Has Ancestry.co.uk's access to marriage records changed recently? I'm pulling my hair out here but they insist it's al working "as designed". Selecting the 'Birth, Marriage, and Death...' option from the main menu no longer offers support for marriage events (contrary to the title). The 'Family Members' field suggests I can select 'Mother, Father, Spouse, Siblings, Children' but it now only offers 'Father, Mother'. The point here is that it is not just a form for Birth and Death events, but that is what it is currently supporting. There is no support for Marriage events at all on there. If I select "Birth, Marriage, and Death..." from the main menus, and then select 'Marriage and Divorce' from the 'Narrow by Category' on the right, then it does not even ask me for a Spouse at all. This is a basic requirement so what has happened to that? Ancestry suggested using the Featured Data Collections but that is too specific in many cases, and I want to search several collections together. Irrespective of the confusing form for 'Births, Marriages, and Deaths...', being able to specify a spouse during a marriage search is essential, and (unless I'm going mad) the option seems to have disappeared. For instance: 1) Looking for a UK marriage. FreeBMD allows me to include the spouses name, and will even look for possible matches in the same page/volume where the mother's maiden name isn't directly shown in the older parts of the GRO index. If I'm paying for Ancestry access then I would expect similar functionality. 2) Looking for an Irish marriage. FamilySearch has the Irish civil registration index available for free, but it won't do a potential match with a spouse in the same way that FreeBMD does (i.e. on same volume/page). That used to be a distinguishing feature that was worth paying for. Can anyone shed any light on this? Tony Proctor

On 11/04/2013 10:05, Tony Proctor wrote: > Has Ancestry.co.uk's access to marriage records changed recently? > I'm pulling my hair out here but they insist it's al working "as > designed". > > Selecting the 'Birth, Marriage, and Death...' option from the main > menu no longer offers support for marriage events (contrary to the > title). The 'Family Members' field suggests I can select 'Mother, > Father, Spouse, Siblings, Children' but it now only offers 'Father, > Mother'. The point here is that it is not just a form for Birth and > Death events, but that is what it is currently supporting. There is > no support for Marriage events at all on there. > > If I select "Birth, Marriage, and Death..." from the main menus, and > then select 'Marriage and Divorce' from the 'Narrow by Category' on > the right, then it does not even ask me for a Spouse at all. This is > a basic requirement so what has happened to that? > > Ancestry suggested using the Featured Data Collections but that is > too specific in many cases, and I want to search several collections > together. > > Irrespective of the confusing form for 'Births, Marriages, and > Deaths...', being able to specify a spouse during a marriage search > is essential, and (unless I'm going mad) the option seems to have > disappeared. For instance: > > 1) Looking for a UK marriage. FreeBMD allows me to include the > spouses name, and will even look for possible matches in the same > page/volume where the mother's maiden name isn't directly shown in > the older parts of the GRO index. If I'm paying for Ancestry access > then I would expect similar functionality. > > 2) Looking for an Irish marriage. FamilySearch has the Irish civil > registration index available for free, but it won't do a potential > match with a spouse in the same way that FreeBMD does (i.e. on same > volume/page). That used to be a distinguishing feature that was worth > paying for. > > Can anyone shed any light on this? I can't help you, but I don't know what Ancestry have done to their search facility. I liked the "old search" but I can't seem to get it back, and this latest version just isn't helpful.

On Thu, 11 Apr 2013 10:05:50 +0100, "Tony Proctor" <tony@proctor_NoMore_SPAM.net> wrote: >Has Ancestry.co.uk's access to marriage records changed recently? I'm >pulling my hair out here but they insist it's al working "as designed". > >>[...] >Irrespective of the confusing form for 'Births, Marriages, and Deaths...', >being able to specify a spouse during a marriage search is essential, and >(unless I'm going mad) the option seems to have disappeared. For instance: > >1) Looking for a UK marriage. FreeBMD allows me to include the spouses name, >and will even look for possible matches in the same page/volume where the >mother's maiden name isn't directly shown in the older parts of the GRO >index. If I'm paying for Ancestry access then I would expect similar >functionality. >[...] A couple of days ago I was looking for a English marriage in the 1960s and 2 English births in the 1960s-70s, not yet in FreeBMD. So I went to the library and looked in Ancestry. They had a different search for pre and post 1915 GRO Marriages, with links between them; the post 1915 search had advanced search in the top right of the search box, and Advanced search had an entry field for spouse. Births seemed to work the same way for mother's maiden name. And I found what I wanted.

On Thu, 11 Apr 2013 12:43:18 GMT, myths@ic24.net (cecilia) wrote: >On Thu, 11 Apr 2013 10:05:50 +0100, "Tony Proctor" ><tony@proctor_NoMore_SPAM.net> wrote: > >>Has Ancestry.co.uk's access to marriage records changed recently? I'm >>pulling my hair out here but they insist it's al working "as designed". >> >>>[...] >>Irrespective of the confusing form for 'Births, Marriages, and Deaths...', >>being able to specify a spouse during a marriage search is essential, and >>(unless I'm going mad) the option seems to have disappeared. For instance: >> >>1) Looking for a UK >> England and Wales >>marriage, FreeBMD allows me to include the spouses name, >>and will even look for possible matches in the same page/volume where the >>mother's maiden name isn't directly shown in the older parts of the GRO >>index. If I'm paying for Ancestry access then I would expect similar >>functionality. >>[...] > > >A couple of days ago I was looking for a English marriage in the 1960s >and 2 English births in the 1960s-70s, not yet in FreeBMD. > >So I went to the library and looked in Ancestry. > >They had a different search for pre and post 1915 GRO Marriages, with >links between them; the post 1915 search had advanced search in the >top right of the search box, and Advanced search had an entry field >for spouse. > >Births seemed to work the same way for mother's maiden name. > >And I found what I wanted. > Some of Ancestry's searches have been behaving a bit silly recently, maybe as a consequence of the impending "new improved" version. Apart from that, some of the searches always have ignored details at various stages more general than a single set of records so not asking for a spouse name until you narrow down to only the 1915 onward records for England and Wales could be a symptom of that being applied more rigidly.

"Tony Proctor" <tony@proctor_NoMore_SPAM.net> wrote in message news:kk5ucg$l80$1@speranza.aioe.org... > Has Ancestry.co.uk's access to marriage records changed recently? I'm > pulling my hair out here but they insist it's al working "as designed". > > Selecting the 'Birth, Marriage, and Death...' option from the main menu no > longer offers support for marriage events (contrary to the title). The > 'Family Members' field suggests I can select 'Mother, Father, Spouse, > Siblings, Children' but it now only offers 'Father, Mother'. The point > here is that it is not just a form for Birth and Death events, but that is > what it is currently supporting. There is no support for Marriage events > at all on there. > > If I select "Birth, Marriage, and Death..." from the main menus, and then > select 'Marriage and Divorce' from the 'Narrow by Category' on the right, > then it does not even ask me for a Spouse at all. This is a basic > requirement so what has happened to that? > > Ancestry suggested using the Featured Data Collections but that is too > specific in many cases, and I want to search several collections together. > > Irrespective of the confusing form for 'Births, Marriages, and Deaths...', > being able to specify a spouse during a marriage search is essential, and > (unless I'm going mad) the option seems to have disappeared. For instance: > > 1) Looking for a UK marriage. FreeBMD allows me to include the spouses > name, and will even look for possible matches in the same page/volume > where the mother's maiden name isn't directly shown in the older parts of > the GRO index. If I'm paying for Ancestry access then I would expect > similar functionality. > > 2) Looking for an Irish marriage. FamilySearch has the Irish civil > registration index available for free, but it won't do a potential match > with a spouse in the same way that FreeBMD does (i.e. on same > volume/page). That used to be a distinguishing feature that was worth > paying for. > > Can anyone shed any light on this? > > Tony Proctor > > Thanks for all the suggestions about using the Old Search. Unfortunately, I finally managed to adapt to the New Search some time ago. Hence, my post relates to a change in that UI rather than between the Old and New UI. Anyone else out there use the New Search UI? Tony Proctor

"Tony Proctor" <tony@proctor_NoMore_SPAM.net> wrote in message news:kk5ucg$l80$1@speranza.aioe.org... > Has Ancestry.co.uk's access to marriage records changed recently? I'm > pulling my hair out here but they insist it's al working "as designed". > <snip> > > Tony Proctor > > Normality has been resumed. The user interface has now been changed to accommodate multiple event types, and multiple roles, in the "Birth, Marriage, & Death, including Parish" section. Tony Proctor