Time Line not producing correct map

Paul W

I don't know if this is an intermittent problem, but the map on the Time Line is being displayed for North America, even though all events took place in the Burnley area of Lancashire. Is there some difficulty in getting this fixed? I believe the problem was reported some time ago (but can't find the previous thread).

Julia Szent-Györgyi

I've experienced this, too. I think, from my limited testing, that it's a "first time" error: if I go back to a timeline (even someone else's, I think), in the same browser session, then it centers correctly.

Paul W

@Julia Szent-Györgyi

Thanks for your response. The Time Line is a feature I rarely use, so I don't know how common this is, just that I'm sure Gordon said he'd encountered it a while ago.

I shut down the PC earlier, but the problem is still there. This was / is using Firefox, but it's not browser related as I'm finding the same issue in using Edge - something I also rarely do! (Amazing how different the graphics are from when using Firefox or Chrome.)

Gordon Collett

I find just the opposite of Julia. The first time I open the timeline map the map is usually ok but if I leave and come back, I always get what Paul sees.

Julia Szent-Györgyi

Today it's doing it Every Single Time. It always shows the US. (This is highly annoying when your immigrant ancestors were your parents.) Add the "use the buttons to zoom" (with the implied "you dummy") message, and I don't think I'm going to acquire the habit of using the Time Line.

Maile L

I have reported this for review. Thanks guys.

Paul W

@Maile L

Any feedback from the engineers would be appreciated. Still experiencing this today. Again, every event in one English county, but North America map being produced:

Maile L

@Paul W I am seeing the map center correctly for my Hungarian and English ancestors. Is this still a problem for you or did the fix work?

Paul W

@Maile L

Thank you for coming back on this. Unfortunately, no, it does not appear to have been completely fixed. Here are two examples of where all events have been standardized and took place in the same geographical area. Yet, as you can see, in the first case I am still being presented with a map of North America, while in the second I get a map of Europe! Would be glad if you would push this back for further attention, if possible. Thanks.

Well, that is weird: I did have a map of Europe displayed five minutes ago, for the timeline of this individual's son, now that has suddenly changed to the North America view, too! I have made no changes to the data on these pages, so something really strange is happening.

Here' another example (individual unrelated to above and who lived in the East Midlands area of England all his life. Still the same map, though, as shown:

I wonder if some other Community members could test this - especially involving cases where there has been no movement, over the whole lifetime, from a specific area of one country.

Paul W

On the positive side, here's one that is working - for now, at least! True, I was initially presented with a map of Europe, but a number of clicks on "zoom" soon allowed me to focus on the 7 correctly mapped events, which all relate to a relatively small area of Scotland:

Julia Szent-Györgyi

Well, they're trying: I just went first to a great-great-grandmother (who has all events in Hungary), for whom the map showed all of Europe and parts of Asia and Africa, and then to my dad, for whom the map is now showing me mostly the Atlantic.

In the Time Line part, the doubled auto-text is still there, and it's still making an arithmetic error (in 1962, he was 25 years old), but today the View Record button actually goes to one of his naturalization sources.

(Yesterday, when I first read the latest comments on this thread, that button was still going to one of his immigration records from 1957.)

Alan E. Brown

There's no arithmetic error. The naturalization date is simply 1962, which without any month or day is treated like 1 January 1962. He was still 24 at the beginning of 1962.

It looks like the naturalization happened on 14 Dec 1962. If the more precise date is set for the naturalization, then the calculated age will correctly be shown as 25.

Maile L

Very weird indeed, @Paul W. When I try William Harrison I get Europe.

Sam Sulser

@Paul W I was checking up on this issue. Have you still been seeing this happen?

Julia Szent-Györgyi

@Sam Sulser, it's still wonky for me. I tried it just now by first going to my dad, and it showed me mostly the Atlantic. (Same as the screenshot from Oct. 21.) I checked his arrival and naturalization events, which reset the map to the U.S. (The good news is that the doubled auto-text is gone, and the source is now [knock on wood] consistently correct.)

So then I went to his mom, who never set foot outside Hungary -- and got the same view of the U.S. as I had just seen for my dad.

The only difference is that there are no pins/markers at JFK and Los Angeles, like there are for my dad.

Paul W

@Sam Sulser

Thank you for your coming back on this one. I just tried two examples. The first produced a map of western Europe, but it only needed a few clicks to zoom in to the area of northern England / southern Scotland to which all that individual's events relate. However, in the case illustrated below, in spite of the three vitals all relating to places within a five mile radius in Yorkshire, England, a map of North America is still being produced.

I just checked to make sure the place names had been standardized to the correct locations and no problem there. Together with Julia's examples, I think we can say that the problem still needs to be addressed further.