Finding old sources

ThomasChappell1

I did a lot of family research 15-20 years ago and have the source information. However, now when I try a link that was good then, I get a message that the specific reference I am looking for does not exist. For example, a web link http://familysearch.org/pal:MM9.2.1/9HDX-ZG8 was good then, but now I get the message

Well, this is unexpected...We can help you search literally billions of records, but we can't seem to find the page you're looking for.

Is there any way to access the old sources?

N Tychonievich

@ThomasChappell1 This may be a long shot, but I noticed that in your notes you included an AFN. Were these perhaps records you found in the Ancestral File? If so, you can search Ancestral File using that AFN. Maybe it will get you to the same stuff you found there before. Here is how:

1. Sign in to FamilySearch.
2. Click Search and then Genealogies.
3. Don't enter any search terms. Just find Record Options (just above the Search button) and click Ancestral File Number.
4. Enter the AFN and click Search.
5. Up comes Ancestral File Entries for James Chappell

I also went to the catalog and searched for keywords "Family Group Archives" to see what might be there. I only found one entry with that in the title. Perhaps you got the info from the film. Here is a link to the catalog entry, in case it can be of some use to you: https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/195184?availability=Family%20History%20Library

Áine Ni Donnghaile

FamilySearch URLs with "pal" in the middle were changed a few years ago. Do you know for whom and for where? We can probably find the record again if we have a little more info.

Current URLs are in this format: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2CF-ZPR2

Julia Szent-Györgyi

Link rot is a basic fact of life. I hope you recorded more than just the URL for your sources.

To re-find an indexed source, you can simply repeat the search (https://www.familysearch.org/search/).

If the document wasn't indexed, or you didn't bother to record how it was (mis-)indexed (a common failing of mine), then re-finding it will depend on what information you did record.

For example, I have a somewhat-cryptic old source note from about five years ago, attached to a conclusion about a birth/baptism in Eperjes, Sáros county, Hungary:

Samuel Hegedüs, 1784 (12, 1793542, 479). Samuele Hegedüs, Susanna Geitner. https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/V18G-NZ3

Decembris d. 19. bap. est Samuel, natus Samuele Hegedüs tinctore, et Susanna Geitner. R.D. Elias Hellner, Georgius Egyed, Rosina Mahr vidua, Rosina Spanagel.

(The link actually still works, resolving into https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V18G-NZ3, but let's pretend it doesn't.) 1793542 looks like a film number, so I go to Search - Catalog, choose the film/fiche option, and put in that number to see that yup, it contains (among other things) some Lutheran records from Eperjes. I click on that entry and search the page to see that the microfilm number translates to 4407818 for the digital image group, and then I click the camera and put 479 in the "Image __ of..." box (because it sure as heck looks like an image number) to see that yes, the transcribed (Latin) entry starts at the bottom of the left-hand page on that image.

So I will update the old source note with the new URL:

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-6GJ3-6GY?i=478&cc=1554443&cat=707940

and for good measure, I'll add not only the digital film/group number, but also the place/type information (in Hungarian, because I don't speak Slovak):

Film #004407818 Image 479 of 535: Eperjes evangélikus, szlovák gyülekezet, 1784 kereszteltek

And for extra good measure, I can click the down arrow by the film number and go to the waypoints/breadcrumbs version, and add that, too:

Slovakia Church and Synagogue Books, 1592-1935 > Evangelical (Evanjelícká cirkev) > Prešov Prešov Baptisms, marriages (Krst...1839 Baptisms (Krsty) 177 > Image 232 of 288.

Julia Szent-Györgyi

Alternately, you can play around with URLs a bit. Is this the record?

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N1YY-ZVD

It's what https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:2:9HDX-ZG8 resolves into, which I got by editing the "pal" URL to match the format of the "ark" URLs.

ThomasChappell1

Alternately, you can play around with URLs a bit. Is this the record?

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N1YY-ZVD

It's what https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:2:9HDX-ZG8 resolves into, which I got by editing the "pal" URL to match the format of the "ark" URLs.

This links to a female in England in 1815. My original source was for a male Chappell in Virginia in the early 1700's.

Julia Szent-Györgyi

Well, drat, so mucking with the link doesn't work.

@ThomasChappell1, if you can give everything you recorded about the source, I can see if I can (re-)find it for you, and then tell you what I did so you can try it on your other sources. (Did you record most of them the same way?)

ThomasChappell1

I recorded all of the unfound sources the same way:

Family Group Archives AFN: CQXN-LM. http://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.2.1/3MLQ-WYW

Julia Szent-Györgyi

So you didn't record anything about what's actually in each source? Name, date, place? Are these sources attached to particular conclusions, or are they just appended to a person or family?

It looks like you're going to have to re-do quite a bit of your research, unfortunately. Hopefully, other people reading this forum can learn from your mistake, and keep better citations that allow for inevitable link rot. (I know I'm going through my offline file and checking for link-only source notes.)

ThomasChappell1

N Tychonievich answered my question and I was able to get to my sources. Key was the AFN number, which I didn't have a clue what it was.

Ancestry needs to realize that switching ways to find things after 20 years or so, really messes up trying to find the source again.

Thank you very much for helping me.

Áine Ni Donnghaile

While Ancestry changes many things without telling anyone, Ancestry is not at fault on this one.

Julia Szent-Györgyi

I think Thomas meant "FamilySearch" rather than "Ancestry", but either way, Áine is correct: it is not a website's fault if users expect a bare URL to still be good decades later. That's just not going to happen. You wouldn't expect a phone number to remain unchanged that long, why do you expect a link to do so?