* Ancestry Family Tree Search Results
Ancestry Family Tree Search Results
I am getting more and more frustrated by the results from Ancestry's search engine
I just searched for a John Weaver, born 1896 Tonbrige, Kent, and the 3rd entry on the list was for a Alice Sophia Avery, born 1895 Bidborough Kent!
As far as I can make out, it matched Avery with Weaver! How useful is that
I just searched for a John Weaver, born 1896 Tonbrige, Kent, and the 3rd entry on the list was for a Alice Sophia Avery, born 1895 Bidborough Kent!
As far as I can make out, it matched Avery with Weaver! How useful is that
Mike Loney
Website http://www.loney.tribalpages.com
http://www.mickloney.tribalpages.com
Website http://www.loney.tribalpages.com
http://www.mickloney.tribalpages.com
- ColeValleyGirl
- Megastar
- Posts: 5502
- Joined: 28 Dec 2005 22:02
- Family Historian: V7
- Location: Cirencester, Gloucestershire
- Contact:
Re: Ancestry Family Tree Search Results
What did you have the options for name matching set to?
Helen Wright
ColeValleyGirl's family history
ColeValleyGirl's family history
Re: Ancestry Family Tree Search Results
Quite broad, but their definition of broad ain't the same as mine
Mike Loney
Website http://www.loney.tribalpages.com
http://www.mickloney.tribalpages.com
Website http://www.loney.tribalpages.com
http://www.mickloney.tribalpages.com
- NickWalker
- Megastar
- Posts: 2608
- Joined: 02 Jan 2004 17:39
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- Location: Lancashire, UK
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Re: Ancestry Family Tree Search Results
And yet whenever people on "Who do you think you are?" (celebrity family history TV programme) search for their ancestors they always find them instantly on the search screen. I don't understand why you're having these problems?
Re: Ancestry Family Tree Search Results
Nick,
I agree.
Especially as Ancestry’s results page often bears no relation to reality, especially when it comes to place names in Family Trees.
Places in family trees are often Americanised by them before being displayed in the search results page. Why they feel the need to change places in this way is beyond me.
If someone states that an invidual in their tree was born in London, England, why do the results page show they were born in London, Montreal, Canada?
I’ve long since learnt to ignore places names for individuals when all other details seem to match. 9 times out of 10, the tree owner has it correct, but Ancestry has managed to change it
I agree.
Especially as Ancestry’s results page often bears no relation to reality, especially when it comes to place names in Family Trees.
Places in family trees are often Americanised by them before being displayed in the search results page. Why they feel the need to change places in this way is beyond me.
If someone states that an invidual in their tree was born in London, England, why do the results page show they were born in London, Montreal, Canada?
I’ve long since learnt to ignore places names for individuals when all other details seem to match. 9 times out of 10, the tree owner has it correct, but Ancestry has managed to change it
Mike Loney
Website http://www.loney.tribalpages.com
http://www.mickloney.tribalpages.com
Website http://www.loney.tribalpages.com
http://www.mickloney.tribalpages.com
- Mark1834
- Megastar
- Posts: 2511
- Joined: 27 Oct 2017 19:33
- Family Historian: V7
- Location: South Cheshire, UK
Re: Ancestry Family Tree Search Results
Remember that the research and presentation standard with Member Trees is highly variable. I suspect a major cause is the user just entering a town or city name, and Ancestry fills in the rest using North American defaults.
Mark Draper
Re: Ancestry Family Tree Search Results
Mark,
That is not my experience, and not what I was referring to. I’ve seen instances where place has been fully described (town, county, country) yet they still changed it. Personally, I don’t see why they have to change it anyway, even if it is wrong. Ancestry should be showing what is in the tree, not what it thinks should be in the tree.
Isn’t that one of the cardinal rules in transcribing? Transcribe what is written, and do not interpret it into what you think should have been written!
i.e If it says cole minor, don’t change it to coal miner!
That is not my experience, and not what I was referring to. I’ve seen instances where place has been fully described (town, county, country) yet they still changed it. Personally, I don’t see why they have to change it anyway, even if it is wrong. Ancestry should be showing what is in the tree, not what it thinks should be in the tree.
Isn’t that one of the cardinal rules in transcribing? Transcribe what is written, and do not interpret it into what you think should have been written!
i.e If it says cole minor, don’t change it to coal miner!
Mike Loney
Website http://www.loney.tribalpages.com
http://www.mickloney.tribalpages.com
Website http://www.loney.tribalpages.com
http://www.mickloney.tribalpages.com
Re: Ancestry Family Tree Search Results
It's the reason I use FMP for searches far more often than Ancestry. That, and the fact you can re-order columns of results in FMP, compared to Ancestry's apparently random, fixed presentation.
Anne
Anne
- AdrianBruce
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Re: Ancestry Family Tree Search Results
There's some sort of standardisation goes on for place names in trees, so that the indexing works. It's needed to cope with the fact that "Cheshire,@England" with 1 space is not the same (textually) as "Cheshire,@@@England" with 3 spaces. Equally, it's sort of possible to enhance place-names by adding a church name (say) to the front but then the question is whether "St. Mary, Nantwich..." should be indexed as "Nantwich...". If not, it won't be found when searching for "Nantwich..."
IIRC, there's a drop-down that appears where you select the version you want, to save typing. I wonder if these problems arise where someone has initially typed "London" (say) and the default matches it to "London, Ontario..." for the index value. Then someone corrects it but never clicks that drop down to set the index, only alters the visible text???
Best guess for what happens with trees.
Adrian