Genealogy Chat

Please see below

Hi I've decided it's time to get some help! Yesterday my cousin introduced me to the wonders of the Web Search Resources button on my FTM 2006. This morning I found masses of info on one of my extended family, there were census entries, phone book entries, death details of parents & grandparents etc. All in the UK and all found in the space of about 30 minutes. Tonight I went back to take another look and there were 117 entries and not half of the information I found this morning was included. In an effort to try and work out what I was doing different I changed the 'Quality', 'Database' & 'Status' to ‘All’. I then got 736,548 matches! I've spent about an hour flicking through the pages, most of them in the US, but it's obviously not practical to go any further! Another thing I noticed is that this evening everytime I click onto a new page I get the world and house logo and it asks me to wait while it's searching. I'm sure that didn't happen this morning. Can any help please be in simple easy to understand words please as I'm not very technical and can be abit thick sometimes! Many thanks Lyndsey

Still seeking help! If nothing else can anybody tell me how to exclude all the US entries? Many thanks Lyndsey

Hi, I only recently started with FTM 2006, and also find it frustrating with the web searches to get all the U.S. info. I phoned a helpline, but was told that it wasn't possible to refine the web info given. I also get the world and house logo each time. Otherwise, I am delighted with the program

Hi Lyndsey, Yes, I would prefer a proper paper mannual too ! I tried to print off the tutorial to go at my own pace (i.e useless on Computer!) but it would not let me print it. Oh well I'm learning! Regards, Hilary

Hi Hilary Thanks for letting me know I'm not on my own! I'm just muddling my way through as best I can. I too think it's a wonderful package and I guess I'll get better at using it with practice! I would have preferred an instruction manual rather than the DVD though! Lyndsey

1. Run a websearch as normal 2 At the results screen look at the top right for 'database', below this is a box with the words 'all collections' and an arrow. 3 Click on the arrow 4 Select 'customize' from the list (it is at the bottom of the list). 5 select which database(s) you want to include in the search eg England and Wales bmd, England and Wales Census etc Don't forget though that the bmd search will only search the partial index and the census search won't pick up a married woman as she is in your file under her maiden name. To be honest i never use the websearch anyway, i just c&p the results from a manual search into the notes section, websearching just records Ancestry as the source of your records, not the actual results. As a list of 300 references to Ancestry is not very appealing then i never bother. Glen

Hilary If you use the online help centre then you can print off any answer that you wish, most of them have screenshots included too so it is easier to follow than a written explanation............back to the main point You can refine the search to include just uk results. FTM 2005 will retain the search options but a slight glitch with 2006 means that you have to reset them each time you restart the websearch. It is fully explained on the helpcentre, if you don't narrow the fields down then the bmd and census for the whole of the world contains 256 database sets that are searched. You could for example just search the uk bmd database or the uk census collection (or just for exampe the uk 1871 census if you wanted). I'll add a 'how to' in the next post