The new Findmypast (Part 1)

[smudwhisk]

I can now see what all the fuss is about, although wasn't in any doubt.   

Having been merrily amusing myself saving copies of some of the un-watermarked Lincstothepast images over the last few days (as I had read the access was removed on the new site), and finding a few I couldn't read on the site because of the heavy watermark, I now find I can't use the data set as it's now unavailable.  Although laughingly they give you a search form for the Lincolnshire Collection, mentioning images from Lincstothepast, but nothing is accessible.  While FindMyPast had made a pigs ear mess of uploading the images, it was nice not to have the watermark on everything.

Unlike some comments I've seen, the image view is working in IE10 thankfully.  However, the amount of filters that have to be applied to make the site useable is ridiculous.  I gather from an entry on the feedback forum that they may be considering separating BMD and Parish Records again, although it's unclear whether their "planned" comment relates to that or the facility to search on parent's names.

The only positive I've so far found is the fact you can enter parent's names in the keyword box on parish record searches (and probably others, haven't tried it) and it does seem to work if you filter to a particular data set.  Now should they separate BMD and Parish Records into separate search sets, it may become more useful.

I'm just glad I wasn't migrated until now ....

[Gadget]

It happened overnight 

I've tried a few searches and so far it seems OK - the records I was looking for came up OK. I think I'll get used to it and not as bad as some of you suggested but it takes longer to enter details.

Attached is  a reminder of the olden days - it will be an antique one day


Gadget

[Treetotal]

So it's all round to Jan's for a spot of trouble free research then... so... get the kettle on   
Carol

[smudwhisk]

I've already sent them a "complaint" about the fact it's not showing some of my previously viewed images as being previously viewed and sarcastically said if it had been provided for a corporate environment they'd probably have had the contract cancelled for breach of contract.   Also suggested that aiming the site at ancestry's newbie market probably wasn't a good business case since many don't last very long and the rest of us don't need our hand's held or want heaps of results, just what we're looking for.

However, I've been having a little play on there in conjunction with ancestry and have actually managed to find some census entries on there that wouldn't appear on ancestry.  Also checked out some Birth Index entries and they have appeared putting the mother's maiden name in the keyword search box.  You can't use wildcards in the keyword search box which is a bit of a pain if they've indexed them incorrectly but they did appear.  It's just the number of filters you have to apply to restrict the results that's annoying, rather than before when you could just select the appropriate search form.

At least the "clock" is appearing now when loading images in the new viewer, rather than just a black screen as was happening on the British India Office images on the old site.  At least you know it's trying to load ...

As Gadget says, like with ancestry new search, we'll get used to it, just preferred the old site.

[smudwhisk]

Don't think this has been mentioned before on this thread, but I love the way the Record Collection and Record Set aren't connected on the search form for "Life Events", so if you change one and forget to change the other it just returns no results.   So it would seem you can use them separately and don't need both selected to reduce the results

[JenB]

Still hanging onto the 'old site' here in the wilds of Northumberland 

[Gadget]

Down town Newcastle is now wired up 

It's ever so long winded doing the searches and ever so slow to give results 

[smudwhisk]

Could do with a keyword box on the Census search page. 

While it's possible to restrict to the Census years you want through the Record Set filter, the lack of separate birthplace and residence box isn't helpful.   At least if they introduced a keyword box you could try entering both places.

Agree with Gadget, it's a bit of a long winded to search.

[groom]

Not sure what the situation is here at the moment. The iPad is asking me to log in to the site, but it often does that. I'm not doing anything until I switch the laptop on - watch this space.