FindmyPast - the How To video

FindmyPast (www.findmypast.co.uk) has created a short video to try to explain the features of the new version of the site, a radically changed beast which has alienated many long term users. It can be accessed here:

(Also on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOEi_nLLkRw)

The first minute is wasted restating the FindmyPast corporate line on just why this is so good and why the changes had to be done, after which there is then a walk through of some features - you may need to watch this a couple of times, it goes quite fast. Narrator Myko Clelland ends almost apologetically explaining that "new FindmyPast is very different but it is the same old friend" and states that the firm is "proud to be part of this passionate genealogy community".

Changes are being applied to the site to try to make it more fit for purpose, but I suspect there is still a hell of a long way to go to regain the trust of users. I've just checked, and my own personal bugbear remains what the company has done in terms of the source citations that have now been placed online for the Scottish censuses, which - not to put too fine a point on it - are basically utter crap, meaningless and completely unfit for purpose (see my recent post at http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/findmypast-scottish-censuses.html). Are there actually any genealogists advising on these things at FMP Towers?

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians. And for those wishing to take Scottish ancestral research a bit further, my next Pharos course, Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the Old Parish Records, commences May 14th 2014.