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how to select specific indexed historical records to search in the new interface

Amklingen
Amklingen ✭
June 14, 2022 edited June 14, 2022 in Search

I loved the old interface that allowed me to check off specific collections from the list of those available to search in a location (Country, State). The new interface is grossly inefficient, takes a lot more time, and returns way too many irrelevant results. By clicking through various search pages I've sometimes been able to arrive (I cannot figure out how!) at the "Indexed Historical Records" search page for, say, New York in the United States. But there's no way to get there logically as I could before (browse places --> country --> state would bring up the search page with the list of available collections below it, I could then check off the ones I wanted to include in the search). How can I get to that page more directly??? Thanks for any help.

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Answers

  • Julia Szent-Györgyi
    Julia Szent-Györgyi ✭✭✭✭✭
    June 14, 2022 edited June 14, 2022

    Are you talking about this type of page?

    image.png

    I got there by scrolling down on the Search - Records page (https://www.familysearch.org/search/) and typing "New York" into the Search By Place box.

    Unfortunately, it looks like they're phasing out those useful pages in favor of a new colorfully-useless format; when I used Browse Places to get to New York, I got the new style, which is missing a search interface and serves no purpose that I can fathom.

    image.png

    Both styles show the same URL in my browser (https://www.familysearch.org/search/location/united-states-of-america/new-york); I think it's a matter of chance which server you get and therefore which page.

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  • Amklingen
    Amklingen ✭
    June 14, 2022

    Thank you, Julia, for the prompt response. Yes, that's the old page I'm used to, where I can "Filter by collection" to choose which collections I want to search. That way I don't get, for example, ALL the Birth records, or be forced to choose one collection at a time, just the ones relevant to my search.

    And yes, I did the same thing as you did: browse places -- country -- state and got the new interface which I agree is a very poor substitute. Thanks for the tip! I also bookmarked the old-style pages that I use, which at least gives me the url if it doesn't come up when I open them.

    I'm not at all a fan of this new interface, I'm surprised so * many * test users supposedly liked it!

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