ScotlandsPeople (New website now live).

[Forfarian]

Hmmm... I think some the search results are not being presented as usefully as they once did.

Yes, that is true.

You certainly can't narrow things down to a particular day as you once could

It has never been possible to narrow down to a day on SP, because the exact date of an event has never been included in the indexes. Right from the word go (the old handwritten index books) they have only ever been indexed by year of registration.

Note, not by the year when the event took place, so events in late December are sometimes not registered until the following year.


, and I think you could do that once with deaths.  Sure you can search and search for nicks, but if it's hard to tell whether this is the record you need you could easily waste 6 credits on the wrong records.
[/quote]

[MonicaL]

Looking forward to seeing what has been done to the site although little change is good too!

Monica

Famous last words...full of optimism 

This relaunch is dire. I can't believe after the time they have had to pull it together and test that this is what they have lauched with. After the few years I have had using every aspect of the old site, these new search screens (even with the admitted errors that are on the "snag list") and results we are getting are very poor and give me no confidence at this time.

If those of us a little more experience with searching SP of old are struggling (I am  ), I would hate to be starting my research in Scotland and using SP for the first time....

If this continues, I might consider leaving Scottish research and move on to researching Iceland and the ancestry of their football team 

Monica

[scotmum]

  MonicaL re Iceland football team.

Possibly already mentioned (haven't had time to read back through all posts), but on a tablet especially, it would be very easy to accidently 'tap' on the 'view record' button, and find yourself taken straight there, with no 'this will cost / are you sure' page to let you decide if you want to proceed. Thankfully I discovered this with a record I did want and had 'tapped' to view on purpose, but others might be less fortunate and inadvertently use precious credits.   

[Ian Cowan]

Now at page 29! Don't know if my problem has been encountered by other users, but here goes anyway. When I do a search I am not given the option to View Images at a cost of 6 Credits (£1.25). All I am allowed to do is Order Certificates at a much greater cost(£12!). Hopefully, this is a mistake that will be rectified, but in the meantime SP is very expensive and unfit for purpose, and there is no point in buying any credits.

I have raised my problem with SP, but there is no facility for attaching images, so here goes on Roots Chat.

[hurworth]

I think it is because it is outside the 100 years Ian, so it's too soon for 1917.

[Gadget]

I suppose that,  in the end, we'll get used to the new system  as we've done with FindMyPast and Ancestry (and they will sort out most of  the problems) but it does seem to have been a big step backwards at the moment.

I think the FindMyPast changes might have run to 2 threads of 40 pages or so. Not checked but there were lots of problems with it. It's still not as good as the previous version.

I've just arrived 8 miles or so North of Dumfries and not all that far from where my ancestors lived and died. Maybe I'll just holler - I'll probably get better results 

PS - and it's a beautiful evening - blue sky and a view of Ballencleuch Law  from the window. It's nearly always sunny when I come here 

[MonicaL]

Good that you had a good journey. Definitely holler....and see what else you can think of doing too!

What concerns me about SP is that this is the sole window to official Scottish BMDs and original census images open to us. A lot of the issues so far discussed here are due to inferior search screens and more limited search options, and subsequent results. The purchase of credits problem via Worldpay that many are experiencing is ridiculous really for such a big company (in this I am also including Worldpay - I have dealt with them not too long ago for my business).

Like you Gadget, I am not prepared to admit to myself how many '000s of viewed documents I have viewed in the past. I will wait a while before I start double checking or I will just get more cross 

I now understand why the search results are free! It would tip us all over the edge to have to pay for search results and get what we are seeing now...

Makes me sad and upset all of this. It is such a bother. Change can be good and add to processes. For now though, SP is much less effective and therefore a problem for reseach resources.

Monica

[ev]

Not sure if it has been mentioned so far but the 1881 LDS Census transcriptions are free to view.



ev

[rosie17]

Not sure if it has been mentioned so far but the 1881 LDS Census transcriptions are free to view.



ev

Were they not free before EV ?
Rosie