Setting country for searches
Would I be correct and not alone in saying - The default to USA country is frustrating and unhelpful?
Would it be possible to add a setting or option that we 'fix' the country one is searching in? Possible with a flag to show it ias been SET to a particular country during that session. On logging out defaults to USA/Worldwide :-)
It would be nice to not to have to keep adjusting the country, so one could get on with the important work of researching relevant data :-)
Best Answers
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Thank you for your reply.. I could have been more obvious - It's the Location feature.
It would be useful to be able to set this for the precise country when using. It goes back to whole world - which actually brings up the LOTS of USA sources.. So one has to keep resetting it during research sessions.. Which is none to helpful
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@GEH9 Since your question is about the new Search Records interface, we will move it to the Search area where folks will be more familiar with the topic.
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@GEH9 By 'whole world' do you mean as your screenshot suggests - that you are leaving Location blank? I can see how doing that might bring up many United States sources.
To fix that, just type in the Location you would rather be searching and then continue Restricting/Filtering as need to locate the records you might be after.
@MaureenE123 mentions below another solution: You could just save a Bookmark for the England page and always use that to access FamilySearch> Search> Records. Here is the England Search page - just create a Bookmark and click on that to Search - that should do the trick!
There could be an issue with the way your system is 'caching' the Search page but fixing that would be done through your browser/system settings, a browser extension or other security program residing on your system or perhaps some setting in your network/ISP router - none of which can be troubleshot here (that I am aware of).
If you are stating that:
- 1. you would like FamilySearch to remember your computer system localization/timezone settings and default to a country reflecting those - that sounds like a reasonable idea and could be suggested as an idea in the Records (Searching and Viewing) category perhaps/
- A setting attached somewhere in your user settings - I would guess - could allow the Search to default to that preset condition. Again this would be 'an idea' for the developers.
I'm sorry to point you in yet another direction but I think what you are looking for is a 'new' idea.
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Thanks for sharing your concern with us. We do not seem to get you well enough since we cannot connect your issue to any previous discussion. You may want to give us further details regarding your issue so as to give us the opportunity to determine how to help you.
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Is this in the new search interface? In the old one, revising the search leaves the location (or anything else under "Restrict records by") unchanged. Only "reset" clears it.
The location doesn't actually default to anything (besides "anywhere"). If I search for the name of my husband's grandfather, the only U.S. record I get is my husband (in that utterly-useless "U.S. Public Records" collection). Any apparent default is due to there being a lot more things indexed in the United States than anywhere else, so any name that's common here will be found in a lot of collections here.
If search parameters are failing to persist in the new search interface, I would consider that a problem with the interface, one that needs to be corrected as soon as possible.
(One of the problems noted in the initial feedback post, back when the new search was only on the beta site, was the absence of a "reset" button. Is this how they're trying to fix that? If so, it's the most idiotically stupid move I've ever heard of.)
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@GEH9 Help us better understand what you wish happened in the record search. Currently, if I put in a country "under restrict records by:" in the initial search, it is staying there when I get to the search results page. If I modify my search terms, it is still keeping the country. Are you wishing you could select a country, close your browser, and have the system remember the country for a future search? Or something else?
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OK, I went and looked at the new search interface on the beta site, and the location and other parameters, now labeled "Record Options", are just as persistent as they've ever been: the new-since-initial-test "reset all" link at the bottom of the Advanced Search pane clears the options, but otherwise they stay in force. So I find myself sharing N Tychonievich's confusion: what exactly is it that you're hoping Search will do, that it doesn't do currently?
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If you want to search in the records for a particular country, you can go to the Page for that particular country. As an example many of my ancestors were in India during the British Raj period.
The page for India is https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/location/1927063?region=India which has a Search. You should only get results from the collections shown on the page. I have not tried the new search, but hopefully it would be the same
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Thank you Maureen. that is of assistance.
I was more interested in the general FS page (see attached image from a previous response. In this case FS searches seems determined to bring up records for additional countries which are of no particular interest - and therefore one needs to keep adjusting the country back to the specific country of interest e.g to England... USA seems either to have lots of data with similar names ? Plus people in the USA seems to have no idea of locations and relative distances.. so add in nonsense sources to records which are totally illogical and unhelpful.
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@GEH9 Your screenshot shows that no country information is entered. I'm not sure how you expect the system to "know" you don't want records from X but do want records from Y.
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In my case - It's always England. The trouble is it defaults to blank = all countries. each time you change other details.
It would certainly be helpful to 'fix' it whilst logged into a session of research..
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@GEH9, I'm wondering if you have cookies blocked (or your browser purposely disabled some other way in the name of "security"), and that's why you're having problems? As I've said several times, in my observation, the location parameter is fully persistent: it only goes back to blank if you tell it to (by clicking "reset" or deleting the contents of the field). In other words, for me, your statement that "it defaults to blank each time you change other details" is simply false.
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@GEH9 As mentioned by @MaureenE123 above - you could just save a Bookmark for the England page and always use that to access FamilySearch> Search> Records. Here is the England Search page - just create a Bookmark and click on that to Search - that should do the trick!
Otherwise I agree with others - the persistent sessions settings should not be defaulting you back to blank unless it's the first time you are visiting the page after opening the browser and logging into FamilySearch - not taking into account the FamilySearch feature that maybe you are using 'Keep me logged in for 2 weeks' OR perhaps your browser cache is set to 'dump' every few minutes or you are 'blocking' FamilySearch in your browser site specific caching settings (not likely but you can check your browser settings) OR something else I just am not aware of (could be the case)?
Here are a couple pictures for Site specific settings in Chrome Version 93.0.4577.82 (Official Build):
If there were the recommendation to clear cookies 'these familysearch.org ' with 'Database/ Local Storage' would be the ones to clear (i believe).
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Thank you - However, that is not relevant or of any assistance.
It would need to be a a new feature to enable this to be averted.
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Setting country for searches ?
I note there are several Accepted Answers on this string of post in response to the original post. - Although I am not sure why as I did not state indicate the post were valid.
Some answers were somewhat useful.. Some much less so..
So all-in-all I would disagree.. The question has not been answered - also and could not be, as such it needs to be a new feature. Therefore, unfortunately none are fully acceptable.
Note: Also the same question was posed in the Ideas section of Community - The chances of getting an idea recognised and put on possibly a huge list of 'To do's/Improvements' is highly unlikely.
I guess it just a case of keep resetting the Country as it continues to flip back to global ;-)
Thank you for your thoughts.. It was nice to be able to air the gremlin :-)
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@GEH9, in this case, a post to Ideas is pointless for a different reason: this feature already exists.
As all of us keep saying, the Country does not "flip back to global" for us. It stays put unless we expressly reset it or delete it.
You must have a setting in your browser that doesn't allow persistent search parameters.
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Nope - it resets between new searches.
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@GEH9 Then I agree with the concensus:
There could be an issue with the way your system is 'caching' the Search page but fixing that would be done through your browser/system settings, a browser extension or other security program residing on your system or network setting. It simply is not the 'typical' pattern/function for the Search page.
It appears you will need to bookmark the England search page until you can determine which system/network specific settings are interfering with 'typical' operation of the generic Search> Restrict Records By.
Additionally there appear to be some problem with Search returning records which have been 'miscategorized' by FS automated systems - but this is a separate issue and would need to be addressed by FS.
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@GEH9 Additionally I find today:
1.'cookie preferences' at the bottom of Familysearch pages. What cookies are you set to use? I believe you would need to choose 'functional' as minimum for the feature you request.
2. Perhaps the difficulty is resolved now - it appears Familysearch rolled out some changes that might have been affecting Search. Are you still having difficulty?
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