Thursday, July 14, 2011

Record Search Pilot Retirement

I think most of you know already. If not, please be aware that FamilySearch Record Search is being retired. They haven’t given a date yet, but they’ve been giving warnings ever since the revised FamilySearch.org came out last December.

The latest warning showed up recently on the Record Search home page (http://pilot.familysearch.org).

Warning the Record Search will soon go away

If you’re not ready to see Record Search go away, I suggest you tell FamilySearch why. Use the little box titled “Tell us why you prefer Pilot…” Before you do, make certain you’ve tried the search filters added to FamilySearch.org at the end of April. They may do everything you like about Record Search. Or you may have the same experience as FamilySearch senior vice president, Craig Miller, who didn’t feel the filters were up to the bar set by Record Search. (See my notes on his presentation at the NGS Conference earlier this year.)

7 comments:

  1. Neither the old "Record Search" nor the new "FamilySearch" have ever allowed us to search records--just transcriptions of records--and those transcriptions may not necessarily be correct. If your ancestor is hiding under a name beginning with a different letter it could take a long time to find him, and even longer to prove the transcription provided was wrong.

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  2. Plenty of users have pleaded for keeping the search routine that is installed on http://pilot.familysearch.org, in the message board here: http://getsatisfaction.com/familysearch/topics (go to the 2nd page for many more). Even though last fall the policymakers for the message boards eliminated the "report problem" category.

    The new site has many bugs in the way images are installed and retrieved. I was told recently that fixing bad links to some images would take at least six months due to a backlog in Engineering. The site is also slow as molasses to load compared to comparable pages anywhere else in the internet.

    Looks like the new site will not be in the running for installing the 1940 US Census when released in early 2012.

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  3. Anybody see a send button on that comment form?

    I've written a comment and can't send it! Am I going daft or are they?

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  4. I have been finding great original documents through the new familysearch.org. I think the new filters are easy to understand and navigate. I don't really see a drastic difference...I wonder if I am missing something...

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  5. Bruce,

    Daft you may be, but I asked too. The product manager tells me that "Continue to Pilot" is the Send button.

    -- The Insider

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  6. Geolover,

    What does "not be in the running" mean? Not in the race? Not a contender?

    -- The Insider

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  7. I saw not only transcriptions of records, but also scanned records on record search. I found excellent death certificates. I thought I would miss record search, but I have been able to find everything on the larger site. I am pleasantly surprised.

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