1860 Vt, the last two
images of Bolton Vt are for Charlotte Vt, but are not included with Charlotte’s. Also, if you look up a name of someone from Charlotte who happens to be on one of those pages (i.e. Joel Stone), the response will show them as living in Bolton

Is there some way to make the image full page like before? My screen is so crowded with all the other stuff that I only have a small portion of the image showing.

Having submitted several thousand corrections to your system over the last may years knowing that people looking at the same entries would seem my email and be able to contact me I find that the “improvements” have removed my Contact Information.

????

Be Advised

If you remove the old search system I will remove my subscription

Will you please get rid of the Ancestry Index that appears on top of Census images? Neither the Index nor the image can be read.

With the bad olsd system when submitting a Correction to a census entry, there was a comment so we could pass info to the Moderator such as
This Surname applies to the whole family

Which saved everyone time and trouble, but you have improved it out of existence!

I agree with Michael and others who want to keep the old way of searching (I didn’t like the “new search,” either). This will definitely take some getting used to.

I have found so many errors in the transcriptions and family trees — you need a requirement to have documentation before people can upload wrong info.

I am glad to have had Ancestry.com all year and have completed many projects for friends and relatives. I understand this might help someone who is just starting out, but for those of us who are experienced, I at least don’t need all this foo-foo stuff on the bottom. Also, all of a sudden it is difficult to print off the original census records.

We’ll see if I continue my subscription once it runs out. Some times, progress is not a good thing. Like they’ve said, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

I can’t seem to be able to print the very fine looking maps that are now available. What can I do to do that?

Thanks,
Mel

I agree with Sharon Hascup. I would first like to be able to save records without Family Treemaker freezing up. Then I would like to mark records I have used or ignored so that I do go through the same stuff over and over again. This was a feature of earlier versions.

I just did a search on Martha Caldwell, born 1750 in Cub Creek Virginia and died 15 May 1802 in Abbeville, South Carolina. I got a bunch of records that do not match the dates, the first name, the last name or her husband’s name. I cannot imagine how you are searching to get something so out of whack on the first search page.

Hi Anne

For what it’s worth – I really like the new enhanced image screen. The fact that I can turn off panels is also good (and it stays turned off – I don’t have to remind it every display).

Not had a problem with printing, in fact the only issue I had for a short time was that the ‘back button’ on the mouse didn’t return to the index page – but strangely it now seems to work.

I used to have to return to the index page to find the surce information (RG numbers etc.,) if they weren’t displayed on the image, now that is in the right hand panel – really good.

The square magnifying glass is really great, especially for my 60 year old eyes

So after only a short time seeing the new images I can say I’m really happy with the improvement (but watch this space – I may find something I don’t like).

And on a last note – I’m an old-search ‘luddite’, please do not ever get rid of the old search until everyone is happy with the new one – that should see the old search lasting until around 2050

TonyC

Fantastic What a great help to everyone. Sometimes names and ages can be difficult to read and its great that we can make corrections which could help fellow researchers.

why can`t I just get Pennsylvania newspapers, when I am looking for some one in Pennsylvania.

I would like to see the family view screen show all spouses and children for individuals. Right now I can only see one spouse name with their children. Like to see all members for that individual.

I’ve looked at the new “enhanced” page that’s coming out tomorrow. Now the page is WORSE! I’ve commented before that I can’t view the census or other pages because of the title bar at the top and the lack of full screen working when selected. DON’T CHANGE to this “new improved enhancement”! Work on things that won’t work now like attaching a file to a tree instead of having to save to my shoebox.

I agree with Michael Barnett and others who use the old search method. I won’t use the new method since a middle initial in a name will give everyone whose name starts with that initial instead of the person I’m searching. Put in a middle name and the same thing happens.

Your changes are not beneficial to researchers. I’m online at least 6 hrs. a day due to the poor transcriptions of the census records and too many incorrect search results. I have to look at the originals most of the time and then to deal with your changes isn’t my idea of genealogy research.

I need to merge duplicates. How do I do this in this program? Jean

I love the new feature that shows the index information below the image. I needed this last week when Fox was indexed as Far and I couldn’t save it to my ancestor until I figured out how it was indexed.

Also last week, I found an ancestor on a page incorrectly indexed as Conway County, Arkansas although Carroll County was clearly and readably written on the image. I could not find a way to submit a correction request.

Please do not remove the old version!!!!!!!

My opinion of your site is decreasing fast. I use other sites that are much better for the census records. You ruined a good thing. The idea of a transcription of the page is good .. what is lacking is the transcription does not follow exactly line by line.

You mix up all the entries on a census page, not grouping the Familys together, as on the original census documents.

Do you even read these responses?

Please do not remove the old version!!!!!!!

I don’t like the fact I am unable to save the cencus image to my computer for futher research

I love the enhanced image page. In the past I have always had 2 tabs open – one for the index and one for the image. It is great being able to see the index of everyone else on the page and to go to the next page and see the index for everyone on that page also. As you say, relatives often lived nearby.

Thanks for the example from your family – Frances Hackler Hash. I notice that you corrected Franka J. to Frances, but Franka J. is still what shows up in the Index panel. I submit a lot of corrections for my surname, Barbee, which is frequently misindexed as Barber. I would like to see an example of how that would show up in search results and the index panel. In other words, if I search on “Barbee” and someone has submitted a correction for a “Barber” record, will that still show up in my search results and how will it appear in the index panel.

FYI, I tried correcting some “Barber” records to “Barbee” using the new method in the 1870 census. It seems to work great! The only thing that would be better is if I could submit the correct surname for the family once and and automatically correct each member of the family.

I found a bug – I provided an alternate given name for H. B. Barbur (previously corrected to Barbee) in the 1870 Tarrant County, Texas census. When I clicked on any other given name on the page the Ancestry Transcription showed “H B” (the previous record that I corrected) rather than the given name on the record I was trying to correct. That was a little confusing.

I went on and submitted an alternative name for H B’s wife “Sophronia Virginia” even though the Ancestry Transcription showed “H B”. It seemed to record my change to the correct record.

Thanks Ancestry!

Hello,

A lot of complaints on this page would be solved by using more than one window or tab. I use one for the main page, one for my main search for a person, and then one for where I am searching, that way, I can jump from one search to another and do comparisons and anything else.

Hope this helps.

I am having problems printing from the “enhanced” version of the census records. I used to be able to print just the section of the census I wanted, not the whole thing. Even using the customize printing version, it prints up the whole census and it is too small to read without a magnifying glass! I like the old version much better.

It’s too difficult to read the census records now that there is even less space devoted to the viewer. I’m not sure how this is an improvement. Please at least make the top section collapsible. Too much clutter and distraction — sorry, just my opinion.

It’s nice to be able to correct more than just a name, but what happened to the ability to include the basis for your correction, such as personal knowledge, corroboration by other censuses, etc.?
Also, what happened to the ability to add a comment rather than just a correction?

I’m usually one of ancestry’s severest critics of good ideas gone bad, but I will have to give this one a qualified thumbs up. Here are some comments.

1. Defaults are important. The default of Minimize Image *must* be changed to a default of Maximize Image. That one simple and thoughtful change would do much to assuage the objections to the new enhanced editing page. I think that most people will want to operate in Maximize Image mode most of the time. And as one who always clears cookies upon exiting a browser, I know in advance that I can’t change the option to be the way I want and expect it to stick.

2. It would have been much better to be able submit a correction to the census age than to the inferred birth date. You are asking us to correct something about the census that’s not even in the census (well, except for the 1900 census). I hope it’s not too late to correct that design decision.

3. The collapsible pane feature does not seem to be of much value. What is needed is a way to get rid of the entire right pane when the index pane is showing at the bottom the screen so as to give more screen space to the image in Minimize Image mode. But you can only collapse pieces of the right pane, not the whole thing.

Back to my most important suggestion about changing the default amount of screen space devoted to the image: I’m sure there would be a huge reluctance to change the default view, because changing the default would by default be hiding all the new goodies. And the new goodies are nice. But no matter how nice the new goodies are and no matter how proud ancestry is of them, the thing that ultimately really matters is the images themselves. It makes no sense that by default the single most important thing on the screen and the thing that people will use the most gets such a tiny percentage of the screen real estate. So please change the default, and please change the text on the button. Instead of Maximize Image or Minimize Image, the button should say Display Index and Side Panels or Hide Index and Side Panels. Don’t focus on the panels. Focus on the images.

I am not sure I like the new search. I just did a search on the ssme persom both ways and came up empty on the new search and with several options on the old search. Like others, if I ask about Jones born in Georgia in 1822, I don’t want to see Smith born in Iowa in 1910.

I would also like to see more data bases for Southern researchers. What is available is very sketchy.

I KNOW I don’t like the new FTM. It is not user friendly at all. In fact it is CRAP.

Like other commentors, I will have to decide whether or not to renew my membership when the time comes.

Well, I showed up today to find more changes taking place. Some good… some bad… I sure will be glad when you’re done! I’m not 80-years-old. But I am a self-taught pc user and this technological stuff gets on my last nerve when things don’t work right. I never know if it’s me, you, or IT. I’m all for progress… But I do subscribe to the belief that if something isn’t broken, don’t fix it. AND if somethings not working right, fix THAT and not EVERYTHING. You do have a wonderful website and even though it’s a been on the costly side, it is usually worth every penny. I don’t think I could have gotten all of the family history work done without you. So, I hope you will keep it that way. I will try to be patient while ya’ll work out the kinks. Thanks.

I could not get the print function to respond on the census image screen. What is the problem?

The enhanced image feature with summary data is brilliant. Just tried it out and it really saves time flicking backward and forward. Well done!

Regards

Dilip

This is an excellent improvement. Please continue to make family research easier.

Overall, I don’t really see the changes as much improvement. For me, there’s just more screen clutter. Not a major loss, though. A couple of specific requests:

- I liked to be able to move forward or back a page in the census by simply clicking arrow symbols. That does not appear to be available any longer? Not much harder to put in the page number, I guess, but still a minor loss.

- When I’m inputting a comment, would *really* like to be able to see other comments *before* I input mine. The comments are useful, and in some cases duplicate my input. If there’s a way to see them, I’ve missed it so far.

It’s time to get the basics of search fixed. Too much erroneous information. You should get the same results using the new or old search if the criteria is the same. Right now you don’t! I agree with the others about giving priority to birth, death and marriage states when given.
Anne, please comment on what you are going to do to eliminate the unwanted search data that is a complaint in these threads.

Thanks

#118 – Pete Smee:

You turn the panels off by clicking on the grey >> bar on the panels. It’s in the middle of the edge of each panel, maybe a suggestion to Ancestry would be to highlight it more.

TonyC

Is there any way I can make that “connect activity” go away or eliminate from my screen. Personally – I don’t care what someone else is doing every day. Or can it be dropped to bottom of screen so I only look when I feel like it

Why??? Just another reason to drop Ancestry Com.

#118 – Pete Smee

If you move your cursor from the ‘Image’ pane towards the panels, you will see it change from a ‘hand’ to a ‘pointy finger’ as it transitions across the pane boundary. You can click anywhere on the ‘boundary line’ when then cursor has ‘changed’… hth

#123 Larry Van Wormer…

The left/right arrows in the upper right in the ‘tool bar’ [next to the word 'GO'] seems to work and move thru the roll as before [at least it seems to be the case...]

wrt Making comments to individual records… that function still seems to be present via the ‘Leave a Comment’ button. You’ll just need to make your correction to the record [Given Name, Surname, etc] then leave related comments and information using the ‘Leave a Ccomment’ option. Two separate steps versus the all-in-one process in the previous interface.

hth