Tips for using ancestry's new search

[Mary from Italy]

Originally Posted by Merry

I haven't found that to be any different than before, Mary!

I can use the back button on my browser to take me any number of levels back except for the last one that would take me to the first Search screen. If I click back to that one all fields are emptied, but it was exactly the same for me with the Old search.

It was the same for me with the Old Search only if I used the main "search all records" page.

However, I rarely use that one; I generally go directly to the database I'm interested in (e.g. a particular census, etc.).

[Merry]

I think there are so many ways to use the Ancestry site as a whole, I bet you could take 50 researchers and assess their use of the site only to find they're using 50 different methods!

[Kit]

It could possibly be more than 50 Merry.

I have FTM and often search through the program as I find it easier to add the records to my tree. The green leaf thing can come up with some useful things.

[kiterunner]

Another tip which we have come across on here - if you are looking for a Mc / Mac surname, try searching with or without a space after the Mc / Mac as you will get completely different results.

[kiterunner]

My number 1 tip now would be, after you have done your search and it has come back with way too many records, click on "Edit Search", check that the "Match all terms exactly" box is ticked, click Search again, and you may find that the number of matches drops dramatically. This can happen even if you had that box ticked in the first place, because it seems to ignore it the first time.