Scotlands People Essential Maintenance on 23 Nov 2022

[Forfarian]

I have it from the horse's mouth that the death search using two surnames is to be reinstated 'as soon as possible'.

[dowdstree]

That's great news Forfarian. The sooner the better.

Thanks for updating us,

Dorrie

[Rosinish]

Well...my hopes have been dashed as the VRs are still a complete disaster.

I didn't include a Forename or Surname!

There's no working option for the choice of 'Parish', however, the 'Burgh/City' seems to work although next to useless too.

"You searched for - Please select a year: "1875", Status: "ALL", Place: "Oswald Street", County/city: "LANARK COUNTY", Parish: "ALL", Burgh/city: "ALL"
172,053 results"...

"Showing 1 to 25 of 172,053 (6,883 pages)"

I have been using the VRs since the beginning without any problems as it's a great help in filling in gaps between census' &/or finding out who people were living with possibly as a Boarder/Lodger from addresses given on certs.

Normal searches for a street name will bring up everyone in the street but I seem to have a list of everyone in the County of Lanark regardless which street they lived in

I hope this is reinstated as soon as possible too as it's a 'dog's dinner' 

Annie

[Rosinish]

It would be an idea if the SP 'Maintenance' people used a normal computer to do normal searches (as we do) as they'd soon see where the problems are...

However, I'm wondering if the people who do the 'Maintenance' actually know how to do 'research' as we do?

Do they do 'Genealogy' & understand what their changes mean or what facilities they're actually disrupting rather than making better?

What do others think?

Soon we're going to have no simple/easy 'searchable' genealogy sites which worked well for over 20 yrs prior to all the new/updated (easier to use) facilities.

Annie

[Rosinish]

Thrilled to discover his marriage, another 10 children in the births, plus several of their marriages and children, and a number of deaths.

I'm really happy your 1st visit to SP has been successful, however, can you tell us which dates you were looking at as obviously some of the records only have minor but very annoying changes...

One of those mentioned by Monica at Reply #13, the loss of the 'Wildcards' option which worked automatically prior to the 'Maintenance' which saved so much time.

Annie

[Forfarian]

I've e-mailed SP about the wildcards option - suggested that 'wildcards allowed' should be the default option, and 'exact spelling' should be an explicit choice.

Please, everyone, e-mail comments and suggestions to ScotlandsPeople <customerservices@scotlandspeople.gov.uk> or via the 'Contact us' link on their web page. I don't know whether or not they monitor RootsChat (probably not), but if they don't they aren't going to get our feedback unless we send it direct to them.

And when you are at it, congratulate and thank them for including mothers' maiden surnames in the statutory births index, which is a very welcome new feature.

[Deirdre784]

Deirdre784, that is great that you found the records you needed 

Thanks Monica

[Rosinish]

Forfarian, re your Reply #32

I agree & intend on emailing SP but I haven't been through everything as yet to detail all my complaints in one go or maybe they should be in separate emails?

I'm not sure which way would be best?

Has anyone else had a problem with the VRs as I only tried the one I posted about which was Lanark?

Annie

[MonicaL]

And when you are at it, congratulate and thank them for including mothers' maiden surnames in the statutory births index, which is a very welcome new feature.

That is fantastic news. A very welcome feature for sure (which has been available on the GRO for English and Welsh births for some time). I notice mother's maiden name is now included from the start of official registration in 1855 up to circa 1920 currently. Forfarian, do you know if this will be an ongoing exercise with more years being added over time?

Monica