Thursday 15 May 2014

New FindmyPast site criticism continues

The latest issue of Family Tree (June 2014) has an article by editor Helen Tovey which looks critically at the new version of FindmyPast and carries an interview with the company's representative Alex Cox, as well as many frustrated readers' comments. It's last paragraph has the conclusion that "Many of our questions remain unanswered and we are still waiting to hear what findmypast has to say". The magazine will be publishing a user guide on how to use the new site in its July issue next month (Oh, and you'll also find a two part article in both issues by yours truly on British and Irish court records!).

FindmyPast has been making some improvements - I'm finding that some datasets are working better than before, but some I still won't go near. There's also still no change to the new nonsensical Scottish census citations that I have previously blogged about a month ago, despite being told by them on Twitter that it has been added to the 'to do' list - something not reflected in anyway on the feedback forum where I have made a request for it to be looked at. I've therefore helpfully added the link to my request for it to be looked into at the bottom of this post - and all future posts - until that is resolved. (I'd hate to think that a site whose parent company's headquarters are based in Dundee would overlook it!). If you do Scottish based research and want decent source citations, please add your vote! For other ideas and suggestions to vote on, visit the general feedback forum at http://feedback.findmypast.co.uk/forums/222583-ideas-and-improvements.

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, whilst my new book British and Irish Newspapers is also now out. And FindmyPast - please reinstate the original Scottish census citations on your new site.

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