Filtering images by date available interval
Hi everyone,
I need to be able to filter historical images by a date available interval (ie, specifying both the start and end dates) in order to limit the results to fewer than the 2000 max. I understand how to set the startDateAvailable, but can't figure out any way to set an end date. Is this even possible?
Russ Maurer
Best Answer
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@Rhonda Budvarson @Paul W @AnneLoForteWillson
Although it doesn't look like a DateAvailable interval can be achieved, in a different thread I addressed my need a different way (using wild cards in the Keyword field). Since I came up with a workable answer there, I am going to mark this thread as answered. Thank you all for your efforts.
Russ
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Answers
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@Russ Maurer, I am going back and checking unanswered questions. Were you able to get an answer to your query? Or did you still need assistance?
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@Rhonda Budvarson Thanks for following up. I never got an answer and would still like to have one.
Russ Maurer
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The searches I make within FamilySearch all seem to have a date range option, as illustrated below. Perhaps you could add a screenshot of the page you are referring to, which only allows you to set a start date. This will enable us to understand your point and possibly to suggest any workarounds.
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Thanks for your comment. The date ranges you are pointing to are for the date of an event or document. That's not what I'm after. I'm after the date when an image is made available online, which is an optional criterion embedded in the URL. For example, if you go to the Historical Images home page (https://www.familysearch.org/records/images/) you will see this:
If you then click on "view the most recently added images" you will be redirected to this URL: https://www.familysearch.org/records/images/search-results?startDateAvailable=2024-02-12 which reports some 63,000 images added since Feb. 12. You can edit the startdateavailable in the URL to any date you want, but the result is always all records added from that date to the present. What I'd like to do, in a nutshell, is specify both ends of an interval, for example, view records added from Jan. 1, 2024 to Jan. 5, 2024.
Russ
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hmm... @Russ Maurer That is an interesting search. In order to better help you, may I ask why you want to look for recently added records in that way? What are you trying to do? It is possible there is another way to get the information that you are after, but I'm not sure why you would be looking for record images in this way.
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@AnneLoForteWillson Short version: This is for an indexing project, so I need to see everything. For the search criteria that I can apply, the search returns more than 2000 hits. As I am sure you know, familysearch will only display 2000. The only ways I have thought of to see the full set are either 1.) Use a date available filter (this thread) to split up the returns into smaller subsets, or 2.) use wildcards in the keyword search criterion (subject of a separate thread which has garnered no replies as yet).
Long version: I am looking at internal passport applications issued in Kaunas, Lithuania during the interwar years. There are already over 50,000 such records and more are being added all the time. To return the full set, use "F66/1" (initial part of the volume code) as a keyword search. A typical return looks like this:
The place, record type, title, and creator are identical for all 50,000 records, so hiding those you are left with
The image group number can't be used as a search criterion because we don't know what it is ahead of time (in fact, the point of the exercise is to add a link to the image group to the record index). The date is only specified as a year, not a full date, and even a single year produces too many hits for most years. The volume code can be used to limit the number of returns, in principle. F66/1 is the same for all records. The next part (1920 in this example) is the year of the application, which limits the number of returns, but not sufficiently. The next character (M here) is the first letter of the applicant's surname. That would be a great limiting criterion, but "F66/1/1920/M" doesn't work as a search term because the following digits are missing (hence my thread about using wild cards). That leaves date available as the remaining way to limit the number of returns.
Russ
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Firstly, sorry about misunderstanding your problem - I was careless in not reading that you were searching on "historical images".
With regards to your suggestion, there are two factors that appear to be causing problems here:
The first, that we can not search using specific dates - i.e., beyond using the full year (e.g., 1920, rather than a period within the year) in general searches anywhere within FamilySearch. Calls for a filter like this to be available have been made for many years - especially in relationship to finding records for which the user knew the specific date, so did not want to be advised of (say) the marriage of every John Smith that took place over the whole year.
The second problem involves FamilySearch refusing to share the finer detail from its logs - on exactly which and when records have been added to its collections (images or indexed). I have been constantly exasperated by the fact that when an existing historical records collection has additional items added (as announced in the Blog) I cannot ascertain if those records relate to (say) a parish that has never had its records included on the website previously, or if there might just be the records for one or two years (relating to parishes in that collection) that have been added.
Although this might not seem directly relevant to the matter you are raising here, I believe the general problem is due to those two factors: (1) FamilySearch not wishing / allowing searches to be made on any part of a year (whether relating to when records have been added or items being searched) and, (2) The complete reluctance to share any breakdown of what-has-been-added-and-when, even though one assumes the organization does hold detailed logs that do provide the precise detail, which would be most helpful to us if shared.
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@Russ Maurer I can see a way to find your information, but it is a bit clunky. Search for the records by the keyword "F66/1/1930". They seem to be listed in date order, so you would first copy what is already given on each page and paste it into a worksheet. When you get to the end of the list, note the last date. Then run your Date Available link and change the date to the last date listed from the first search and add the same keyword search "F66/1/1930". That should bring up all the rest of the records for 1930. Some will overlap with your first search, but you should be able to sort those out pretty easily in a worksheet.
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Thanks for the suggestion and the effort you are making to help me. Unfortunately, I have found a couple of issues with the method which get in the way. First, in the absence of a startDateAvailable filter, the display order is not reliably oldest to newest. 1930 is pretty well behaved, but 1920 is not well behaved at all. Perversely, when you add a startDateAvailable filter, regardless of the date, the display order flips and becomes newest to oldest. So the best you can do with the filter is the newest 2000 records, and the best you can do without the filter (assuming good behavior) is the oldest 2000. The method works for 1930, which has fewer than 4000 records in all, but cannot work for 1920, which has more than 10,000 records.
How much easier things would be if we could specify a DateAvailable interval!
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