Tree search done when attempting to enter a new person.

Richard Otter

Tree search done when attempting to enter a new person.

I was helping a friend create an account on FS. That went without a hitch.

The trouble came a bit later.

We went to the tree and saw her newly created profile, alone and unconnected, as expected.

I then proceeded to explain how easy it is to now connect her record to her deceased father's record.

We clicked the add parent button and proceeded to fill in the new person form.

We entered the name, birth and death dates - exactly, and hit Next.

The system did not find her father's record!

We tried various combinations of data without success. We gave up for the day feeling a bit deflated.

 

I played with it some more and I had to enter the name exactly including the middle name, and we had to include a birth and death place. Then the system found him.

 

When I did a similar search using the Find command, no problem. Approx name, and birth year was all that was needed and he was the second person on the returned list.

 

What's up?

Are the match criteria spelled out somewhere on-line?

 

Thanks!

Richard Otter

 

 

 

Brett .

@Richard Otter​ 

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Richard

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I am just another User/Patron like yourself ...

So, as such, do not hold me out as one who knows ...

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But ...

That said ...

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The is much 'ongoing' work that is happening with "Family Tree" of 'FamilySearch' ...

All broken up into smaller, manageable, 'chunks' ...

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As far as I can remember/recall, the "Find" facility/function/feature was 'Beefed-up' not so long ago.

Whereas, the 'Search' when "Creating" an NEW individual/person seems to be 'lagging' behind.

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Of late, I have often looked in "Find" FIRST; and, if there, obtained the 'FamilySearch Person Identifier" (PID).

Then, without/before using that PID, I tried by just creating a NEW individual/person; and, NOTHING, presented.

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And, if NOT found when creating a NEW individual/person, knowing the PID, instead of continuing 'As Is', I then use that, PID.

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So, to be safe, I now use the "Find" FIRST, just in case.

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Certainly NOT intuitive; but, 'better to be safe, than sorry' ...

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So, I think that, possibly, the "Beefing-up" of the 'Search' when creating a NEW individual/person, is definitely still a 'work in progress'.

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Just my thoughts.

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Brett

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Richard Otter

Thanks.

What you say seems reasonable.

I was hoping for someone to respond with specific match criteria.

 

I'd say that the new user experience needs improvement in this specific regard.

 

 

Carol Lou Hill

I also had this same problem. I was doing a video for our YSA stake and I had to enter all of the information like you said as well. I guess I should have given Feedback on the page. Thanks for sharing. It makes me feel better that I'm not the only one.

Richard Otter

Since no one is providing definitive answers, I'll try to speculate.

Is it possible that if the add person search finds too many matches, then it says it found none?

 

Caryl

The system will do this - if this happens I open beta.familysearch.org and then look in Find by name and then add parent by ID not name. Don't create new until you do Find by name. It does not happen often but it does.

joemartel

This is a known issue with the "Add Person" flow where it does not find existing people in the tree. For now we are stuck with having to Merge the added/duplicate Person. Another approach is to look for the existing Person first using Find, then add the new Person in the existing Person's tree.

Anitra Whittle

I've had this happen. When the search does not find my person, I add it myself through that window. When added to my tree, the algorithms then find several people that match. Then I can review them and merge the ones that match my person.

Richard Otter

Seems like everyone knows about this.

 

I'm concerned about the brand new user who does not know about the issue.