Search Engine

dianalynneprice1

I can't find the correct place to go. This is pretty complicated. The new search engine is absolutely horrific! I have been doing Family Search for years and now I am breaking down in tears because the search engine is such a mess. It hasn't simplified but complicated everything. I don't care for Ancestry except for when I can't find something. Now I think I would go to ancestry instead of this search engine

ChapmanRichard1

I couldn't agree more. I've been using family search for years and your new system is an absolute nightmare. Who are these people who think they know better and just change a good working system to one that is absolutely useless. Please, please restore your old search engine.l

SuzAnneSnoops

THIS NEW SEARCH is a NIGHTMARE!!

WHAT happened to search abilities? IT IS A MESS!! It will not search for anything, and it won't even factor in the dates that the range is meant to be. It gives everyone with a similar name into the list. It doesn't narrow down anything.

I have been with Family Search since the beginning [I believe] and after a decade or 2 of being a member, it is suddenly ALL MESSED UP.. so it is totally impossible to use.

DO WE ALL HAVE TO LEAVE now after years upon years of relying on Family Search..for some other online website to do our records searches? HAS IT COME TO THIS???

LizHall44

As previously stated, this new Search Engine is absolutely awful and one of the worst that I have ever used:

1. FamilySearch data (very kindly indexed by volunteers) has a HUGE number of typing and spelling mistakes and the new search does not cater for this
2. The new search does not allow one to lock in the search criteria i.e. a name
3. The search does not return the information for the search criteria first and then other information, It returns everything mixed up and this then requires a lot of sifting i.e. pages and pages

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE GIVE US THE OLD SEARCH BACK

DougAllen2

It appears nobody who designs search tools at Familysearch reads the feedback on the search function. If they did, they'd realize that the redesigned search format has made online searches essentially hopeless and useless. The old format readily delivered ancestor or family member results that were relevant and helpful. I couldn't find a single family or ancestor using the new search format... and I've tried several times with no success at all.

Should anybody who configure's the website's search design ever read comments about the search function, please return to the old search tools and format. It worked very well. The new design and format is "unhelpful" to put its operation charitably.

Thank you,

Doug

Carol Schaff

I agree, I need to browse and I can no longer browse my Nova scotia vital stats. Is this their new policy or yours.

Carol Schaff

Carol Schaff

I do not like the new "whatever" I cannot find anything. I need to browse as there are so many variations in spelling. I specifically cannot browse nova scotia, is this their doing or yours?

Douglas Fahnlander

You need to listen to your customers instead of the incompetent site designer you hired, along with the equally incompetent code writer - neither one of whom have ever conducted any genealogy research.

JohnsonJeraldArthur1

I couldn't agree more with the comments posted above! I tried to find a marriage, hit the marriage button, and the research records did absolutely nothing! Nothing!

Take a clue from Ancestry. The visual results of their search engine is simple and easy to use. You see lots of records at the same time (the new Family Search visual only shows about one at a time and is mostly made up of blank spaces and blank lines!), so with Ancestry you can efficiently get to what you want to see.

I can't believe we weren't given a beta version to look at first. My advice, dump this and return to the old system while you research a better way of presenting data. Hint! Copy Ancestry!

Thanks

I

genthusiast

@Carol Schaff

You can go Search> Records> Search by Place> Canada: Nova Scotia

This by-passes the new Search giving you a familiar older Search view for just Nova Scotia.

I hope this helps.

If anyone else in this thread wants to give specifics of the search problems you are facing - I am sure there are many that can help.

Nancy Wehner

I also HATE the new search engine. The results that it returns are incredibly unfocused and irrelevant. For example, I just did a search on Thomas Smithson, born 1804 in New York. I did not get a SINGLE result that was even for a Thomas Smithson - they were all for Thomas Smith (see attached screen shot) - even though there are easily identifiable census records (for instance) for this Thomas Smithson in Washington County, OH. If I take out the birthplace of New York it will then give me some Thomas Smithson results, but I have to scroll through pages and pages of results to find the known records, let alone trying to identify ones I might not know about. I also see no way now to set any parameters for "exact" which is very handy. Honestly, you almost have to already know that the record exists to set up a search that will find the record. 😟 Rather defeats the point of a search engine.

Pam Paschke

I concur, the new search engine is horrible. Using the old search engine, information was provided to allow a user to determine if a record might be useful - there were dates, places, people. Now, you just get one name and the name of the database. That's it. No dates, no other names that are in the record, no places.... I used to search frequently here, now it involves an excessive amount of time with little reward. We need to be able to use the old search engine.

And to top it off, the graphics are not at all friendly - they are big and (try to be) cutesy and use up way too much screen. The entire search screen is not user friendly.

The records you have are amazing, the library is fantastic, but when on-line, I can now only use the catalog to find records and navigate through there - the search engine part is useless.