When searching records, the 'Place' box pops up every time tab or enter is pressed.

ChristopherTemple-Watts

When searching records the 'Place' dialog box appears without me clicking 'Place'. Is there a way to stop this behaviour?

genthusiast

@ChristopherTemple-Watts

This has been reported multiple times (sorry no reference - and I do not know if it is a bug but yes it is a little annoying).

I believe what you are experiencing is the default Any Life Event: Place and Date range fields auto-populating. For example, If you Search> MORE OPTIONS - then remove the Any Life Event and choose Birth Life Event - as you are entering parameters you will (or at least I do) notice that the Any Life Event: Place and Date Range fields auto-populate though you have not selected them. I would characterize this as a bug but perhaps since it was reported long ago and has not changed - it is not?

Furthermore, I just attempted deleting both Any and Birth Life Events and selected Marriage Life Event - and it auto-populated both the Birth and Any Life Event fields (definitely seems like a problem to me...ever since Any Life Event has been default this has been occurring).

It really goes back to the definition of Any Life Event - which as I understand is exclusive not inclusive - but that definition would have to be clarified or changed. The definition to which I refer:

https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/when-i-am-searching-historical-records-what-are-the-best-practices-and-tips

• "Sometimes you have information about an event other than birth, marriage, death, or residence. Use Any to enter information for events such as military enlistment or immigration."

This auto-populate behavior - and perhaps also the Search Results themselves - seems to go counter to this definition. If the Life Event options are discrete groups then they should not auto-populate other life event fields nor return extraneous results.

Susan Ann Mullen

We are moving this question to the Support Community better able to help you.

ChristopherTemple-Watts

It seems that the people writing the back-end for the website should not try to make things overly clever. If we want to put a life event in then we are all capable of clicking on that option. things that pop-up and take up valuable space needlessly are just annoying! there... had my rant :)