Ancestry.com has launched the beta version of its advanced search template. With the new template, you can now specify whether you want all criteria to match exactly by checking the Exact matches only box at the top of the page, or only certain fields. To specify only certain fields, uncheck Exact matches only and select the Exact box next to each field you wish to match exactly.
The new search form also includes the keyword search, as well as several fields for specifying dates and locations.Â
You can navigate to the advanced search box by selecting the Search tab from the navigation bar at the top of Ancestry.com pages, and then selecting Advanced Search from the Search Resources box in the upper right hand portion of the page, or directly through this link:
http://www.ancestry.com/s24018/t8448/rd.ashx
Click on the Feedback link at the top of the Advanced Search page to submit your comments. If you experience problems using the search and would like to report them, please include details so that our technicians can recreate the problem and correct it. Thanks for your help in testing this beta version of the new search!
I already commented directly to ancestry on the beta search, but would also like to know what others think about two specifics:
1)The term “Spouse maiden” is very misleading. Being able to search for a spouse is a great idea, but please don’t suggest the last name needs to be a “maiden” name. Sometimes we want to find a spouse by a married name, and half the time (!) the spouse is a male!
2) The “dates between” is a great idea, but putting this at the bottom is confusing. Dates of what? Birth, marriage, anything with this person’s name?
I just hope you will make the wording clearer for what is a good multipurpose search form.
I just can’t get my head around the idea of putting the “Exact Matches Only” and the “Soundex” option on the same Search form.
It seems illogical to me.
I used the advanced search with exact matches on all data I knew was valid for two family members. With the majority of information marked exact – I had no results. When I took off all the exact flags, I received results. This may a question off less is more when querying for family members.
Regarding the many wonderful new titles you just added from GPC —-
1. The Court, Land and Probate category title list comes up in ALL states (same list) when only one specific state’s records are requested in the search. Many of the titles are only for a specific state.
2. I checked a couple states for the Military category of those new titles, and I believe you have them linked to ALL states, also.
3. Regarding the new search launched today — I put in Townsend (surname only), lived in NC, and date range limited to 1790 – 1840. The ONLY census that came up were 1850 through 1880, plus 1910, and at least some of those appear to include ALL states (not just NC) (I know to go directly to the census years and states I want, but shouldn’t this search have pulled up the pre-1850 census also?? This search request of mine limited 1790 – 1840 also pulled up the 1993-2002 phone directory database!! Mary
The soundex box does not appear on my census screen. Am I the only one with this problem? I have asked Ancestory but I am either told “Yes.it’s there” (it isn’t) or told to seek help on “how to use the census search” (I have used this for years) To not have the soundex search is quite annoying & frustrating. Any help or suggestions appreciated.
I put in what is the information on the census with exact checked for matthew Barry. Nothing comes up until I unclick the exact.Same thing has always happened, so what is so good?
I searched for my ancestor Alexander James and most of my hits were for James Alexander
It just gets to be one freaking mess after another. I did as you instructed and if I were a newbie (I’ve been on this site for ten years) I would hang my head in frustration. I entered the info exactly as you requested and came up with just a couple of ‘tree’ hits – including the one horribly messed up tree that has so much misinformation that I have attempted on numerous occasions to get you to take it down. The ‘owner’ of the tree is unreachable by email and it has so much misinformation it makes me weep.
Once I was looking for a William in the 1871 census on the National Archives of Canada Website. Not finding what I sought, I entered “Wm” and was promptly given all those in that census who were Wesleyan Methodists (WM). The NAC were able to revise their search engine to eliminate this problem.
Similarly, when I went searching on the new Ancestry Advanced Search and entered a family name that also has a common noun counterpart, I was given as well all those occurrences of the common noun. Given the origins of English family names, this must be a frequent problem, e.g., Brown, Black, White, Carpenter, etc., even Glover and Sills — two of my mother’s family names.
Anything that can be done to instruct this search engine to return only those instances where the word begins with a capital, would be greatly appreciated. At least then we would only have to filter out the occasional instances when these common nouns began a sentence.
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