“Find” function not finding all who fit search criteria

LegacyUser

Marianne **** said: The “Find” function is not working as it should. Today I searched for a relative’s file. I spelt her name correctly and included both her sex and birth place (standardised name). Unfortunately both the mobile website and the app only found one person who fitted the criteria, but she was not the one I was searching for. To make matters worse, I know there are at least 4 people who fit the criteria, but it only showed one. In the end, I had to scroll through the “my contributions” section of the app to find the person.

This is a serious problem, which needs to be corrected as soon as possible in order to prevent duplicate files from being created unnecessarily. (People will search for a person, not find them even though they are in the system and then create another file for them.)

Another problem I have noticed is that when I searched for a different person (and found him), the results listed his wife’s alternate name (also known as) instead of the name at the top of her page. I scrolled down to see if another result included the main name, but to no avail. Surely the search results should show the main name instead (or even both). By showing only the alternate name, there is a risk of duplicate files being created.

LegacyUser

gasmodels said: It is always better if you provide specific examples of what you used to search for and the ID number of the individual you were attempting to locate. The developers cannot only use specific information to see what might be wrong with the operation. In addition on this site there are users who are quite proficient in using FamilySearch that might be able provide some insight into the issue you are having.

LegacyUser

Marianne **** said: Thank you, I will contact support with the details.

LegacyUser

Gordon Collett said: Since this is a possible engineering issue, most likely support will ask you to post the problem here.

The best way to do this is to post the URL for the search results. That is, perform the search then copy out the URL in the address bar of your browser:



and paste it here:
https://www.familysearch.org/tree/fin...

Anyone clicking on the above will see an exact recreation of your search for evaluation.

Then list who you expected to see in the results, in particular those that do not show up as expected.

However, I do have one question. You say that "In the end, I had to scroll through the “my contributions” section of the app to find the person." In which section of My Contributions did you find the person? My Changes or Private People?

If it was Private People then the Find function is working properly because Find never finds living or private people with a name search. That is part of the privacy requirements currently in place in Family Tree. You can find them by ID. Otherwise you have to go to the Private People page and use the Search by Name box there:

LegacyUser

Marianne **** said: Thanks, Gordon. I have already contacted support (before your reply came through) and am waiting for a response. To answer your question, the people I was expecting to see/find are deceased, so I ended up finding them in the My Changes section of My Contributions.