Hi Norcalers, The primary difference I noticed about the two websites, aside from the different visual look, is that on the "new" site they include the actual scanned images of records that the "old" site only listed textually. It's a very important difference. All search engines of scanned images depend on the ability of the transcriber to correctly interpret the hand-writing of the original. I'm sure most folks have had the frustration of not being able to find an ancestor because the spelling was recorded "oddly." Whenever I can't find a specific person due to spelling, I will start searching the actual images. More often than not, I will find the person. Most recently I was looking for the surname "Perez," and found it as "Paris." I think it's wonderful that Family Search now provides both methods of searching for someone. The "old" site is accessible through the "new" site. Both sites are useful. Hope this helps, Anita C. Monterey County

The catalog on the old site is more reliable, if you are searching for undigitized microfilm or books in their collection. Peggy -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of A. Mason Design Sent: Friday, February 17, 2012 7:41 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [NORCAL] New vs. Old Family Search web site Hi Norcalers, The primary difference I noticed about the two websites, aside from the different visual look, is that on the "new" site they include the actual scanned images of records that the "old" site only listed textually. It's a very important difference. All search engines of scanned images depend on the ability of the transcriber to correctly interpret the hand-writing of the original. I'm sure most folks have had the frustration of not being able to find an ancestor because the spelling was recorded "oddly." Whenever I can't find a specific person due to spelling, I will start searching the actual images. More often than not, I will find the person. Most recently I was looking for the surname "Perez," and found it as "Paris." I think it's wonderful that Family Search now provides both methods of searching for someone. The "old" site is accessible through the "new" site. Both sites are useful. Hope this helps, Anita C. Monterey County ----------------------------------------- NORCAL ARCHIVES: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/ Enter NORCAL. Browse by month. Or click the "Search all archives" link to search by keyword. ----------------------------------------- To post a message to the NORCAL mailing list, send an email to [email protected] ------------------------------- 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