Accessing Ancestry Institution & MyHeritage Institution from Family Tree person page link
I posted this issue on the Family History Center page in September, but none of the suggestions resolved the problem. I have called Salt Lake and asked to speak to someone in tech, but was told we need to post our question/problem on the community page.
Since the update to the FamilySearch portal, our FHC is no longer able to access Ancestry Institution and MyHeritage Institution from the links on a Family Tree person page. I'm not talking about the portal itself, we can access Ancestry and MyHeritage from there. I'm referring to the links that appear on the right-hand side of a Family Tree person page (under the "search records" section, see attached screenshot). Since the update to the portal these links no longer take the user to a search results page within the institution version of Ancestry or MyHeritage, but to a sign-in page.
I have cleared cache & cookies. Our Win10 build is 21H1. I have checked for updates, but it says we have the latest update. We have the toolbox installed. We have Chrome as the default browser and have added the FHC Premium Content extension to it and confirmed it is active (green dot).
Any ideas on how we can fix this issue? So far, the only option we can give our patrons is to open a new browser tab, go to the FamilySearch portal, open Ancestry or MyHeritage and enter the search criteria. That's doable, but it is more time consuming.
Thanks for any help. Diane
Answers
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Please call the Family History Center Support 1-866-406-1830 and select option 5 for Family History Center Support. You will need to be in your center when you call. They can verify that your Browser has the Port open and active on the first TAB of the browser and that the second TAB is on the FamilySearch. This is very different from in the past where you could use shortcuts on the desktop. Now both tabs need to be in the same browser and the portal page must have the premium site open before accessing the FamilySearch Tree.
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Thank you, I will call next week when I am at the center.
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Ken Richins;
We did as you suggested and contacted FHC Support; however, the missionary was not able to solve the problem. They indicated patrons would have to go to Ancestry through the portal and enter the search criteria instead of using the Ancestry Institution link to perform a search from the person page. If that's the case, what is the point of having the Ancestry Institution link?
Any other suggestions?
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The instructions from Ancestry are as follows.
- open a browser to the FHC Portal and go to a premium website.
- open a second browser tab and go to FamilySearch
- Sign in to FamilySearch.
- go to a person page.
- Select the Ancestry Institution.
- Manually enter the desired Search information into the search.
The point of the link is to sign the patron into the institutional account. We have asked that Ancestry fix the broken link for the search but at the current time, they have not done so.
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Thank you. Hopefully Ancestry will fix the Ancestry Institution link.
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Ken Richins;
I'm still curious about the Ancestry Institution function. Why did I need to call FHC Support if they would not be able to help me get the function working? Also, why does the Ancestry Institution link work for some centers? If the problem is that Ancestry needs to fix the broken link, wouldn't it be down for all centers? Yet some centers have reported that the link functions properly at their center.
I'm just trying to understand the whole thing. Thanks
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The confusion is the definition of "functions properly". The new method does work as currently designed, which is hugely different from how it has worked in the past. At this point in time, we do NOT know if it will ever work like it used to work.
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See also my 1st of two different screenshot results at my discussion, which shows what happens if someone had already logged into Ancestry on the PC in question (and is still logged in). See https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/comment/425865
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I'm just wondering - did FamilySearch turn off the link for Ancestry Institution? I notice it is no longer there. I had a non-member patron last week that wanted to search on Ancestry from the person page on FS. I had to refer him to the portal where he accessed Ancestry and had to enter all the criteria instead of having it filled in for him.
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@Kathy Nevin Yes -- they were having trouble with it for over a year anyway. But they have left in the "MyHeritage Library Edition".
But the "MyHeritage Library Edition" doesn't pass over the search parameters for the FamilySearch person you were on anyway, either. You just get a 3-min generic video tutorial. So FamilySearch might as well remove that link too.
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