Can't repeat previously successful searches. Source still there, but Persons disappeared.

AndrewPlank1

Currently I'm unable to reproduce a search result that was successful just a few months ago.

A previously saved URL to the Source record still works, but there seem to be no corresponding Person records that a search could access. The Person records seem to have disappeared.

On June 14 I successfully searched for Gyula Rácskay in Budapest, finding his 1912 death registration and baptism records for two of his sons, Lászlo György Richard (1898) and György Ferenc (1905). 

Fortunately back in June I was able to download an Excel file describing the death registration. The file contains a valid link that still takes me back to the page displaying the death record. (I can't remember how I managed to solicit that download; I don’t see any way do it now.)

Two questions:

1) Why have these search results disappeared? Has something changed in the algorithm? I've tried variations on my search criteria, more exact and less exact, to no avail.

2) How can I initialize a family tree for the Gyula Rácskay family without attaching any of the Persons to anybody in my existing family tree? There don't seem to be any existing Person records for the Rácskay family members I’ve identified. (They are distant cousins related through one of Gyula Rácskay’s grandparents I have yet to identify, so I have nobody in my tree to attach them as a sibling, parent or child.)

References:

Here's the Excel-embedded link to the Gyula Rácskay death registration Source record:

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:D8G8-P9N2

It seems to terminate with an apparently invalid Person ID.

The Excel file contains three more such links for the wife and parents, all leading to the same Source record:

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:DCLM-GV2M

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:D8G8-P92M

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:DCLM-GVPZ

I don’t have any Excel files for the two sons, but I did print their Source images, which show the following URLs:

Lászlo György Richard (1898):

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-62TS-CM3?i=86

György Ferenc (1905):

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-694Q-49N?i=143

Julia Szent-Györgyi

Search - Records and persons in Family Tree are completely different parts of the FamilySearch websprawl, so I'm a little confused about what it is that you're looking for?

The new-and-disimproved search interface is certainly part of the problem. It refuses to cough up Mr. Rácskay if I fill in any of the place fields, but if I search for just the name, his death is the top two results. (The page was filmed twice, and therefore indexed twice.)

The sons it will not cough up if I fill in the surname (or sorry, "last name") as Racskay -- because the indexers followed directions and didn't fill in the child's surname if it wasn't specifically recorded (which it never was). I had to jump through the new interface's extra hoops to tell it to look for a father named Racskay Gyula:

https://www.familysearch.org/search/record/results?count=20&q.fatherGivenName=Gyula&q.fatherSurname=Racskay&c.birthLikePlace1=on&f.birthLikePlace0=5&c.birthLikePlace2=on&f.birthLikePlace1=5%2CHungary&f.birthLikePlace2=5%2CHungary%2CPest-Pilis-Solt-Kiskun

The spreadsheet download option is now well-hidden at the bottom of the Preferences tab (!) of the More Options pane.

You can add the Racskay family using "Add Unconnected Person" at the bottom of the Recents menu when you're anywhere in Family Tree.

Áine Ní Donnghaile

Searching on the name Gyula Rácskay in Hungary, the record for son László György Richárd https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6Z3X-PD2C

For son György Ferenc https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6ZST-K93Y

For wife Richter Olga https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:68LD-4JBK

Áine Ní Donnghaile

The URL for every indexed individual record (not a person, but a record relating to a person) ends in an alphanumeric character string. For example, this is the URL for a 1940 census for a member of my family. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K4RX-YST

The PID for that person, Augustus H Drew, is LD7Z-HLS.

Every PID for a person is a similar alphanumeric string, but they are not the same.

Julia Szent-Györgyi

To expand a bit on Áine's answer about those alphanumeric strings:

FamilySearch uses a seven-character identifier in several different places, always with a hyphen after the first four characters (NNNN-NNN).

For example, let's take my great-grandmother. Her profile in Family Tree has the PID (Profile IDentifier) L7RW-6NS. In her indexed baptismal record, the entry associated with her name/person has a URL ending in X8JP-5VV. In Genealogies, which is basically a cloud backup service for genealogy files, she's 3KVH-VF2 in the file that I uploaded, and 3H5Y-8LD in the one that my godmother did.

In Family Tree, the Records and Genealogies IDs all give Unknown/Person Not Found. In Records, the Tree and Genealogies IDs all give Page Not Found. In Genealogies, the Tree and Records IDs are both Page Not Found.

In other words, while all of those IDs have the same format and are each uniquely pointing to a database entry somewhere on FamilySearch, they're otherwise different species.

(In newer indexed records, the URL-ending string is eight characters instead of seven. For example, the above great-grandmother's marriage index URL ends in DTCT-M1ZM. I guess they ran out of unique seven-character strings.)

AndrewPlank1

Thank you, Julia Szent-Györgyi, for your prompt, thorough and enlightening response.

Your answers to my questions clarify a few obscure areas for me. I must say I've always been baffled about the two-tiered menu bars and the multiple Search-type interfaces.

The Recents menu seems to be contextual, playing hide and seek. It took me a while to find it even after you pointed it out. Once I clicked it, it did look vaguely familiar; I doubt I've ever actually used it.

I tend to use the upper-tier menus and forget that the lower-tier menu bar is even there. I will take a closer look at what you have pointed out to me, and I might have more questions.

AndrewPlank1

Thank you, Áine Ni Donnghaile, for finding those Source records.

Those URLs bring up the same images as mine, but they are different. I guess they are duplicates.

I notice that the URLs end in nine characters that look like a Person ID, but I can't actually find any Person identified by the nine characters I see here.

So I guess that means it's up to me to create the actual Person records.