The Feedback Forum for FindMyPast contains lots of requests for things like searching censuses by birthplace. In fact, this is now possible - though FMP have not updated those feedback items I was looking at to say so. The problem is - you have to be looking in the right place. So... In case you've not twigged where it is... If you use menu item Search Records / Census land & surveys you get a BASIC search form that doesn't include birthplace. Even if you filter it by census, the form doesn't change. (It does claim to include a search by address) If you use menu item Search Records / Search All Records, then go to the Census link, then to the link to the specific census, you get a DETAILED search form that includes birth details, census ref., etc. Menu item Search Records / List all UK records seems to be the same as the above menu item Search Records / Search All Records. The 1911 and 1841 census reference systems are different from the 1851 thru 1901, of course(?), so they either don't work or don't work well on the FMP forms which use the same referencing system from 1841 thru 1911. So - the Search All Records or List all UK records menu sub-options give access to detailed forms for censuses at least. I wonder how many people realise this? In fairness to FMP, the existence of this detailed census form was blogged about but as I have said, if you need a manual to use one form, it's not working. I have also suggested that FMP update the menu options to make it clear where the detailed options are and / or provide links from the basic forms to the detailed forms. Even Ancestry makes it obvious how to get the detailed form! Adrian B

Those "detailed search forms" have some fields missing that are actually on the generic search forms Adrian, so I wouldn't call them "detailed". In fact, I can't see any rhyme or reason which form has which fields. In the 1911 form, for instance: 1) No ability to include 'sex' in the detailed 1911 census search dialog. I also thought 'marriage condition' was missing but it is oddly misplaced, after 'country' 2) The 'other household member' that is present in the generic search is missing from the 1911 dialog. It is essential to have this available for serious searches 3) There are no helpers or dropdown lists for fields such as 'Relationship', and so no way of knowing whether what you type is acceptable. Similarly for the 'Address' field. Is that a street address, or what? The generic search has more fields, including 'house number', 'house name', and 'street name'. Any detailed dialog must have all of these. 4) I have a lot of census-page citations which include the TNA codes. When I try to enter these in the 1911 census search dialog, there's no field for 'Enumeration District number' (i.e. the ED number). There's an 'Ecclesiastic District' but that's not the same thing, and I suspect someone has got them mixed up. 5) The fields for 'other household members' (which are currently only on the generic search dialog) do not have checkboxes for 'Name variants'. This is a long-standing omission that I was told would be fixed on the new site. Tony Proctor ----- Original Message ----- From: "Adrian Bruce" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, April 07, 2014 11:29 AM Subject: [FHU] Detailed search forms on FMP > The Feedback Forum for FindMyPast contains lots of requests for things > like > searching censuses by birthplace. In fact, this is now possible - though > FMP > have not updated those feedback items I was looking at to say so. The > problem is - you have to be looking in the right place. So... In case > you've > not twigged where it is... > > If you use menu item Search Records / Census land & surveys you get a > BASIC > search form that doesn't include birthplace. Even if you filter it by > census, the form doesn't change. (It does claim to include a search by > address) > > If you use menu item Search Records / Search All Records, then go to the > Census link, then to the link to the specific census, you get a DETAILED > search form that includes birth details, census ref., etc. > > Menu item Search Records / List all UK records seems to be the same as the > above menu item Search Records / Search All Records. > > The 1911 and 1841 census reference systems are different from the 1851 > thru > 1901, of course(?), so they either don't work or don't work well on the > FMP > forms which use the same referencing system from 1841 thru 1911. > > So - the Search All Records or List all UK records menu sub-options give > access to detailed forms for censuses at least. I wonder how many people > realise this? In fairness to FMP, the existence of this detailed census > form > was blogged about but as I have said, if you need a manual to use one > form, > it's not working. > > I have also suggested that FMP update the menu options to make it clear > where the detailed options are and / or provide links from the basic forms > to the detailed forms. Even Ancestry makes it obvious how to get the > detailed form! > > Adrian B > > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' > without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message