On 2014-12-05 09:52:11 +0000, Trevor Rix via said: > In todays Findmypast Friday email they announce a new to them dataset > "Over 60 million English Births & Baptisms, 1538-1975". On using this > dataset however it appears that there are no "first names". > > I phoned Findmypast twice this morning to report this major issue. They > are not interested. They say that as the records were provided to them > by FamilySearch, I have to contact FamilySearch myself to request them > to contact Findmypast to discuss the error. Findmypast are unwilling to > contact FamilySearch themselves. I find that astonishing. On the spot > checks that I have conducted the forenames are there on the > FamilySearch side but not on the Findmypast side. > > Trevor Rix Nothing about FMP astonishes me, its 'stack 'em high and sell 'em cheap' and if its right, great and if its mucked up then tough. BUT I have to say I do love them this morning, cos they also released some trade union records that verify the 'possible' passenger list entry to Canada in April 1910, 1911 Canadian census record and a return to the UK in Nov 1911 I had found for my Granda, AWOL in the UK 1911 census. The Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners have matching records which tally with the crossing date and destination to say he transferred from the Gateshead branch in the NE of England to the Toronto branch in April 1910. The same database confirmed that he transferred back from Regina (where I'd found him on the Canadian census) to Gateshead in Nov 1911 and 'that' tallies with the return crossing. These records tick all the boxes for dates of events, age and admisson to the Society, they even have a note of his marriage date in 1915 which is spot on. The births and baptisms dataset is dreadful, but I am doing the little happy dance like a woman posessed over the Trade Union Records :-) -- Tickettyboo

"Tickettyboo" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected] > On 2014-12-05 09:52:11 +0000, Trevor Rix via said: > >> In todays Findmypast Friday email they announce a new to them dataset >> "Over 60 million English Births & Baptisms, 1538-1975". On using this >> dataset however it appears that there are no "first names". >> >> I phoned Findmypast twice this morning to report this major issue. They >> are not interested. They say that as the records were provided to them by >> FamilySearch, I have to contact FamilySearch myself to request them to >> contact Findmypast to discuss the error. Findmypast are unwilling to >> contact FamilySearch themselves. I find that astonishing. On the spot >> checks that I have conducted the forenames are there on the FamilySearch >> side but not on the Findmypast side. >> >> Trevor Rix > > Nothing about FMP astonishes me, its 'stack 'em high and sell 'em cheap' > and if its right, great and if its mucked up then tough. > > BUT I have to say I do love them this morning, cos they also released > some trade union records that verify the 'possible' passenger list entry > to Canada in April 1910, 1911 Canadian census record and a return to the > UK in Nov 1911 I had found for my Granda, AWOL in the UK 1911 census. > > The Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners have matching records > which tally with the crossing date and destination to say he transferred > from the Gateshead branch in the NE of England to the Toronto branch in > April 1910. > The same database confirmed that he transferred back from Regina (where > I'd found him on the Canadian census) to Gateshead in Nov 1911 and 'that' > tallies with the return crossing. > These records tick all the boxes for dates of events, age and admisson to > the Society, they even have a note of his marriage date in 1915 which is > spot on. > > The births and baptisms dataset is dreadful, but I am doing the little > happy dance like a woman posessed over the Trade Union Records :-) > -- > Tickettyboo > What I find staggering about this is that it was released and no one noticed. I was led to believe that their "team" (presumably product managers and developers) included their own "genealogists". As someone who has used FMP from the very earliest of its days, I find myself using it less and less now. I think the newspapers access is the most important feature I use, and even that doesn't work properly (the default sort-by-relevance most certainly does not do so). I have tried to report transcription errors, missing parts of transcriptions, missing records, suggestions/improvements, and software errors, but finding that my time is being wasted. I recently pointed out, for instance, that putting a "?" wildcard as the first character in a census surname field causes an exception. Simply enough, right? I got a reply saying that "?" is not a valid wildcard, followed by a stock copy-and-paste of some help text which explicitly said that it *was*. You can only try so much to help. Eventually your time is better spent elsewhere. Tony Proctor