New Search Feature Brings Better Results

Ancestry.com logo.bmpIn response to your requests to limit search results to more relevant date ranges, Ancestry.com has added a new feature that automatically limits your search results to the years you specify for birth and death, helping you to locate your ancestors faster. 

It includes a “fudge factor” of five years before and two years after. If you only specify a birth year it will search for 100 years after that date; if you only enter a death year it will search for 100 years before that date. So, if you enter a birth year of 1901 and a death year of 1929, the search engine will return records between 1896 and 1931. If you put in a death year of 1920, but no birth year, the search engine will return records from between 1815 and 1922.

To learn more, read Anne Mitchell’s post on the Ancestry.com blog.

And There’s More
Soon, Ancestry.com will be launching new site navigation to help you get where you need with fewer clicks. Drop-down menus are being added to the familiar tab navigation bar, allowing you to go directly to one of your trees, search a specific collection, or visit message boards with just one click–from anywhere on the site. You’ll also be able access a list of your favorite Ancestry.com pages and your to-do list from a new “Favorites” link that can be accessed with one click anywhere on the site. Click here to learn more about the navigation improvements.

20 thoughts on “New Search Feature Brings Better Results

  1. Sounds great. Would you like to add an on/off switch to allow or exclude the inclusion of family trees from search results.

  2. You need to have a way to return to the hints section when you are done with the search of one hint so you don’t have to go the home page then to hints to search another hint.

  3. PAAAAleeese, give an option to turn off/on international records when searching, If I know the record I’m searching for is in the US, it’s crazy to list 5,000,000 records that are in foreign databases.

  4. Is it possible to edit out the obvious mistakes in the ancestors records? Some of these records list up to 20 children when obviously it is only a few people with the names horribly misspelled with wrong dates. I don’t mean to change the info in the individual tress, just the data presented to other users. Also a tutorial or warning which states that people should only use names from their list whenever possible. To the beginner, the problem of name/person duplication is a real barrier. Otherwise, your program is a useful tool in finding one’s ancestors.

  5. Will I still be able to view my tree when I am no longer a member of Ancestry? If not, can I download my tree?

  6. I’ve noticed that the records search machine has trouble differentiating between Sr. and Jr. When I have changed info on the record to reflect the one I am seeking then all the info is changed to the erroneous person. It takes a lot of time to go back and change everything back as it should be. I know I can’t be the only person who has this problem. JM

  7. Good afternoon

    looking at some of the new things comming one in paticular the Gedom format does this mean we can open this file format without familytree maker??

  8. After deleting an item in Shoebox, it would be helpful to automatically “return to” where I was in Shoebox. Now, I am taken to the first page of Shoebox and must go through numerous pages to locate my previous place and continue working.

  9. When you do a search an you list the Us why does Ancestry give you results from England and places like that? If I wanted or needed to search in those countries I would put that in my search. Will this new system stop that?

  10. It would be helpful to differentiate the hints available: trees vs. records–perhaps a different color leaf, or the ability to turn off the hints that there are possible matches in other family trees.

  11. I’d really like to see you add a feature that shows that I have used sources other than (in addition to) “historical records.” For instance, I use a lot of Missouri Death Certificates as sources, which are not on Ancestry but are on the Missouri State Archives site, and would really like to be able to see that I have sourced events with these records without having to click on the event.

  12. When using the shoebox or adding records to a family member sometimes I am not given the option of add this to someone in your tree. The only choices are start a tree with this person or save to your shoebox or to your computer. What am I doing wrong??

  13. The family tree section is experiencing few linking glitches today, 5/19.09. Some of my relatives names are not showing up today. For example, there’s a blank tab where my father’s mother should be, under his edit profile page. When I try link to onto the blank tab, nothing happens. Fortunately, my father’s mother name still appears where it should under the my main family tree page. —
    Essentially, I have several blank uneditable name tabs showing up on my edit profile pages.

  14. The family tree section is experiencing few linking glitches today, 5/19.09. Some of my relatives names are not showing up today. For example, there’s a blank tab where my father’s mother should be, under his edit profile page. When I try link to onto the blank tab, nothing happens. Fortunately, my father’s mother name still appears where it should under the my main family tree page. —
    Essentially, I have several blank uneditable name tabs showing up on my edit profile pages.

  15. I love Ancestry.com. Thanks for all the amazing tools to search for my family. One thing I would love to see is the ability to print when the family sheet is accessed. It would be great to be able print this info and incorporate into my hard copy records.

  16. I want to move info on a relative from Morris Family Tree Tree to the Morris Family Tree on Ancestry.Please tell me how without retyping all the info.

    Thanks Joe

  17. I think you are doing a wounderful job!
    Webairs are Great but if you are a ancestry Member I think it is only fair that they should be able to join without cost to them.
    Chris 🙂

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *