[BUG 1] EXACT PLACE SEARCHES Don't Appear to Be EXACT... [2] Should be able to search on EXACT DATES

Dennis Bareis

This search:

https://www.familysearch.org/search/tree/results?count=100&q.anyPlace=Australia&q.anyPlace.exact=on&q.birthLikeDate.from=1926&q.birthLikeDate.to=1928&q.birthLikePlace=Australia&q.birthLikePlace.exact=on&q.deathLikeDate.from=1999&q.deathLikeDate.to=2001&q.deathLikePlace=Australia&q.deathLikePlace.exact=on&q.givenName=Lorna&q.givenName.exact=on&q.surname=Peach&q.surname.exact=on

Returns 23,942 results. If I untick 3x EXACT on "Australia" I still get 23,942, either way if you go to the end of the list there will be english results without mention of Australia.

I also specify EXACT on "Lorna" & "Peach", so all (or most) of the results shouldn't be appearing in any case.

I have date ranges on births & deaths, but there is no way to specify to only show results within those ranges (missing dates in FS data should be treated as a match)

Paul W

How FamilySearch treats an "exact" search is rather different to the way we would. However, I have found that using filters on "Type" and "Collection" can narrow the results down considerably. It helps to try all sorts of filtering, together with the use of wildcards when making searches on the website, but even then there are the unexplained results that can still appear at the bottom of the list, seemingly bearing no relation to what was requested!

One tip I always offer (although this usually applies when you don't get the anticipated results) is to always add a wildcard to the end of a placename. For example, if I input "Sunderland" I am likely to get no results, but "Sunderland*" works just fine. Try to imagine a programmer is trying to set a difficult task for you - and be determined to beat that challenge! That kind of attitude works for me!

Julia Szent-Györgyi

A previous thread about the same error has two pages of comments so far: https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/119548/exact-match-feature-in-upgraded-find-function-does-not-work/p1

The thread dates from mid-March, which I think is when Find's interface was disimproved to match Search. I have not detected any change in Find's behavior: it continues to ignore "exact" checkboxes wholesale.

If the date range boxes worked as expected, there would be no need for an "exact" box for dates. Unfortunately, Find's current behavior ignores one's inputs in the date range, too.

Paul W

It looks like I've misunderstood the issue again!

I don't remember "Exact" searches ever working properly in using FIND. All the recent "enhancement" achieved was to make the FIND page look just like the SEARCH one, as Julia suggests. Plenty of requests here to sort out the Search and Find problems, both (along with standardized placenames) getting messed up when FamilySearch tried to improve them.