I haven't been on the site in a while so I just tried to log on. It seems my account is GONE! Had to create a new one. Nope, don't like the new site! Ally -------Original Message------- From: Sheila MacAvoy Block via Date: 9/6/2014 1:40:18 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [NY-IRISH] Ellis Island web site Changes to the Ellis Island web site do a few things that render it useless for this researcher. 1) All of the information stored in my old account is gone. 2) when you start a search, the first name box will only let you put in a first letter. You get a raft of data, quit readable I will admit. You must then screen by sex, marital status etc. Then you are given a list of possibilities, including people who use the initial you have entered as either the first letter of the middle name or the middle initial. The redesign uses the same philosophy that pertains to all of these new platforms. You have to go through lots of filters to find your person.It will never give you the exact matches. It presumes a kind of engineering thinking that I don't process well. 3) When you find your manifest, you can read it, but you can't screen print it or snip it. As soon as you take the cursor off the magnified image to go to a snipping tool, the image goes to a full screen and is unreadable. When I tried to print the image, my printer got bound up. I presume because the image was so large. In other words, the new site is clearer to read, fancy,somewhat clutzy, but is now not really free. If I understand correctly, the new site will charge $49 for a copy of the image. Bottom line, Ellis Island is available to view, but they have figured out a way to make it a pay site, for all intents and purposes. And not cheap. The redesign is typical of what has happened to all these sites over time, Family History, Ancestry, etc. The redesign is assigned to computer engineers, not genealogists. They all think they know better. It is like assigning the design of a kitchen to somebody who doesn't cook. Sheila Santa Barbara CA ====NY-Irish Mailing List==== Don't forget to check out the NY-Irish mailing list website. Also, check/add your NY-Irish surnames on the Surname Registry: http://www connorsgenealogy.com/NYIrishList/ ------------------------------- 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