[GM] OT-Ancesty search not working?

[Cheryl Freeman]

I know this is off-topic but I cannot find a way to ask a question on
Ancestry. I have been trying to do a "quick" search in the 1910 US Federal
Census today at Ancestry. I am using the "Old Search" form, clicking the box
for "exact match", letting the surname be handled with Soundex, and entering
information for a person whom I have viewed before (at least once). I know
where it is, have found him before, and have recorded the way his name is
spelled on the census.

I have filled in the first name exactly as I found it before, used Soundex
with the correctly spelled last name, and using the advanced search options, I
have entered the state and county where this person resided. For simplicity's
sake the person is Finley Vaughn of Greenville County, Soutth Carolina.

With Soundex on the last name I get 1 person (Frank C. Vaughn of Arapahoe
County, Colorado. I remove the first name and my search results include 324
people whose surname is possibly Soundexed same as "vaughn" but most of them
are not residing in the county and state I filled in.

I have tried unsuccessfully to find a way to contact Ancestry. I have been a
user for at last 15 years so I pretty much don't need to learn how to use
Ancestry's interface.unless something has change. Would really like to know
if this is an issue others are having. So I don't keep doing what I've done
expecting it to work :-)

Thanks,

Cheryl Freeman

"Cheryl Freeman" <che...@genattic.com>

[Lisa Lepore]

I had this exact problem yesterday. Also with the 1910 census, but my search
was for Providence RI. I wanted to look at a census sheet I had previously
found, but I hadn't saved it. I had all the information including the
incorrect spelling from the index and the enumeration district/page etc from
when I had found it previously.

I did an exact search for the last name, also in the old search form and came
up with a result of 3 or 4 names that were not the name I searched for. I
browsed for the sheet, and did find it, so the data is there, but the search
is messed up.

I didn't contact them yesterday, and the search seems to be fixed today.

Their help is not easy to locate - Go to the help menu on the top right of the
screen. On the left side of the page is menu called Browse Support Topics.
>From that list, select other. Then, select question 9, How Do I contact
Ancestry.

That's all I could find.

Lisa

Lisa Lepore <lle...@comcast.net>

[Gerry]

> "Cheryl Freeman" <che...@genattic.com>


I found that I could not get the exact features to work in the 1910 census, so
I called Ancestry, and they quickly told me there was a problem with the 1910
index features and they were working on it. I believe it is now fixed.

[Cheryl Freeman]

> Lisa Lepore <lle...@comcast.net>


Lisa,

Thanks for your reply. I have been out of town for a few days, and I am glad
to hear that search is working properly now. Before I left, I found an
incomplete citation (no page number) and I tried to fix it. Since I did not
the page number, I could not browse to it. Thanks for the pointer on
contacting Ancestry. I will save that. I don't need to contact them often
(and for that I am grateful!) but it's always been a chore to find the link
when I need it.

Cheryl

Cheryl Freeman <che...@genattic.com>

[Cheryl Freeman]

> I found that I could not get the exact features to work in the 1910 census,
> so I called Ancestry, and they quickly told me there was a problem with the
> 1910 index features and they were working on it. I believe it is now
> fixed.

Gerry,

Interesting. I was using 1910 images too, but I had the same experience
when I tried some of the other years.
All is well now.

Cheryl

Cheryl Freeman <che...@genattic.com>