Genealogy Chat

See below in a mo..........

The Ancestry Death Reg records used to be split into two sections, something like 1984-1993 and 1994-2002. When the records were split, you could do all sorts of searches, such as entering the date of birth for a dec'd person to reduce the number of results, or enter a restriction on the year of death....etc etc. Then Ancestry did some ''improvements'' which included putting these death indexes into one run. ''Hooray'' I thought, as it was irritating having to check both sections on many occasions! (Lazy cow, aren't I??) Well I should have kept quiet, as now it seems that if you enter ANYTHING in any of the Advance Search boxes, the results will come up as Nil. Even if you enter the details of a known death reg - RESULT NIL ...Ggggrrrrr!! If you do the Ranked Search results you do at least get something come up, but the results take no account of any info entered on the search screen except the deceased's name. No use whatsoever. I can write to Ancestry asking about this, but thought I would ask on here first. Does anyone know if i'm doing anything wrong, or if there is a way round this ''improvement''?? If I ask here at least I am likely to get some replies, but don't seem to get lucky with replies from Ancestry...... Happy Hunting Frustrated Merry x

Ive had similar probs - I emailed them and got back some gobbledegook about reregistering or something. I did it but it made no difference. I think its just a glitch on their part.

It's been a while for a glitch - My sub will run out soon - maybe I should ask them for a partial refund?? LOL Merry

Forgive me if I've got it wrong, but I thought death indexes on Ancestry were the same as (copied from) FreeBMD. They have hardly any records at all for these dates. Anne

Anne - That's up to 1983. Ancestry have the full death reg records from 1984-2002, but at present they are virtually unsearchable unless you are looking for an uncommon name. Merry

Sorry about that - didn't realise they had the later ones! Anne

No need to apologise!! That was partly why I put this thread up - many people have not spotted the later death records on Ancestry (they have Marriage and Birth records for roughly the same dates too!) I have just emailed Ancestry to ask them what they are playing at (not in those words!!) Watch this space lol Merry

I noticed the same problem, about 3 weeks ago. I sent a message to Ancestry and received back one of their standard emails saying that they would pass the details on to their technical department. Evidently they haven't got round to fixing the problem as yet! Another thing with the death index - they claim that it covers 1984-2002, but in reality there are very few deaths for 2002, just a few hundred per month. The earlier years do seem to be complete though (or at least, there are a reasonable number of records in each year). Again, a message to Ancestry got their usual standard ''reply'', which didn't answer my question as to when/if they were going to complete the database for 2002. 1837online has the data up to and including 2003, so if you can't find it on Ancestry, that's another option (albeit additional expense I know). Richard

At least with 1837 it tells you the number of matches before you cough up,and that give you a chance to narrow down the years for the search. Ancestry's search facility is very dubious-Ive only just joined have already noticed their rather clumsy structure,whereby sometimes you cant get back to where yopu started and have to enter the details again. The most annoying aspect to me is them ignoring simple things like specific countries and counties and just throwing everything at you anyway-I signed up for the uk version,always pu england in the search facility,but still get yank info......GGGGGGrrrr

Your right Alter - 1837 can be better for after 1984 etc. I keep wanting to search for women though, where their married surname is not known but their dob is known. On 1837 you have to enter a surname. I agree with what you say about Ancestry and the ''England'' thing. Do you do the Ranked Searches at all? I can't make head-nor-tail of those - seems as if they chuck every record at you and their ranking efforts make me weep! Merry

Received email reply from Ancestry today regarding the correction of the search facility on the death indexes. Same old gobbledygook thet dish out for every question..... which translates to: ''We will correct it, but it might be tomorrow, or might be in 100 years....'' So that's alright then!! Merry