Dear Online Genealogy Records Site.
My name is Chris. I chase after dead folk, both for fun and for a living. I'm a genealogist, and one of your customers. I have been for quite a while. I have been very happy with my pursuits - until now.
I've used your [insert name - see below] site for quite a while. I quite liked it. It gave me what I needed to find, if it existed. Sure it had its quirks - occasional bad transcriptions, or bad indexing, and occasionally just a wee bit of bad luck. But it did the job. I was very happy.
Then you decided to change it. Progress is a great thing, absolutely, when it makes for a better research experience. But when you change things, launch them without them being properly road tested and made fit for purpose, have you any idea how frustrating that can be?
When a search I previously could do can no longer be replicated?
When a search that should be able to be controlled takes on a life of its own and tries to introduce me to everyone on the planet who ever once lived?
Don't get me wrong, I'm a friendly kind of guy. Offer me a dram of Laphroaig and I get friendlier! But I am rapidly becoming a more desperate kind of guy.
Look, this is my desperate face...
And this is my happy face, from when I used to use your site...
I would love to be happy again. Please make the bad changes go away. Please bring back the good old days! You know, when things worked?
Yours sincerely
Chris Paton
COMPUTER: "To complete your message, please select from the following online site selections now"...
- FamilySearch
- Ancestry
- FindmyPast
- The National Archives catalogue
- The Gazette
- Other
COMMENT: Sorry folks, but after the last hour, if I come across one more "improved" website, I may well be in sore need of quitting genealogy altogether and turning to gardening for a hobby.
It's been one of those days... *sigh*
Chris
Time to find your inner Irish...! All the best online Irish genealogy resources can be found through my book
Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet - in print and ebook formats.
"Very useful, makes me wish I was Irish!" - Saint Patrick, patron saint.
