It's looks as if this facility may have been removed, which is a shame as even FMP agreed that it was a helpful way of searching and I'm sure in the long run gave them additional revenue. :o
Both features have now gone. The wild-card search on surnames was particularly useful but unfortunately FMP have decided to disable it for some reason.
Thanks Richard. I can understand why. It enabled people like me to find my unmarried grandparents in the same household without buying a copy. I shall wait until the 1911 is part of the FMP sub & then jump ship from Ancestry for a year.
Its a shame because it was a way to ensure it was the correct family. I'm not going to be gambling & wasting money on probable & possibles, I've acquired images of my grandparents, and will be stopping there for now unless I'm given census vouchers for my birthday.
Aagh, you're right, they've turned off the full stop as well as the free address search.
Am I missing something here.
If you know the address or even just the road/street you can key it in the 'residential place' followed by the district with a wildcard search in surname.
Yes I know that confoluted way but presumably if you've found one person and I think that is what people are saying then you can trawl the street/road or even the area if you know the district.
And if you haven't found the person but you know the general area surely a bit of searching with district and some wildcards would be okay. Might take a bit more effort and at least 10 credits though.
I expect if it hadn't been publicised so much in so many ways and on so many threads and on the 1911 blog it might still be available!
What's that old war time expression ' keep mum' :p or at least keep her in PMs
If you know the address or even just the road/street you can key it in the 'residential place' followed by the district with a wildcard search in surname.
Yes but the problem is you cannot now use a full stop (or any other character) to perform a total wild-card search on surname - you have to enter at least one character. You can only leave it blank altogether if you have entered a first name which means effectively that you can't search for every name at a given address.
Actually, I have worked out a way of doing it which is a bit clumsy but seems to work - use the wildcard search on surname and then search for *A*, then *E*, *I*, *O*, *U*. Takes 5 searches instead of one, but will net you every surname that contains a vowel at least (which is most of them, when you think about it!).
Richard - I was thinking along similar lines. This flexible wildcard approach is vastly superior to Ancestry's and should cope with all but the most extreme mistrancriptions.
Yes but the problem is you cannot now use a full stop (or any other character) to perform a total wild-card search on surname - you have to enter at least one character. You can only leave it blank altogether if you have entered a first name which means effectively that you can't search for every name at a given address.
Actually, I have worked out a way of doing it which is a bit clumsy but seems to work - use the wildcard search on surname and then search for *A*, then *E*, *I*, *O*, *U*. Takes 5 searches instead of one, but will net you every surname that contains a vowel at least (which is most of them, when you think about it!).
Richard - I was thinking along similar lines. This flexible wildcard approach is vastly superior to Ancestry's and should cope with all but the most extreme mistrancriptions.
Yep that is what I meant or what I was trying to say. Might take a bit of thinking about but at least it doesn't give so many it can't display them. Which is what was happening to me.
I expect if it hadn't been publicised so much in so many ways and on so many threads and on the 1911 blog it might still be available!
What's that old war time expression ' keep mum' :p or at least keep her in PMs
I think the failure to keep the beta testing a secret shows that wont happen. Those emails were supposed to be secret and the condition of use was that you didn't tell anyone. Some people posted the link to the website.
I'm guessing the removal of these ways of searching is a money making exercise. You have to buy more to find who you want. Its the main reason why I prefer ancestry to FMP. Searching is easier and the displayed list of results are easier to work out. Ancestry gives you a place of birth too.
Comment