Ancestry searches are awful

[Ringrose]

I have just spent 30 mins or more looking for my grandfather and family on 1911.Simple you might think but could not find him even when using other members of family. I do have a copy of the census so I know he is there but I needed other info from the previous page. There seemed to be no logical sorting of names or places. My dads name was Roderick and no such name came up on first page not even his birth. Nothing seemed to be in any order and although I put in Middlesex a wide range of counties appeared on first page.
Have they changed anything....they must have done.
Ringrose

[Lostris]

make sure you havent been 'defaulted' to the 'New Search' ..... click on Old search top right and theres 111 Rodericks associated with Middlesex.

[KGarrad]

My beef is that I always use Ancestry.co.uk; so WHY do all the hints re place names come up with all those US places??

Then I search for somebody in (say) 1861 census, and I get a load of hits for London Electoral Rolls in 20th century?! 

As an IT Consultant, I feel the search facility needs a tweak!

[stanmapstone]

Using the Old Search and New Search I get 78 Rodericks in Middlesex.

Stan

[KGarrad]

FindMyPast turns up 86 Roderic(k)s!

[Mike in Cumbria]

I agree - the search facility often ignores important parameters that I put in and comes back with a list of people who meet very few of the criteria. In my experience, FindMyPast gives a much more logical database search. I have found Ancestry useful, especially for looking at other people's trees but much prefer FindMyPast for searching.

Mike

[Mike in Cumbria]

FindMyPast turns up 86 Roderic(k)s!

I make it 86 too, assuming that Roderick was his first name - 6 if it was a surname.

Mike

[Lostris]

My beef is that I always use Ancestry.co.uk; so WHY do all the hints re place names come up with all those US places??

Have you ticked-

Only show results from the UK and Ireland

In the Prime Search Box ?

[confused73]

I have the same problem and yes I do tick only UK.