Hi Everyone
I read this thread with GREAT interest because I have been having extensive discussions (by phone and email) with Ancestry staff for some weeks now about the 'silliness' of the search engines. These discussions escalated to the level of Product Manager but when I invited him to join with me in a structured search under my guidance he seems to have backed off. I am an experienced researcher in general terms (being a retired university lecturer) and can see all sorts of problems with the manner in which Ancestry have developed their databases. For those in the know they do not use hierarchical searching and so results are very random indeed. Tney also use one American tradition which is not in universal use and that is adding the woman's married name to the maiden name when you use the link next to your person in the tree "Search For Historical Records" (if when searching you scroll right down to the bottom of the page you will see the system has added the married name in so the original might be Mary Jones but becomes Mary Jones Smith [names concocted]). You will now readily see why when looking for example for a birth record in Ancestry lots of Smiths come up when you are only expecting Joneses! They say they do this so that it becomes possible to get a match for a death which would only be recorded under a married name. Talk about taking a sledgehammer to crack a walnut!. My brother and I have run many tests in this way using known data (our mother) and it is possible to go through 2000 results (all completely irrelevant) without finding her. Interestingly a hit is produced in Findmypast instantly. I have asked and better asked if am going about searching the wrong way and all staff have said I have it right and they cannot understand why so many false results are produced. I have even challenged individuals to find themselves using these methods and they have to confess they cannot.
I really don't know where all this will end. All I do know is that now I am retired I find it difficult to justify an Ancestry subscription, Findmypast credits, credits for other specialised sites and then the cost of certificates on top of all that so something will have to be done and Ancestry don't seem to have the answer.
Whilst having a little rant have you not noticed in the UK how Ancestry slows down to a standstill in the afternoons (presumably when our friends across the pond get out of bed and get going on their PCs)? Yesterday (high powered PC, fast broadband and 4GB memory!) it actually timed out about 10 times! We need more dedicated bandwidth (UK servers) but will they listen?
And then there is the matter of the GRO and sending for certificates. £7 each and they retain £4 if it isn't right. But usually the errors are in the actual Index in the first place - ie THEIR error. That seems most unfair. On this subject there are two books (A Comedy of Errors Acts I and II by Michael Whitfield Foster available through FFHS at GenFair) which is phenomenal research indicating that at least 30% of GRO records are in an error state. Add to that transcribers' errors and suddenly all is explained!.
I'm not knocking Ancestry for the sake of it. If I say I was originally with Genes Reunited and got hopelessly fed up with the clunkiness and inadequacy there (since ITV took them over) and I haven't found anything better than Ancestry yet - but you know - fitness for purpose, 'doing what it says on the tin' - it isn't cheap and we should expect what we expect.
I just wanted to share these thoughts with you in view of the fact that some of you have experienced search problems. Actually I don't know many people who haven't!
David
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