Genealogy Chat

Okay, that's two of your posts in a row have quenched my keyboard's thirst. ;)

http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/boards.page/board/trying_to_find/wilson/thread/1252180?page=3

It is because you are Canadian, are called Canuck, don't favour Mormons, the local Mormon Bishop doesnt like cats, and your family are Moncks.

Maybe I'm a bit naive on technology (agreed) but no problem experienced with IE.

Enjoy the Flash ads, do you LindaB? ;) Or has IE come up with an adblocker??

That was why I couldn't access the oriignal beta, I think. You needed Flash for the images, and I wouldn't. Then I needed it for youtube, so I gave in.

I should find another Canuckistanian and see whether they can get into regular old familysearch.org.

And yeah, Alan, I know, I would have to have instructions from my high priests or something. ;)

I have familysearch in my favourites and I have no problem.

What really annoys me is that when the beta search first started a while back you were able to view the actual images of the parish records...then the images vanished for some reason?

~~~~~~ to Meg...I know nowt either however I am quite happy with IE. Perhaps it just goes with my pace in life these days lol.

Linda x

Meg

I use Firefox - it is really worth downloading - I find it much quicker than IE and does not come with all the Microsoft bump associated with IE and as Janey says Adblock is superb

Give it a try

Mozilla = Firefox

(are arithmetic signs okay? ;) )

Just go to

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/personal.html

and fetch it for free.

When you have it, go for two add-ons:

AdBlock (or whatever they're calling it these days -- adblockplus or such)

and

NoScript

With adblock, you never ever have to see another flashing glaring dancing hideous advertisement, like the ones some people see down the side of this page. (I haven't seen them for years).

You just select the generic collection of blocks that Firefox offers you, and that kills most of them (like ads coming from doubleclick).

Then whenever one gets through the filter, you just right click on it and kill it off too.

I also use it to block out all the bumph at the top of this page, for instance -- the banner with FriendsReunited and all that in it. I don't need that trash wasting space on my monitor.

NoScript I use just because I hate javascript so I only allow it when I have to, but you can ignore that bit.

Basically, you want Firefox + AdBlock.

And I don't know how anybody lives without them!

I know nowt (Lancashire term meaning "nothing") about search engines. So what is this Firefox? I just use Internet Explorer. It sort of appeared with the computer. I've heard of people using Mozilla too. I just ignored them. Should I switch? But given that I can find my way somehow to three of the four family search sites, should I bother switching?

Words of one syllable please.

Meg

Yup, latest Firefox. Also recently upgraded from my antique IE, and it too now has tabs, so at least there's that.

At the moment, I have 9 Firefox and 1 IE windows open, and each Firefox window has anywhere from half a dozen to two dozen tabs open in it.

About 1/4 of them are for the work I should be doing. ;)


Irene's letter -- could somebody just give me this "beta" URL?

I'd been avoiding knowing what it was, and now I guess I can't.

(At one point a while back I couldn't get it at all because it demanded an up to date Flash thingy, and I hate Flash so much I just refused, but finally caved and updated that.)


This

http://beta.familysearch.org/

gets me connection time out.

Or did I already say that ...

Do you have the latest version of firefox Janey? I know it should not make a difference but...

I hate IE too, much easier to have tabs across the top to flip through, I usually have at least 4 open and the adblock is v useful, it really speeds up (relatively) page loading when you only have a v slow broadband connection.

Why can't sites work on the principle 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'. Perhaps it's to keep the programmers and analysts busy.

I received this email response from FS a month or so ago
Dear Irene
Thank you for your inquiry of when Record Search will be closing.

We do not have a specific date but We expect that the Record Search site will be completely closed by the end of 2010–-announcements about closure will be posted on the Record Search site.

We would like to encourage you to offer feedback in the beta site through the Get Satisfaction page. The brown feedback button appears on the upper right side next to the scroll bar. From the home page, after clicking on feedback, look for the box under the words, "ask a question." You can choose any of the options (share an idea, report a problem, etc.) and fill in your comments.

If you click on feedback from a search results page, your search criteria will be automatically captured, and you will see a box where you can make comments about the results received. This feedback is viewed by the engineers who are creating the search engine used in beta. This is your opportunity to help shape the way it is developed.

We would like to offer a few suggestions for improving your searches. We recommend searching one collection from the list of historical record collections at a time. From the home page, click on "All Record Collections." You can scroll down the entire list or type a location or key word into the search box on the left. Some of our collections are “browse only” and have not been indexed. They can only be reached from the Historical Record Collections list.

Or you can use the advanced search feature, fill in the county and country, click "exact" next to the location box and search for results only in that county for a particular event. Once you have a list of results, you can choose to narrow the results by using the filters found on the left hand side. If you choose, under the category list, birth, marriage and death, a menu will appear with a list of collections and the number of results that come from that collection in parentheses. If you click on one of the collections it will give the results from just that collection. If you click on a different collection, the results will change to the list from that collection.

The engineers are working hard over the next couple of months to improve the search engine. They know the problems you are experiencing and are trying to improve the results you receive when searching for an ancestor's records.

We wish you continued success in you genealogical research.
Sincerely,
FamilySearch
[email protected]

Stop taunting me. ;)

It just doesn't work for me.

Probably because I'm Canadian ...

(I hate IE, because I can't do all the graphic and script blocking I do in Firefox, and because I keep an IGI tab open in a Firefox window alongside my FreeBMD and FreeREG and various other tabs. But at least now I know I can get there.)

http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/frameset_search.asp

working for me in Firefox (bookmarked page)

Well, bizarro world.

The old familysearch.org URL works for me in IE (which I never use), but not in Firefox ...

I have just tried, having read this, and got the old site with no problem, through my bookmarked page. The link address at the top is:

http://www.familysearch.org/eng/Search/frameset_search.asp

I have no problem with the old familysearch. This is what I get with the Beta site:

Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage

What you can try:
Diagnose Connection Problems

More information

I can get on the Pilot site no problem. I can then use the link from there to the Beta site. Never heard of new.familysearch.

So are there four sites? Why?

just experimented by clicking on the option to go to new site from old site

then put in someone I know I have on 1881 census - guess what it could not find him. Found him in other census then to see results it sends you to findmypast!

Also v difficult to read when you say you want England and it says these are close matches - in Illinois!!! Difficult to read anyway.

Well, colour me confused, I'd never heard of

http//new.familysearch.org

and I don't know how or where I was supposed to have!

Surely familysearch.org should redirect to new.familysearch.org, not just time out and die on me ...

... so I registered, got my confirmation email, signed in ... and was told I was no good, and as a member of the general public I should "Look for a future announcement when you will have access to new.familysearch.org". Maybe I should pretend to be a Mormon. I clicked on the "having trouble", and got some pdf about family trees. And an update notice from Adobe Acrobat ...

So I see it says "Click here to go to the FamilySearch Web site" ... and the url for the clickable link is

http://www.familysearch.org/

I wonder what will happen when I click there ... anybody want to place bets?



The connection was reset
The connection to the server was reset while the page was loading.
* The site could be temporarily unavailable or too busy. Try again in a few moments.



I think Mormons just hate me for my freethinking.

I have just had a wander through the new home page and under "What's New" I found "Post a Comment".Well worth a read.
Sounds like some of you are confused. The new site design moved beta.familysearch.org to www.familysearch. New FamilySearch is different than www.familysearch. You can still go to that at http//new.familysearch.org

That's my link too, SatNav, and all I get is "connection reset". :(

Like lancashireAnn, I use batch number searches all the time. What is to become of them?

pilot.familysearch has been doing a similar thing to me; I get the little clock face whizzing around and doing nothing, and have to leave the page and start over again.

As far as the beta, well, that url simply switches me back to the old familysearch.org url ... and tells me "connection reset" ...

Imagine my amusement.

I must be one of the lucky ones.
This is from my favorites and works for me.

http://www.familysearch.org/eng/search/frameset_search.asp?PAGE=igi/search_IGI.asp&clear_form=true
Or
http://www.familysearch.org/eng/search/frameset_search.asp