Another Stupid Website Change

LegacyUser

Ronald Everett said: You've done it again, making it harder to get started in researching a name. First, you moved the sign in from where one would expect to find it in the upper right hand corner of the screen. Then after signing in, there is no "Begin" at the top to get started. In fact I was unable to find anywhere to click to get started. I am not trying to find out the meaning of a name. I am not trying to create a pedigree chart, I am not interested in my recent searches. I'm not trying to do any of the other things offered. All I want to do is a simple records search and I can't find how to get toit.

LegacyUser

gasmodels said: I don't know whether you are in the website or the app but for the website it has been the same for a long time. Sign into FamilySearch.org you go to a landing page with many options. However, the one you want is along the top menu. Click on the word "Search". Not very hard to figure out. A drop down menu will appear. One of the options is "Records" , click on records and it will take you to record search. You will there have to enter some information to allow the search engine to find what you are looking for. You will need to experiment a little to find what works best for the type of records you are trying to find. In general, less information is better but in some areas such as England where there are many people with the same name a little more information such as birth or marriage location might be helpful. This should be sufficient to get you started.

LegacyUser

Gordon Collett said: A recent up date made the site more responsive to various screen sizes. If the screen is too narrow (by a somewhat vague definition and sometimes in unexpected combinations of screen ratios or zoom factors) all the top line menus compress into the now commonly used Menu icon in the top right corner:



You need to click on the Menu icon to find the usual top menu:



Or work with a wider browser window and all the usual menu items will be back where you expect them, including Search.

LegacyUser

Juli said: It's a screen width issue. If your screen/window is wide enough, everything is still exactly where it belongs: Sign In at the top right, Search - Records in the top menu.

If your window is too narrow, then it all changes to smarter-than-thou mystery-meat-navigation, where it's only possible to find something if you already know exactly where it is. The default view is "invisible and unlabeled".

Thank goodness my screen is wide enough.

(Everything is under the hamburger-menu thing at the top right, by the way. No, not your browser's hamburger, but the one below that. The totally-unlabeled one that doesn't offer even a tooltip on hover.)

LegacyUser

Ronald Everett said: You are right. By widening the screen, the usual features now appear. It's amazing how everything disappears when the screen is just a little more narrow. I probably messed it up by using a split screen. Thanks for the info as I was having to drop to the sitemap at the bottom to use the normal search features.

LegacyUser

Paul said: BTW - If you just wish to search records, save https://www.familysearch.org/search/ to your Bookmarks. You will still encounter the same sign-in situation, but at least you can make searches immediately afterwards, then go to Family Tree or your home / landing page later (via the FamilySearch logo) if you so wish.