Ancestry Old Search versus New Search

Now I know this is a teeny bit controversial because Peter has long been an advocate of the Old Search, and may I say so have I up to a point. However as I -unlike Peter (as we have communicated on the subject in the past) -am a defender of the Ancestry Public Tree (with all their faults), there are occasions when the New Search runs rings around the Old.

If you search from a family member page from within a Public (or Private Member Tree for that matter) - using Search Records - the New Search offer many advantages over the Old in the way it intuitively presents options & choices. The old in this respect is quite cumbersome. I have tried both many (many) times and I invariably select the New Search when researching from within my Tree.

However if I use Ancestry to search from without my Tree, then like Peter I find the Old Search has the edge, most of the time. I appreciate this more when I have New Search set as default, and then perhaps meeting a brick wall, I switch to Old and welcome its "old" (what else) helpful format.

So there you have it New versus Old. I am sure Ancestry changed to New Search to allow intuitive searching from within Ancestry Trees. Luckily it also allows reverting to Old Search for those who prefer the old style.

For those not familiar with Ancestry searching you can find the option to change the search mode on the page that opens when you click on Search - At the extreme right, just under the grey toolbar options you will see either Go to Old Search or of course Go to New Search The default is usually set to New Search so you are more likely to have to reset to use Old Search. With experience you will know which mode is set and if you think a change of mode will be beneficial, click on Search page and click on the alternative. Click on link below to go to the New Ancestry Search page.

Ancestry Search