re: History page on Ancestry

[Finley 1]

We have discussed this page previously and most of us take none or little notice of it.
But when I glance at it and it tells me that a family member that I KNOW through my own research .. was BMD etcereeed in ENGLAND  and I find that the History page places them in USA.. or somewhere.. I was convinced it was due to my laziness in not typing the full pob or pod... etc..

So am spending hours going through addresses and ensuring they do actually state in big CAPITAL letters this particular thing Born in .... wherever.

its taking ages, but I felt it was my error not to have done so in the first place..

Due to the 'algorithms'  as is spoken about on here regarding Ancestry' and their drop down box fillers...

NO NO NO  just discovered it is not ALLLLL my fault, so ...... yes a lot of it is .. but one or two are down to transcription errors on documents.

and the History page lovely little 'maps' are not just taken from where we STATE they were born or died... but where particular documents we have belonging to that person say they were ... and calm....

So I get it now.. It ain't not me sir... not this time .. well not all the time.. anyway...

The lady on this snip  was born and died in UK.. she had a lot of mischievious curves to her life along the way.. but the History Map showed her in USA due to this documents transcription and when I realised ... I rectified.. oh dear.. does that now mean I have to double check again and again or do I leave these people swimming backwards and forwards..

its all good for the old brain.. I think..

xin

[KGarrad]

Ancestry, being an American product, seems to assume that all places mentioned must be in the US!

I find that the way to combat this is to ALWAYS add the country name to any place mentioned
E.G. Bristol, England or Bristol, United Kingdom.

[Finley 1]

Yes I am plodding through it do just that..

its a bit boring.. tho  
xin

[andrewalston]

Ancestry, being an American product, seems to assume that all places mentioned must be in the US!

I find that the way to combat this is to ALWAYS add the country name to any place mentioned
E.G. Bristol, England or Bristol, United Kingdom.

It doesn't always work. Ancestry don't understand postal addresses.
"1600, Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, District of Columbia, United States of America" displays in their "Lifestory" tab as "Kimball, Nebraska, USA".
So, their Presidents have a secret bolthole in the foothills of the Rockies, which only Ancestry know about.

[Erato]

God knows what they do with typical English addresses like:  'The Willows,' No. 15 1/2 A, Buckley Gardens Court, near Toad in the Hole Close, Dibden Purlieu, Hants.

[KGarrad]

That's an address rather than a placename?
Entering a placename usually results in a drop-down box with suggestions.

[andrewalston]

That's an address rather than a placename?
Entering a placename usually results in a drop-down box with suggestions.

Often the drop down list shows that Ancestry know nothing about the place. "Ingleton" shows only the village in Co. Durham rather than the well-known town in the Yorkshire Dales. At other times it is just plain wrong - "Tower Hamlets" is firmly stated to be in Kent so will never match any records. Note that the places involved are not obscure; they are the names of census enumeration districts and so MUST be known to Ancestry. You are just not allowed to search for the key fields in the records.

When I reported the problem with street addresses, Ancestry suggested that the cure was to THROW AWAY the street address and restrict to just the town.

[KGarrad]

As an ex-programmer and analyst, I did suggest to Ancestry that it ought to be fairly simple to place different emphasis on place names depending on which version of Ancestry was being used?

E.G. if you log on to Ancestry.co.uk, British place names should come to the fore?

No reply!

[Finley 1]

glad you said 'should'  cos sometimes even tho logged on to UK  the immediate responses are over the seas..

Still what is good as I am altering the ADDRESSES  I am checking for all kinds of bits and pieces to make it more interesting.

Since I started this game there have been lots of new things added to various Sites FindMyPast and Ancestry.. so that is good.


xin