Historical Records Search Page Help
* A FamilySearch user can easily misunderstand how the Historical Records Search works. For example, a common misunderstanding is that the more information a user provides about an ancestor, the better the results.
* Clearly explain in layperson terms how the Historical Records Search results are obtained from indexed documents in FamilySearch that match information provided in the selected search fields (NOT documents that contain SOME of the elements provided in the selected search fields).
Comments
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This is particularly problematic when one clicks on the FamilySearch logo from the Person page. All the inputted detais (e.g. birth, marriage and death dates & places) are carried across to the Search page and hinders the finding of available sources. I usually have to remove whatever I am not specifically looking for - e.g. remove birth and death detail if I am just looking (at that time) for marriage sources.
Even then, further modification is sometimes required, as (say) the place name contained in the source does not always match the one a user has inputted. (This is especially true of banns and marriage licence records.)
But, yes, there does need to be clearer, prominent advice on the best way(s) of conducting searches - the main Search page does not even mention wildcards. There are knowledge articles available, but many inexperienced FamilySearch users are not aware of how to find these useful guides.
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Agree with @Paul W that the sidebar link from Person page to Search page is aggravating.
I think the solution would be for the link to go to the Search start page, not to the Search results page. The pre-loaded fields are good in many ways (eg, prompting the user), but let the user edit the fields before searching.
And a comment about the Search start page: lately the page takes so long to load that I get frustrated waiting for it to let me enter search terms.
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