Fix search bug for birth date range

cwagner46

The Search tool, advanced options, ignores specified date ranges and returns absurd results.

Example: John Hudson, born Rhode Island (exact), date of birth range 1811-1816 returns a list of people including those born outside the specified range.

This is basic, and BAD, and needs to be fixed, soon.

Please add an EXACT option on ALL date ranges.

Thank you.

Julia Szent-Györgyi

The reason it returns "absurd" results is that the date range is not a criterion, but an additional option. That is, a search for John Hudson born in Rhode Island between 1811 and 1816 matches John Hudson born in Rhode Island in 1750, John Hudson born in Connecticut in 1815, and even James Hudson born in Virginia in 1900. That last would hopefully be ranked so low as to not actually show up, but if there aren't a lot of very good matches, then the first two would likely be shown.

To actually limit your results to a timeframe, you have to use the filters. These only go down to the decade, though, so you'll still need to do some manual weeding.

Paul W

I was about to present a case giving evidence of the comparatively recent decline in ones expectations to be able to get "exact" results any longer. Instead, I just carried out a search for a John Robert Smith, born in Essex, England between 1800 and 1900 and my results list matched - exactly.

See https://www.familysearch.org/search/record/results?count=20&q.birthLikeDate.from=1800&q.birthLikeDate.to=1900&q.birthLikePlace=Essex%2C%20England%2C%20United%20Kingdom&q.birthLikePlace.exact=on&q.givenName=john%20robert&q.givenName.exact=on&q.surname=smith&q.surname.exact=on

I am sure it is not my imagination here that I, too, am experiencing these problems a lot more in recent months. But, if there is a specific problem being experienced, I would advise posting the URL you have used in your search, so other users might suggest further ways of slimming down the results. However, adopting Julia's suggestion of using filters (to search on collections or types of record) should go a long way in addressing the current problem.

Paul W

@cwagner46

BTW - this is what I got returned, seemingly using the same criteria as yourself:

See https://www.familysearch.org/search/record/results?count=20&q.birthLikeDate.from=1811&q.birthLikeDate.to=1816&q.birthLikePlace=Rhode%20Island%2C%20United%20States&q.birthLikePlace.exact=on&q.givenName=john&q.givenName.exact=on&q.surname=hudson&q.surname.exact=on

What inputs did you make to produce such different results? Perhaps you are even talking about making a search from "FIND" or another page. The FIND function never has produced "Exact" results, but does seem to improved in prioritising them. Regardless, this just bears out the importance of providing the precise details about the method / means used in undertaking your search.