TMcGuire wrote:The desire, as I stated, is to limit the search FIRST by location of the data, SECOND by the name or names within that location, THIRD any other criteria entered, i.e. date(s).
I have to agree that (and please understand I don't know how the back end of this thing works) it doesn't seem terribly unreasonable to create a search that allows you start with any criterion and then incrementally filter your results until you get down to a manageable level. I think that's what the intent was with the narrowing feature, but it doesn't work the way I expect it to. I'm hoping it will get there in the future.
Here's what I just experienced using the search:
First Search: 1850 Census
- Search Criterion: Last Name: "McGuire"
- - Exact and close matches: 4,700
- Narrow by: Place: "Illinois, United States"
- - Exact and close matches: 256 (not all of whom lived in Illinois, but may have been born there and lived somewhere else during the census)
- Narrow by: Gender: “Male”
- - Exact and close matches: 148
Image:
Second Search: All Collections
- Search Criterion: Last Name: “McGuire”
- - Exact and close matches: 4,700 (the same amount I had if I only searched the 1850 Census, that’s odd)
- Narrow by: Collection: “1850 United States Census”
- - Exact and close matches: 804
- Narrow by: Place: Illinois, United States”
- - Exact and close matches: 44
- Narrow by: Gender: “Male”
- - Exact and close matches: 26
Image:
Unless I missed something, these two searches should have returned the same results. I also found it more than a bit goofy that if I put any criteria in the first search beyond the name, I lose the ability to narrow by place.
- Stephen