The new FindMyPast (Part 4)

[Parmesan]

They're better quality scans than those on ancestry too.  I had a copy of my grandfather's pension records that somebody printed off for me at the National Archives which was quite feint.  The copy on ancestry isn't that good either but I looked at it on FindMyPast last night and it's much better.  I don't think they can be scans of the microfilms.

Somebody else made this comment but I find Ancestry's much cleaner.

[lisalisa]

The electoral registers are something else that is pointless to use now.

It seems you have to know the answer - ie where they live - to be able to find anyone.

On the search you can no longer put in the name of anyone else in the house - I remember being able to put the spouse's first name, maybe as a keyword, but it narrowed down the search results considerably.

If you do find someone and look, the 'result transcript' tells you 'length of occupancy', but not which years, so that is pretty useless for finding where someone lives now. 

I find better results just googling and looking at 192 for free.

I have no idea if this is on their 'to do' list.

On another note the search results on bmds etc being in alphabetical order by name is so annoying and time wasting.  Surely the default should be date order as if you were reading the register in question.
I know you can reset the order, but it would be better if it were done 'properly' in the first place.

Lisa

[dawnsh]

The GRO bmd indexes are in alphabetical name order, the only thing FindMyPast doesn't do is put them in order quarter by quarter but their results have never been displayed showing the quarters.

[Parmesan]

Newspaper downloading is functioning again

[Treetotal]

Not on mine it's not...the download button is back but when I download the page..it's blank 
Carol

[smudwhisk]

On the search you can no longer put in the name of anyone else in the house - I remember being able to put the spouse's first name, maybe as a keyword, but it narrowed down the search results considerably.

The years of occupancy shows on the results page, you just have to remember it when viewing the entry.   OK, not as good as previously but it is there.

[lisalisa]

On the search you can no longer put in the name of anyone else in the house - I remember being able to put the spouse's first name, maybe as a keyword, but it narrowed down the search results considerably.

The years of occupancy shows on the results page, you just have to remember it when viewing the entry.   OK, not as good as previously but it is there.

I don't see any dates on the results page - the headings are as follows
first name - last name -town - county -country -collection from - where (this repeats town, county, country)

Then if I view the transcription
name, address, occupancy years - 2
etc

but it doesn't tell me which 2 years that is out of 2002-2013.

It sounds like the results page you see is different.
I'm not seeing any dates on the list of results.   

Lisa

[Parmesan]

On the search you can no longer put in the name of anyone else in the house - I remember being able to put the spouse's first name, maybe as a keyword, but it narrowed down the search results considerably.



Lisa

You can, IF you choose the right route to search. There are severa.

[lisalisa]

The GRO bmd indexes are in alphabetical name order, the only thing FindMyPast doesn't do is put them in order quarter by quarter but their results have never been displayed showing the quarters.

I'm talking about the order in which the search results are appearing - if  the name is the same in each result, the results do come up in chronological date order (as far as I can see and until a middle name initial appears).

However if a search is done using a last name and a mother's maiden name, but no first name - ie to find out children born - this results in the first names being different each time and those names are appearing in alphabetical order.
Even if I specify a date - eg 1959 +/- 10 years - the results by default appear according to alphabetical order of the first names. 
I have to change the relevance to birth year to get the results in date order.

I think if you read through the GRO bmd indexes, you will find they are also compiled in date order - year, then quarter and then within those time frames in alphabetical order by surname (first).

Lisa