New Map Search for 1939 on FindMyPast

[Gadget]

I've had an e-mail from FindMyPast giving me a sneak preview of this new facility. It seems pretty good. Has anyone else had the e-mail and tried it yet?


Gadget

[BumbleB]

Yes, I've had the e-mail and tried it.  However, like anything else it is a bit hit and miss and appears to be dependent on the transcription.

My first instance was that I tried it out on my great grandfather - John Milner, living at 20 Rosebery/Roseberry Terrace, Halifax.  So tried that, and nothing.  Looked at the transcription and it says Roseberry Terrace Creswick Street, so tried that - nothing, and the map indicates an entirely different area of Halifax.

My grandmother's address, also in Halifax is totally correct and the map was spot on, but another address in Halifax fails to find the map, although all the streets off it are indicated 

[Gadget]

I've tried it on this house and a few others that we've lived in and they all came up fine. I then went to check up on where my parents lived and it kept turning up as no results  although they are there and listed*. I'm wondering if it might be a rural/urban 'thing' and addresses have been allocated to different areas in the more rural parts.

Potentially a great resource but a bit of ironing out is needed.

* the houses are shown on the old maps 

[BumbleB]

Yes, I think you are right.  I can't find my grandparents, who lived in a village (Little Budworth) - address is The Post Office, Village and the District is Northwich.  On the other hand I can't find Barbara Street, Islington either 

Swings and roundabouts, although a very good idea, as you say.

[Gadget]

Got them 

I just put in the name of the village and the street addresses popped up.  The old adage - give as little info as possible.

[Kiltpin]

Got the email and tried it straight away. Three different addresses, one very rural, one village and one in a city. Using the map search, the rural and village address were found almost immediately. The map search got a bit distracted for the city address, but found it when I moved the cursor around a bit.

Regards

Chas

[Gadget]

You must have been luck because even when I zoomed to the exact house it didn't come up, although the circle was centred on it.  When I used just the village name it listed the streets so got it that way.

It's obviously to do with the address database/map linkage.

[Top-of-the-hill]

   I didn't have much luck with villages, but then I have found them difficult to search on the 1939 website, as they are bundled together under the Rural District. I also tried an address in Chelsea, a square of early Victorian houses, where I used to stay as a child, and that didn't come up! My aunt's little street in Staffordshire did though.

[andrewalston]

I tried a street where I used to live, and it placed its guess as a circle on the opposite side of town - not the town centre where I would expect for an unknown place. None of the streets inside its guess had names anything like what I had entered - none of them began with my first letter!

Shifting the circle manually gave me a list including my street, demolished about 1980.

That's when I noticed that their guess at where the street actually was is way out. They have labelled a completely different street, which also has its correct name.

There does not seem to be a method of getting FindMyPast to correct map locations. I tried early on to get the location of the street where my dad was brought up adjusted, as they had pinned that name to a different street 400 yards away.

To be honest, I don't think it will be a great deal of use to most genealogists. It may be nice for others researching, say, the social history of an area.