Home› Welcome to the FamilySearch Community!› Suggest an Idea

Family Search search engine

ArtBurke
ArtBurke ✭
September 6, 2021 in Suggest an Idea

I consistently find that I can find records easier in ancestry.com as compared to familysearch. A typical example which has happened many times (50-100), is that I first search the familysearch records and find nothing useful or nothing that is clearly my ancestor's records. Then I go to ancestry and find something. I again search in familysearch as I would rather attach records directly from family search since the information gets automatically put into my ancestor's record. I can't find it. Then I attach the record from ancestry and once the page refreshes, familysearch now gives me that same source as a suggestion.

There is something deficient, it seems to me, about the familysearch search engine (or put another way, familysearch should figure out how ancestry does it). For example, I have found a source in the 1939 England and Wales Register in ancestry. I actually go to search Collections in familysearch and search on the 1939 Register and nothing comes up, but then once I put in the new information and refresh, there it is in familysearch.

I also find that if I am searching for sources for a woman in familysearch, even if her husband is in the system and linked to her, it can virtually never find a record using her married name. Even if I add an alternate surname, that rarely helps, whereas, ancestry consistently does make that connection of linking the woman's given name with her married surname.

Tagged:
  • New
5
5
Up Down
5 votes

New · Last Updated September 6, 2021

Comments

  • dianalynneprice1
    dianalynneprice1 ✭
    October 3, 2021

    I agree with all the issues that are coming up. The new search engine is really confusing and not helpful. I have used it for years and it really helped. How can I get back to the old version. I don't want this. I am inclined to use Ancestry.com search even though it isn't my favorite but is better than this new one on Famly Tree.

    4
  • Carol Shepherd_4
    Carol Shepherd_4 ✭
    October 3, 2021

    If you have not already, please add your comments and votes to the "official" FS thread explaining the changes here, so we are all heard.

    https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/103621/familysearch-employee-responding-to-search-page-feedback/p1

    0
  • jalynbertagnolli1
    jalynbertagnolli1 ✭
    May 13, 2022

    I am currently searching Records in England. The 1939 register give the birthdate of the person being recorded. I have girls born to a family in 1911 but I don't know their married name. Can you imagine looking through the 1939 register for a Mary Elizabeth born 1905 when the only search option is the year? If you would allow us to search the month and day, I could easily narrow it down to the Mary Elizabeth I am looking for. Why do we index the day and month if we can't use them to search our ancestors?

    0
  • Paul W
    Paul W ✭✭✭✭✭
    May 13, 2022

    @jalynbertagnolli1

    Please see response at https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/comment/450349#Comment_450349

    0
  • Cheryl Viering
    Cheryl Viering ✭✭✭
    May 13, 2022

    This is of very limited help, but I am working with people who are in the Family Tree. Searching the family tree mostly works, most of the time. Searching records is worthless for me. It gives a ton of hits on the other side of the world, and misses the perfect matches.

    0
Clear
No Groups Found

Categories

  • 28.7K All Categories
  • 23K FamilySearch Help
  • 115 Get Involved
  • 2.6K General Questions
  • 428 FamilySearch Center
  • 436 FamilySearch Account
  • 4.2K Family Tree
  • 3.2K Search
  • 4.5K Indexing
  • 596 Memories
  • 6.2K Temple
  • 311 Other Languages
  • 34 Community News
  • 6.4K Suggest an Idea
  • Groups