* Searching problem on Ancestry

[Gowermick]

I am experiencing the following annoying problem on Ancestry:-

I search for John Smith born 1845 in Leeds
I then want to search for George Brown, born 1900 in Wakefield

I change the name from John Smith to George Brown, I then change birth date from 1845 to 1900, but as soon as I change 'Leeds' to 'Wakefield' , Ancestry immediately repeats the previous search using John Smith's criteria - erasing all the changes I just made- aaargh

The only way I can search for george, is to clear the search fields for John Smith first, before I attempt to enter George's details.!!!

Anyone one else experiencing this problem?

[jelv]

No - I did exactly as you described without any issue.

Are these people in your Ancestry tree and hence coming up as Quick Fill suggestions?

[Gowermick]

No - I did exactly as you described without any issue.

Are these people in your Ancestry tree and hence coming up as Quick Fill suggestions?

No, just using them as an example.
Whenever I try to change the place, it seems to trigger a repeat of the previous search

[NickWalker]

Which web browser are you using?

I get exactly the same problem (I use Edge) and this has been happening for the last few weeks, but not all the time.

I do the first search (John Smith 1845 Leeds, Yorkshire) using 'Census & Electoral Rolls' and then click the Edit icon...

image.png (37.05 KiB) Viewed 1159 times

I fill in the 2nd search (George Brown 1900 Wakefield) and as soon as I select Wakefield off the list immediately carries out the search (it doesn't wait for me to click the search button) and then it shows this but it doesn't have the 'Your Search' section where I can edit the search terms. And it has searched for John Smith even though I changed the name to George Brown and the date to 1900:

image.png (48.95 KiB) Viewed 1159 times

[Gowermick]

Thanks Nick,
My browser of choice is firefox, I’’m glad it is not just me (I’ll give it a try later from my iPad, which uses safari)
Like you, it has been happening for the past few weeks, I even deleted all the cookies hoping that might cure the problem)

I don’t know what’s under the hood of their search page, but on one screen the birth date and place of birth is repeated further down the page for some reason, but change one and the other changes too! Talk about a waste of real estate!
Sadly there is no easy way to contact them, other than via their very convoluted help system. Who is going to spend 10 minutes navigating that just to post a simple question ( or cynic that I am, is that why they make it so dificult, to stop the questions?)
No simple e-mail address to send comments to.

[jbtapscott]

It's not answering your problem I'm afraid, but I have had very similar issues on the FMP Search site for several months! Like you, I change a name or a date or a place and some of the change(s) get ignored - like Ancestry, it seems to have a mind of its own!!

[jelv]

Try posting in the Ancestry Users Facebook Group. Crista Cowan (Corporate Genealogist at Ancestry) regularly posts and responds to queries on there.

[AdrianBruce]

Sorry - I'm using Firefox and my searches are perfectly well behaved - swapping to Wakefield doesn't trigger a search - whether I use the pencil icon or the back arrow to get to a query screen.

[NickWalker]

I'm sure this must be repeatable as I've seen the same issue running it on Windows 11 at home and Windows 10 at work. So just to be clear:
It doesn't do this when I use 'Search all Records' but does if I use the Census search or 'Birth, Marriage & Death including Parish' search.

I can also more simply repeat this error by just doing the first search, clicking the edit pencil and then doing a triple click in the Birth Location box (to highlight it)

image.png (20.67 KiB) Viewed 1105 times

and then typing Wake and selecting Wakefield, Yorkshire but crucially I never press Backspace or Delete in this situation - because the text is highlighted I use the standard behaviour of whatever I type replacing the highlighted text. I don't bother with the unnecessary extra key press.

image.png (13.12 KiB) Viewed 1105 times

If instead I press Backspace to clear the Location box before typing Wake and selecting it, I don't get the error. So I wonder if this is why this isn't being experienced by everyone?

I've never had a Facebook account (and have no desire to have one) so I can't report this.

[Gowermick]

Following on from what Nick said, I also find it a pain trying to edit the place field. If one tries to delete it first, it always seems to stick somehow. The only way to change it is to Tab into it, so it is fully highlighted, then start overtyping with the new place, as Nick seems to do.

I don’t know who designed this interface, but they need a few lessons on how to ensure ‘user friendlyness’

[AdrianBruce]

Now it can fail on me when, as Nick suggests, I use the Census search.

My gut feeling is that it's something to do with how Leeds is being cleared out and replaced by Wakefield - it's as if the clearing out includes a <send> - which it shouldn't, but what gets sent isn't even the latest state.

[BillH]

I'm assuming you are all having the problem on ancestry.co.uk. I am having no problem on ancestry.com using Chrome or Firefox when I limit searches to census records or birth, marriage, and death records. Everything behaves as expected.

[jelv]

I've just tried it searching census records and I'm seeing exactly the same wrong behaviour on ancestry.com and ancestry.co.uk

[trevorrix]

Methods of contacting Ancestry:
https://support.ancestry.com/s/phonesup ... uage=en_US

[Gowermick]

Methods of contacting Ancestry:
https://support.ancestry.com/s/phonesup ... uage=en_US

Thanks Trevor,
that saves a lot of time going through their 'help' system menu - much appreciated.
(Link duly bookmarked for future reference)

[fhtess65]

I always contact Ancestry via Facebook messaging or by using the Feedback page:
https://support.ancestry.co.uk/s/articl ... t-Ancestry

Generally the FB messaging gets me a direct answer within 24 hours. Though not always the answer I want, at least I hear from a real person.

Thanks Nick,
<SNIP>
Sadly there is no easy way to contact them, other than via their very convoluted help system. Who is going to spend 10 minutes navigating that just to post a simple question ( or cynic that I am, is that why they make it so dificult, to stop the questions?)
No simple e-mail address to send comments to.

[BillH]

I've just tried it searching census records and I'm seeing exactly the same wrong behaviour on ancestry.com and ancestry.co.uk

Strange. I can not reproduce the problem here. I'm on Win 11 23H2 with the latest versions of Chrome and Firefox and it works fine every time for me. Very odd.

[NickWalker]

Following the edit of the first search, are you triple clicking the location to highlight it and then without deleting the highlighted text just over-writing the text?

[Gowermick]

Following the edit of the first search, are you triple clicking the location to highlight it and then without deleting the
highlighted text just over-writing the text?

Nick, don’t know if this was aimed at me or not, but I have never triple clicked anything (not heard of that one!)

I edit the date, then tab across to place field, which is then highlighted, then overtype with the new place name, then hit search.

[NickWalker]

It was aimed at Bill. It seemed a simpler way to describe how to highlight the field. In a text box double clicking usually highlights a word, triple clicking highlights the whole text. I must admit I assumed everyone did this, it's something I've probably done regularly for decades!

[BillH]

Following the edit of the first search, are you triple clicking the location to highlight it and then without deleting the highlighted text just over-writing the text?

Yes, I did that.

[BillH]

Nick, don’t know if this was aimed at me or not, but I have never triple clicked anything (not heard of that one!)

I edit the date, then tab across to place field, which is then highlighted, then overtype with the new place name, then hit search.

I tried it this way also and didn't have any issues.

[jelv]

When I change the place I get a drop down of places matching what I've keyed so far. If I select something it instantly does the old search (before I hit search).

[Gowermick]

Thanks to Trevor, I sent an e-mail directly to Ancestry Support, who have been in contact and asked for further details.

I'll keep you posted on the outcome.

[BillH]

I edit the date, then tab across to place field, which is then highlighted, then overtype with the new place name, then hit search.

I tried it this way also and didn't have any issues.

Ok. Today when I followed this scenario I did have the same problem you described in yout original post. Seems to be a problem that doesn't happen every time for me. Hope Ancestry comes up with a fix.