Genealogy Chat

Am I going mad or have Ancestry changed this facility. In the past when I have been looking somebody up without success I have just clicked on 'refine your search' to change spelling, or year etc. I went to do this today and, although the wording is there, I do not appear to be able to do this anymore. It's a pain having to go back page by page to the beginning. Has anybody else had this problem?

if you page right down past the results you will find the search boxes and you can amend them and search again, but yes, I can't seem to click on refine your search either, assumed it was just a temporary glitch

You mean where the search form used to appear at the bottom of any individual census record you looked at, for instance?

Yup, they eliminated that a couple of months ago at least. I complained bitterly by email, but didn't get a reply. Of course. I find it hugely annoying too. You click on multiple members of a household, and then you have to go back 6 or 8 pages to get to the search form again. A totally pointless and annoying change.

I've got used to it. Instead of clicking back-back-back, go to your browser's back-forward button in the upper and click on the downward arrow and it will give you a list of the pages before the one you're at. Then you can select the right one and go straight back to it. It will be the one that is identified by the name you searched for, rather than the ones identified by the census year.

Hope that helps -- but feel free to complain bitterly to Ancestry. ;)

I think itsmefromupnorth means this........

Exact Search Results - 1881 England Census
You searched for Smith Refine your search

......top left of page. Yesterday I could click on "Refine your search" for a new search. Today it's not working, but the search form is at the bottom of page, as Helen said, when you page down.

Thanks so much everyone - it's easy when you know how isn't it...

I suppose I just get to the bottom of the list and think that's the end, I had forgotten about the search form at the very bottom. Sorry... just having one of those days

Still annoying though that they now seem to have removed the "Refine your search" facility. I hope it is just a temporary glitch.

Ah, I'd never used that link -- always just scrolled down to the bottom of the list.

So I guess nobody's as peeved as I am about the search form being eliminated from the bottom of individual records ... ;)

Janey, I never knew that it used to be at the bottom of individual census records.....so I have always needlessly paged back after viewing results for 10th member of household. Doh!

I'll use your tip in future. Just tried it and it saves loads of time :)))

Totally agree about the search, Janey. It's been a big factor in why I didn't renew the other week with Ancestry. I would have done but I've been getting so frustrated with the new search (plus it's a pest when it comes to mistranslations and alternative spellings) that, combined with trying to save myself money, I just wasn't sure it was worth it.

I miss the search box at the bottom of the census - it was really helpful if you wanted to search, say, every person named Woodcock born in Aughton so you could find elder siblings/children who were away from home and out at work etc.

Cassidy, if you were addressing the very first question in the very first post -- it has been resolved already, some time back, by explaining straightforwardly.

If you're talking about the separate issue I raised, well, that's straightforward too. It is no longer possible to continue searching the census directly from an individual census record.

A couple of other tips that might help someone.

Never ever use the "new search". It's worse than completely useless.

If you're not seeing the census search form at the bottom of a list of census results, check your "NoScript" or equivalent settings. You may be blocking the script function that is needed for the census form to appear.

As I've figured it out, you have to allow scripts from yahooapis and mfcreative and Ancestry. You can block scripts from google-analytics, unanimis and -- definitely -- doubleclick.

(Doesn't work for the absence of a search form on individual census records -- Ancestry removed that one.)

Ancestry seems to have gone a bit loopy lately. Im getting all the USA results up for some reason - when I dont have the USA membership PLUS I cant use the refine button either.