How on earth do I use Search Records - FamilySearch? It's lost it's clarity

Gail Clarke Hellings

I'm sorry, I've really tried to use the new interface for searching FamilySearch records (right hand of a person profile page) It used to be my first port of call and was easy to use. Not any more though. It perplexes me so I'm giving up.

Julia Szent-Györgyi

Yet more proof (as if we needed any) that FS's stated aim of an interface that's "inviting and helpful" is an utter, complete, and total FAILURE.

Dinowife

If we could take a vote—I vote NO; this interface is terrible. I used to find SO many docutments when searching…now I don’t feel I am finding anything close to being useful. I do a lot of search for DAR lineage…Family Search was my go-to resource. Now I find is useless and difficult to locate records. I do indexing for Family Search…I kNOW those records are there, somewhere.

Gail Clarke Hellings

Thank you Dinowife and Julia, now I know its not just me being inept. Now I see that others are others struggling with the change. I think FamilySearch will improve it over time but.... for now, it's off to greener pastures for me, to find records more easily.

Paul W

@Gail Clarke Hellings

(A second response to one of your posts, within minutes!)

Unlike many users, I quickly found a way to obtain the same results (well, most of the time!) that I would have expected to see using the old interface. My main problem has always been with the layout, including too few results being visible on the screen, so having to scroll, scroll, scroll.

I am told that one advantage of the new interface is in exporting the results to a spreadsheet - something I would not usually do myself.

On your point of: "I like the way the location can be refined down to one specific county in England", again I find this no better or worse than before. One tip I would always give when entering placenames, however, is to add a wildcard at the end - e.g. "Essex*" - as if the specific place (Essex, England, in this case) is one of many "Essex" entries on the placename database, there will sometimes be a "No results found" response. Don't ask me how/why it works this way, but entering that wildcard often works better for me!

In summary, I just don't find the end results any better or worse - it's just getting your head around when (or when not) to check those "Exact" fields and the best way of filtering (by "Type" or "Collection") in order not to get either thousands of unwanted results - or perhaps none at all.

Gail Clarke Hellings

I now understand how to use the new interface for searching FamilySearch records (right hand of a person profile page).

I like it. I've had to persevere but I'm getting used to it. It's back to being my first port of call for finding records. I like the way the location can be refined down to one specific county in England.

I look forward to other refinements that will probably happen as I think FamilySearch is committed to making things better. My brain was challenged but I've moved up a notch. Thankyou FamilySearch teams.