Comments on: Ancestry Search: Name and Place Filters coming to New Advanced Search this week!

By: Pat Johnson

Pat Johnson — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 00:33:15 +0000

I agree with Jay Kay! This is NOT an improvement! Why do we always have to fix things that are not broken. I used to search for a name,county abd state–not anymore and the 1930 Census is impossible! Please let us have the old filter back–at least for the U.S.

By: Jay Kay

Jay Kay — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 16:25:40 +0000

1851 search problem – solved. Thank you.
Please bring your magic touch to the death index search results (England & Wales 1916-2005): The results do not show the quarter of the event, and neither does the individual record. This can only be seen by looking at the original image – or even just the directory entry at the top.
Mentioned at Olympia London Who Do You Think You Are earlier this year, but still not working quite correctly.
Grateful thanks.
Jay

By: Randy Seaver

Randy Seaver — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 19:05:19 +0000

Name filters look good to me…blogged about it on http://www.Geneamusings.com. Need to test some of my more complex surnames, though.

Need to do more place name searches though to see if you’ve fixed my issue from months ago.

By: Anne Mitchell

Anne Mitchell — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 17:15:43 +0000

We are aware of the 1851 UK census problem, and we believe it has now been fixed.

Thanks for bringing this to our attention.

By: Ancestry Search: Place Filters on New Advanced Search

Ancestry Search: Place Filters on New Advanced Search — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 16:14:24 +0000

[...] I told you about our name filters which is one of our new filters we are launching to help you create better searches. Today, [...]

By: Bekko

Bekko — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 08:23:17 +0000

#5 Jay Kay

It seems to be just the 1851 UK census (using old EXACT search) throwing up results which are absolute rubbish, with no correlation to the search terms whatsoever.

The most infuriating thing is that it usually takes Ancestry some days/weeks to fix these stupid ‘improvements.’

Yet again … sigh!

By: Jay Kay

Jay Kay — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 18:37:04 +0000

But what have you done with the ordinary “old” search? Which fails completely to find almost anything. This is not an improvement.
Searching for Fred* born Kent living Kent brings up such a mish-mash of results that it’s meaningless.

By: Penny Holt

Penny Holt — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 18:03:01 +0000

This is a good improvement. I’m looking forward to it. Two questions, please:
1. I’m working on a person now where it is the first initial of the last name that I can’t figure out. Will I check ‘exact’ and use a ‘?’wildcard?

2. (And this is my biggest beef with the search) Concerning birth and death dates; If I know a birth date and put it in but no death date, why, oh why do I get results of individuals who were alive and kicking some 150 years later and more? This happens regardless of whether or not I’ve checked ‘exact’. How can I restrict the search to the person’s reasonable life span? Are you going to fix that one, please?

Thanks

By: Anne Mitchell

Anne Mitchell — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 16:11:17 +0000

Rene, we will also be launching Place Filters tomorrow…hopefully it will help! Look for a blog post shortly.

Ron, default for first name will include exact, initials and similar. Default for last name will include exact, soundex and similar.

If you choose to use the filters, then you can choose to include or exclude whatever you like.

Anne

By: Ron Lankshear

Ron Lankshear — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 23:47:58 +0000

Anne This sounds good
I assume ticking Default means include all items below OR does it add something else?

It will be good to see Phonetic hits as well as Soundex so we can work out which better fits wanted name

And I do like being about to find an initial without having to do an extra search. And also picking up names like Will – will that include Wm (I think Ancestry does that now) and also the J names have various such as Jos Jas Jho – could the “formula” or table be published in help. Will “Ann” if the option ticked pick up Hannah and Anne. And Frances find Fanny (so many people don’t know that alternate)