Suggestions

Have just logged on for the first time in ages as I was getting pretty cheesed off with the sites changes so I couldn't be bothered but what do I find ? Its only gone and changed AGAIN !!!

Bring back the old style census search with drop boxes and boxes for other family names etc.....

Bring back the old style search results - these new ones are a joke - nothing to refine your search and hardly any information given - you can't even see the persons birth area without having to go into them all......

I have been with GR for years and have several accounts - I am still a gold member but have just set my account to ' auto renew' OFF. When it runs out in Sept if there hasn't been significant improvement I will not be paying my fees to you - another site will get my pounds !!!

Totally agree!!

IF IT AIN'T BROKE, DON'T FIX IT.......

K.I.S.S. - Keep It Simple, Stupid

Genes really needs to think long and hard about both these comments.

And invariably those who make the changes are not those who are using the site on a regular basis. And as techies tend to forget that those using the site are not all computer literate and when designing programmes for general use to have to work from the lowest level of competency, not whizzkids.

Totally agree - if someone has moved, you have to have e.s.p. to find them, the search engine wont help you. GenesR have changed their `T & C` and we should all get our money back !

awest6

Glad you all agree, I didn't want to sound like an old winge but I felt I had to vent because if I find this new system impossible then I dread to think how it must look to newcomers.....

I tried to re-trace one of my families last night and even knowing where they were and when they were there and having the names of others in the household it still took me ages - if this was a new family I was trying to find it would of taken me days !!

I know we all hate change but when something changes for the worse it's very very frustrating and I wish GR would stop it - they need to set up a user group of experienced and novice users and trial their ideas with them before they make us all suffer !!

I wish I could challenge one of the GR team to do a full tree for a John Smith or a David Jones and see how they get on using only their NEW & IMPROVED search facility - me thinks they wouldn't fare to well :-D

One of the myriad of reasons I no longer have a tree on here.

Only use the Community boards. at far less than 75p per month it is worth it just for the fun on here. Especially when it gets a bit argumentative!!!!
;-)

Disagree it is a much improved product.

RolloTheRed

In your opinion why/how is it better ?

On a census search you can no longer see in most cases where a person was even born without going into the transcript - totally unpractical when your family moves about.....

You can not narrow down a family by using names of others in the house..........

I'll give them that they've re-introduced the census year list down the side so you can jump from one year to another without adding all the details in again - they obviously realised that that was a mistake when they scrapped it months back !!

Don't no about any tree improvements / problems as I've not even dared go into my trees for fear of what I might find !!!

In my opinion the site is better now

1) Because the display is now much easier to read than when it was green.

2) You can attach files to messages

3) Keepsafe allows you to put photos on the site and gives you control over who can see them.

4) The tree now allows you to have the same person in more than one branch of your tree without having to reenter their data.

5) You can now use hyperlinks.

That's just for starters.

But all that's no good if you can't actually find the family members to add onto your tree in the first place !!!

I've never used all that extra stuff myself, I store my basic trees here but as far as adding docs and photo's etc I have a FAMILY BOOK which everything goes into - searches made, copies of documents, copies of photo's, peoples profiles so that my whole family can borrow it and look at it - that stuff is only any good if you have and can use a computer - my 70+ year old aunts and uncles have no chance !!

I only use / used GR for record searches which is the part I'm complaining about - they have made it very hard work and like I said before, for beginners it must be a total nightmare !! Had I been faced with only this type of searching and search results when I started I would have very soon of given up !!

why do I have to reregister ever other page very annoying.

Myra - someone else has said on another board that they are having that problem today.

One suggestion is to log out and close the window (brower) and then remove the Genesreunited cookies

http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/boards/board/general_chat/thread/1328029

If that doesn't work, then contact GR for advice

[email protected]

Looking in the UK census for 1911 I found someone who might have been my mother. No details of father (I don't know who he was as my grandmother married 3 times), mother or even date of birth. Waste of time and the one month subscription seems like a waste of money also.
:View matching trees... nothing happens when I press this button. I will have to transfer everything to another site I guess.

Hi Davu,

what details do you have already ? I or somebody else on here might be able to help you ?

Mothers name, birth year, birth area and any info on anyone else you might know....

To find her father you might need to order her birth certificate to be sure ?

Davu ...................

Welcome to the Boards, but ...........


PLEASE


do not ask for a search to be done on this thread, or on this Board.

This Board, and therefore the threads on it, are purely for suggestions TO GR on ideas to improve the site and its workings.



You will get much more help if you post your request on Find Ancestors.

That's where most of the helpers ................. members of GR who help other members ............... can be found. Most of them do not look on this Suggestions Board.


As for presence or absence of ancestors on the various censuses ............... did you try for alternate spellings of names?

Do not blame GR for you not being able to find someone on a census ................ GR has not done the transcriptions.

You should check other sites, or ask someone to do it for you,.

It is always possible that ancestors could have been missed by the census takers ............... or that they are present, just under a name that has been mis-spelled.




sylvia

Going back to the OP, I have been a member now for ten years and in that time have seen regular changes to the site - at least one, often two major upgrades each year.

Each time there are those who don't like the changes and want the site putting back to what it was before. Of course 'before' is as it was after the previous upgrade six months or so ago which itself attracted criticism at the time but is now seen as ok!

As Rollo and Ken have said, I too believe the site is very much improved, even compared to what it was just a couple of years ago, never mind going back ten years.

PLEASE ------- Before anyone else comments on my post try and do some census searching as THAT is what I'm complaining about !!!

I AGREE ------ the extra features GR now have are good and up to date tech wise if you decide to use them BUT the census searches are APPALLING !!!

Just the fact that you have hardly any information given to you on the results page so that you have to go into multiple entries before you find the right one (if your lucky) is enough to drive you bonkers without inadequate refining of results !!!

I spent ages searching for some Nottingham ancestors who I KNEW were there before only to find that they wouldn't appear under Nottingham as the keyword as before but that it wanted a more specific BASFORD - agh !!!!

I see that NOBODY has said that they think the census searches are better while trumpeting the virtues of GR ??

Arstee .....................


Perhaps that is because we do NOT use the GR censuses.


Most of us did our researching on censuses, and many other records, way before GR carried any records at all.

We HAD to take out memberships in other sites ................... including the specific 1901 and 1911 sites. As a point of interest, I still prefer the specific 1911 site over and above the transcriptions available on findmypast or ancestry!

When you ask for help on Find Ancestors or Genealogy Chat, those other sites are where the helpers will look.


It is true that GR has not done any transcribing of censuses .......... they have the rights to use the records transcribed by their sister site, findmypast.