The new Findmypast (Part 3)

[Elizajb]

Hi All,

This is 'cute' - has this happened to anyone else?

Today (see a few messages ago) I could not log in to my FindMyPast UK account, so at the same time as posting a query about it on rootschat, I sent a message to FindMyPast via the contact form, not expecting any answer really.

However, I was surprised to get a reply an hour ago which informed me that since I had registered with FindMyPast Ie in 2012 and bought some credits, that I had been shifted to the new platform on the IE site and would need to log in via that henceforward.

True, I had bought some credits with FindMyPast IE for a very small look at something in 2012, but I had actually been registered with FindMyPast UK and been paying subs via that site since 2011. On looking at My Account , I can see they have lost the record of my original registration and the first one they now have recorded is the pay as you go credits I bought for Irish records in 2012.

Before replying, I logged in to FindMyPast IE to see if it was the same and found it even more confusing than FindMyPast UK. I have a 'Britain' subscription but could not work out how to isolate British records and, I could search and view American records (no use to me) even though I don't have a World subscription.

So, I have now replied telling them if they look at my 547 pages of saved searches (!), they will see I have been registered since March 2011 and I don't want to have to log in via the Irish site.

I really cannot make head nor tail of what they are doing.

Eliza.

[JenB]

The census search forms have separate boxes for 'Birth Town' and 'Birth Place'.

However on the 1911 search page it simply says 'where born' 

[hsfam]

You have to add the filters and it depends on which census you pick. For e.g., they both don't appear in the 1841 census filter options.

No birthplace (apart from born within county or out of county') is given on the 1841 census which is why the option doesn't appear.

I get to the various census pages via the 'List of all records' button top right of the page.

My question about this is what is the difference between a 'town' and a 'place'? How have they decided between one and the other for the purposes of searching?

Yep, I know that about 1841 Census. I was just answering Maggie's question and pointing out that you get different fields depending on which census you are looking at which I suppose is a bit obvious. I have no idea about the answer to your question and have actually been wondering the same thing. I'll be interested in the answer FindMyPast gives to you, if any.

I did notice, for e.g., in the 1851 Census, that "Birth Place" seemed to have broader replies such as country or citizenship or even things like "left in a railway carriage", "Foundling", ship names etc whereas "Birth Town" was more to do with the actual town of birth and I therefore found that field much more useful for my purposes since it seemed to have more consistent entries (though still not perfect as people will answer questions how they please    ).

[scotmum]

Elizajb
I really cannot make head nor tail of what they are doing.

Eliza.

Wonder if they are finally attempting to bring about one username/password across all sites (UK, Ireland, USA...) and tidying up multiple registrations at same time?

[LizzieL]

Maybe this recent messing with user name / passwords is at the bottom of my problem.
This morning I accessed FindMyPast as usual through my bookmark with no problem. I have the box ticked to keep me logged in so didn't have to enter my user name and password to start searching.

A few minutes ago I went back in to FindMyPast, but it didn't take me to the page with my name on so I had to log in. I entered my password but it refused to recognise it. Tried again in case I had mistyped - still couldn't log in.
I have a list of all my passwords in a protected document so I know it was right and I use same one for all forums which I change globally every so often.
Then in desparation I tried the previous password and it worked!
I think there have been other people suddenly finding their trusty old password is being rejected, so maybe FindMyPast is FindingOurPast passwords.

[gortonboy]

just been swapped over to new search...absolutely hate it it with a passion !!!!!!

[groom]

At the moment I'm not finding it too bad - I've just found a census record on there which isn't on Ancestry.

[smudwhisk]

Have to agree with Groom, it is possible to find things on there that don't appear on ancestry.  I've found a couple of birth registrations that ancestry are missing.  It's a bit like ancestry new search, once you fathomed out what they've done, it's possible to find things.

That said, I don't like it much, too many clicks required.   So far the only benefits I've found are the ability to enter parent's names in baptisms searches and spouse names for parish register marriages.

I've found too many parish register search result lists with no parish showing, just the county, so you have to view many to find the one you want.  I've flagged this up to them a couple of times, with different data sets, but one of their support staff seems to have got a bit confused as to what I was on about and directed me to the Historical Records list.   It's not a problem for all the parish register data sets which is what's infuriating about it.

I've replied to the confused support person explaining again what I was on about and also suggested it might be better if they put parent's search boxes on the general search form instead of just on each individual data set search form.   Why or why they've amalgamated the BMD indexes with parish registers I don't know.  Very stupid idea, I know you can filter down, but that just adds to the complaints about the number of clicks required to do anything now.

[LizzieL]

I've found too many parish register search result lists with no parish showing, just the county, so you have to view many to find the one you want.  I've flagged this up to them a couple of times, with different data sets, but one of their support staff seems to have got a bit confused as to what I was on about and directed me to the Historical Records list.   It's not a problem for all the parish register data sets which is what's infuriating about it.

I've found the same problem looking at Berkshire marriages and Boyd's index, no parish. But worst is the inclusion of date of birth column but no date of marriage on search result list for marriages! I made screen shots of all the problems with suggestions for improvement and sent as PDF attachment to FindMyPast support. So hope it's clear to them.