Official work round for finding entries on new Probate site

[CaroleW]

Previous topics here dealt with problems etc.on the new site

https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=860108.0

https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=858522.0

I have finally had a reply to my letter of complaint with a suggested work round. 

Good Morning
 
Please accept my sincerest apololgies for the delay in responding to you.  Upon receipt of your email, I asked our Operations Support Manager to go back to the service provider to re look at this and unfortunately, this has taken longer than anticipated.
 
They have confirmed that there is still a bug in the system which they are working to address but in the mean time, I've been advised that there is a work around and I've attached a screenshot of this.
 
Once again, I'm very sorry for the inconvenience and delay.

The screen shot was so tiny it was virtually impossible to see what it was but it works by putting inverted commas on one side only as follows:

Surname              "Ross

Christian name      John"

I have tried it and it does restrict "hits" to the surname Ross

I know there were probate entries for both my parents on the old site - but nil on the new one.  Using the above workaround turned both up no problem - both pre 1996 deaths 

[Stanwix England]

Thank you for continuing to pursue this for us, and for sharing the feedback you got.

[jonw65]

Thank you for continuing to pursue this for us, and for sharing the feedback you got.

Yes, thank you so much, Carole.
And well done!

[Andy J2022]

Thanks, Carole, That's really useful to know. If ever there was a case of 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' ...

BTW the 'service provider' is Iron Mountain

[CaroleW]

Like many others I have been so frustrated at the mess they have made of the new site & the problems finding entries.   Hopefully this will go some way to helping.

It is now 5 months since the "new" site was launched & I must say it doesn't exactly fill me with confidence to see the admission that there is still a bug in the system

[Deirdre784]

That's great thanks Carole; i wanted to order a few yesterday but nothing returned, but was presented with hundreds of pages, all over the alphabet so gave up, yet one at least was available on ancestry. i took the risk of using the dates etc from ancestry and filled in the form, and it's been accepted, though it remains to be seen if i'll get a copy. i will definitely try the 'work around'

Added: looking at the one i ordered yesterday, using the work around doesn't produce the entry itself, which is still rather annoying, but does only bring up one page of the requested surname (and it is there), so a great help.

[Brie]

Thank-you Carole,

I went to order some a few weeks ago and gave up! I knew they existed as they were on my wish list.

Will try again.

Brie

[cuffie81]

Thanks for following up on this, Carole.

The workaround does help but isn't entirely foolproof. As an example, searching for surname:"Ross,  forename:John" and year:1930 returns 5 pages but only page 5 seems to be a match. Better than without the quotes though, which returns 209 pages.

As an aside, using surname:"Ross John" has the same results as using surname:"Ross and forename:John". It's a bit less faff filling in the search. It also has the benefit that you can use the "forename" search field for some other info you might know (address, possible executors name etc) that might be on the probate entry.

[Tickettyboo]

Many thanks for this work around Carole and all the effort you have put into getting them to acknowledge the site has major problems - its not just a bug, the site is not fit for purpose.

I recently looked for a will for a man who died in 1963, probate granted 1964.
As requested I put in his name and the exact dates of death and probate.

Got 52 pages to look through, ALL of them were for 1963 so no use at all.

Tried again this time put in the death year as 1964, exact date for probate - and got a whopping 800+ pages returned.

Have just tried the workaround, using exact 1963 death date and exact 1964 probate date just  1 page, but its from the 1963 calendar :-(

Change the year of death to the following year, 2 results, one of which is the right page. So it looks like their system can't cope with probate not being granted in the same year as death though 2 pages beats 800 -odd:-0)

I think this site may well have been created during bob-a job week!

Boo