New Look Scotland's People Site November 2022

[WilmaM]

I've had a quick look at Scotland's People after the complete shut down yesterday.

The overall look of it has changed - font and sizing, slight pages layout changes.

The main difference is NO 1921 census - [still 6 weeks left of 2022, patience my friends, patience]

The main plus point I can see is Mother's maiden Name is included on the birth indexes, making it much easier to find the correct child. Only pre 1920 from what I can see.

Annoyingly - the Mother's maiden name on the Death index isn't always visible on newer records - BUT there's a wee 'see more' tab which does have it and some other reference information about the record.

Another thing I'm missing is the big green 'Advanced Search' box at the top of all the pages - I used that frequently to access , OPR or census records when searching Statutory ones, and vice versa.

The number of records on each results page is now 25 [so smaller type], and 20 on saved searches.

What other changes have you noticed?
What glitches have been uncovered so far?

Share the Knowledge please.

[WilmaM]

Annoyingly - the Mother's maiden name on the Death index isn't always visible on newer records - BUT there's a wee 'see more' tab which does have it and some other reference information about the record.

Update: when I went back to it, that little feature had vanished!
or did I stumble across a hidden feature that has now been switched off?

Another problem has arisen, when searching for just one parish, without selecting the County it gives results for the whole country.
ie I chose Oliver in Abercorn and got 7 pages of results, when I chose West Lothian and Abercorn I only got 1 page.

[AndrewP]

Another problem has arisen, when searching for just one parish, without selecting the County it gives results for the whole country.
ie I chose Oliver in Abercorn and got 7 pages of results, when I chose West Lothian and Abercorn I only got 1 page.

I have run a check on that for a small parish - looking for births of surname Paterson in Ecclesmachan - it returns 17 results, whether selected with or without the county (West Lothian).

As the majority of them have the mother's maiden name included, I can sort on that column and get a number of family groups listed together.

All the best,

AndrewP

[DavidMK]

My first reaction, is the abbreviated reference No on census pages, makes it impossible to determine family groupings , a feature i probably used more than anything to get as much free info as possible prior to ordering.NUTS!

[AndrewP]

My first reaction, is the abbreviated reference No on census pages, makes it impossible to determine family groupings , a feature i probably used more than anything to get as much free info as possible prior to ordering.NUTS!

I looked for my paternal grandfather with his brothers and sisters in Edinburgh (St George district) in the 1911 census. Although all of the results were in that one registration district, I sorted the 45 results over 2 pages in order of reference number. The four siblings were all grouped together. I take the implication from that outcome, that the full index [registration district number, enumeration district number, page number] are all there underlying, but not displayed. So family groups appear together when sorted in that way, but not visibly listed in the easy view that we had before.

AndrewP

[Andy]

Hi all,

I logged onto the upgraded site as soon as it was ready. Last Thursday afternoon.

I was very impressed with the integration between the actual sources and the intermittent indexes.

For all of Thursday afternoon there was a wee EYE icon to the left of every Birth and Death search results. Heaps of these had mother's maiden surname attached to the index even when they don't on the general search results.

I was a bit less impressed when I found that Wildcards aren't recognised automatically you have to choose the option.

I was wondering why I couldn't find any McQuilk?n results for Greenock. The question mark should have found all ending with AN, EN and IN.

Also found that when I search for all Keoghs in the Country of Renfrewshire everyone turns up. If I narrow it down to Greenock it misses all Keoghs born in Greenock Old and West parish.

If you choose all the historic town in what is now Inverclyde, Gourock, Greenock Old & West and Port Glasgow results don't show.

Inverclyde results only show up if you implicitly choose ONLY Inverclyde.

Found the same in various parts of Argyll.

I posted these findings on a couple of Facebook Groups and was soon receiving questions like'What wee EYE icons?'

I was on Santa duty all weekend but when I checked again on Monday morning the icons to the indexes had disappeared. What a loss, wish I had the time to utilise them better when they were available.

Today's additional of the 2021 census is a welcome addition.

However, when I checked for William Keogh in Renfrew/Greenock I couldn't find my Grandfather. Including ALL Renfewshire found him immediately. Same for other granulated (drilling down by County and Town) searches in different areas.

The User Group used to beta and alpha test these upgrades well ahead of going live. There are too many glitches and changes for this version to be completely fit for purpose.

I have already found some workarounds and, when my Santa duties allow, will post my suggestions.

Cheers,

Andy

[Andy]

By 2021 census, above, I meant 1921.

[hbaird2]

Anyone else noticed that the default search option for forenames has been changed to "Names that begin with" instead of "Exact names". It is impossible to search for someone if you are using a middle name to refine your search with this default. Even changing the selection back to exact names gives you a weird and wonderful list of people. So far I have tried to search for someone using both default options and with a middle forename and SP has returned three different lists of people but none of them include the person I'm looking for. Any ideas, anyone?

Thanks,
Helen

[WilmaM]

Oddly Helen I'd noticed that it was sticking to 'Exact Names' rather than switching to 'Wildcards Allowed' when a wildcard [ * or ? ] were inserted - which was causing some frustration here.

I suspect it'll take a while for:
a. us to get used to the slightly new set-up
b. all the glitches to be sorted

[Andy]

Hi Helen,

You should be able to search for middle names using Wildcards.

So if I want to find all the Keoghs with a middle name Fitzgerald I'd choose allow wildcards and type *fitzger*

The given name field in the database only seems to be about 15 characters long, don't know why, so if the first name is particularly long the search script may not register the last few letters.

I also found out today that doing a Phonetic search on some surnames like Morrison doesn't work AT ALL. I would expect to find Morison, for example but these searches yield no results.

Using Exact Spelling gives thousands of results and Morison fewer but still a significant amount.

However choosing wildcards allows you to search for MOR*ISON and all obvious spellings will show.

Tracing forwards has always been tricky. Two upgrades ago Mother's maiden surnames were included on all death entries for which there was an index (mother names were not transcribed from the original certificates) however indexes were required at various times from 1855 but, even when they weren't, many registrar's office maintained then. These were very cleverly woven into Birth and Death results.

I found this useful for finding more recent branches of families, for example my Grandfather's brother married a Devine. A search for Keogh Deaths with mother's name Devine gave me more cousins than my Dad knew about.

If any of these were female I'd note the place of registration, given name, year of death and GROS reference.

I'd then delete Keogh from the Surname and add the first name and the death year. This usually brings up two or three results. Check the GROS reference if there are two the same the second will be her married name allowing a search for a marriage. If three of more have the same reference number you're looking for marriages, deaths of husbands or divorces.

I've been using this method for years and found literally hundreds of new relations for my own tree and thousands for my Rathlin Island research and clients.

However, I noticed on Monday (I've been very busy since then except for checking the 1921 census) that the more recent mother's maiden surnames are no longer displayed. This is a massive step back in functionality.

I know that there will be glitches but the glitches seem to be overtaking any planned improvements.

Cheers,

Andy