Additional Search Links

As of yesterday, we now have four SEARCH RECORDS links on the Person page of Family Tree instead of just one.

Clicking a link to one of the commercial partner sites takes you to a warning that you are leaving FamilySearch. When you agree, it takes you to the partner site. But it does not log you in, if you are not already logged in. If you are already logged-in, it conducts a search on the partner site using the data from the Family Tree Person page ... very handy!

If you are not already logged-in, you will still need to sign in using your username and password for the commercial site (or it will allow you to sign up for a trial account).

Patrons may have questions about how this works. When they are using the FHC Portal, what happens when they click one of these links? I should find out during my shift tonight! 

Recent glitches affecting many patrons

AdBlock Plus
A week ago AdBlock Plus did an update that affects many websites, including Familysearch.org  Until AdBlock releases their next update, patrons using AdBlock Plus will find that many things on our websites do not work: For example: sharing, uploading to Memories, and the FamilySearch Link under SEARCH RECORDS (on the Person page) have disappeared or have stopped working. These problems will occur in all browsers that have this popular advertisement blocker installed. The solution is to turn off AdBlock Plus or re-configure it to make FamilySearch.org an exception. 

 

Chrome Pop-up Problems

About a month ago, Google released an update to Chrome that automatically turned ON the popup blocker. To print a FOR in Chrome, turn OFF the popup blocker. In fact, you can forestall this problem by turning OFF the popup blocker in Chrome in all FHC computers.

 

Browser-based applications have many benefits, but they also have some vulnerabilities, depending which browser and add-ons are being used.

Errors in Standard Dates and Places in Family Tree

In Family Tree, the dates and places we see are not necessarily the ones the computer sees.

(You may want to read that sentence 2 or 3 times so it really sinks in.)

I have seen places spelled-out perfectly that have been interpreted (standardized) by the computer as being some other place in some other country. A bunch of my ancestors born in "Scotland" were standardized as born in "Scotland, St. Helena"! Ancestors shown as born in "Paddington, London, England" have been standardized as born in County Tyrone, Ireland". new.familysearch.org has left us a legacy of interesting "standard" forms! 

What has changed recently is that FT is informing us if a date or place has NOT been standardized. This is a major improvement but it is unable to detect places that have been WRONGLY standardized.

Hint: To see how any date or place has been standardized, see the pop-up when the mouse pointer is hovered over it.

Look at this record: 
Name: Robert Teal
2VSQ-XTP​
Birth: abt 1790
of Holme, Yorkshire, England

Are the date and place of birth standard? You might think not from their format, what does the pop-up say? (Please don't change it as I may want to use it in a lesson.)

To Fix Errors: If a date or place is standardized incorrectly, edit it and choose a standard date or place that pops up.