New FamilySearch Search Pages: Grumbles and Thanks 

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Grumbles and Thanks 

Online you will find both, as people discuss the new FamilySearch search interfaces, just in time for Family History Month. Change is always difficult! Fortunately they have created a new landing page to get users oriented. 

New Landing Page

In the image below, there is a circle around a big change, underlined one way to get back much of what you might miss from the old page, and pointed an arrow to a link to get a whole lot more help. 


Circled: Birth or Death year - This can be a time-saver when you know only one date. 

However, the underlined link is usually where you will start: MORE OPTIONS.

MORE OPTIONS screen

If you want Exact Search for any field, the arrow shows where to enable it. Usually this is only useful if you know precisely what you want to find. 

The images above are the top of the new page. Scroll down just a bit, and there is more. 

TIPS FOR EFFECTIVE SEARCHES on the left leads to a separate page called Best practices and search tips for historical records. A look at that later. 

Landing Page: Scroll Down!

First, the rest of the landing page; each side separately. On the left: Find a Collection.


On the right, Search by Place.


The two search boxes above replace some of the choices in the old Search drop-down. 

The new shorter and simpler version is to the left.






Search from a Profile

To be honest, I rarely use the Search > Records entry; I usually search directly from the profile:

Search from the profile: FamilySearch, Ancestry, FindMyPast, MyHeritage, Geneanet, Filae, Google

Results Pages

This is where I saw the largest changes. The search parameters have switched right/left positions with the results. 

This is the new top of the preliminary search results for Catherine Delee from above:


Notice the filters across the top. Most of these have options; click to open and choose. As an example, here is the Race filter, with both Black choices (Black-Neg. and Black-Mulatto) selected. I'm searching for Black people right now, so this is a game changer!



The new Search form is now on the right and has a new look. Notice the circled PREFERENCES, which gives lots of choices about display of your results. Arrow points to the scroll bar; be sure to scroll down to see much more; or click FEWER OPTIONS.

More Help

The crew who created and tested the face of the site has written about how to use the changes to your benefit: FamilySearch Employee Responding to Search Page Feedback. 

Here are some key takeaways:

Selecting one (or more) collections as a filter: Previously while on the search results page, there was a tab that said "Collections" from there you could check which collections you wanted to search in and apply the filter. This feature has been moved to the section labeled "Filter Results", there is a small button called "Collections". When selected a side panel will pop out with all the same features as the previous version. We have added new features to help you in your research here as well. Now you can search for a specific collection and select it quickly by using the search bar at the top of the side panel. This change was made to make the collections filter work right alongside all of our other filters. Now all of our filters are together in one place.

This was the most important one to me. I often filter by collection, and yet it makes sense to put all the filters in one place. It was years before I noticed the Collections tab! Now it is impossible to miss all the filters, right up top.

Another quote from the blog post:

In regards to performance or speed, we have also done extensive testing on the time it takes to load the page, and have concluded that load times should be reduced by ~30% in comparison to the old page.

I have found this to be true. From search to results is almost instant now.

I know it's a big change, but it's an important one that we currently believe is in the right direction that allows our expert users to still have all the tools they need to be effective (and adding some new ones) while making the page simpler and less intimidating as we invite new users to learn more about their family.

Search Tips 

Finally, the page Search Tips, linked at the top-left of the new landing page, at familysearch.org/help/helpcenter/article/when-i-am-searching-historical-records-what-are-the-best-practices-and-tips, even experts can find useful reminders here. It covers both best practices and field-specific advice, like this one for First Names: "Enter the first and middle names of the individual. Your search results will ignore the order of the names." News to me!

 We would love to hear about your experiences with the new FamilySearch search interface. Write a comment!

Valorie Zimmerman


Comments

  1. MaryLynnOctober 4, 2021 at 2:17 PM

    Thanks for this information!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Janet E.May 12, 2022 at 5:37 PM

    I will have to try this & hope for better results.

    ReplyDelete

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