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I'm just wondering if any other member uses Ancestry.com and if so what they think of the new mess. Was it Ancestry which some time ago tried a change and ended up giving us the option to select the "old search" Well I've been getting irritating pop-ups for weeks and ignored them, but an hour ago my screen changed colour as I was searching and turned the user friendly, visually easy to follow ancestry set up into a comic. Everything's bigger and colour coded as if aimed at infant school kids, less information is on view as the page is expanded, not sure if re-sizing the screen view will work? Yes I've complained. I do believe somebody here helped me by pointing out the little "Use old search" tab last time this happened but I can't see anything like that so far. I logged off and logged in again but only the new page came up. Sorry to come here and moan Flummoxed Fred. GGRRRRRR

By the way I went back and managed to find site preferences in the tree account section, so I re-ticked use old search and nothing changed, I still have the new "experience" so unless there's a delay? It looks like I'm stuck with it.

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I must agree with you fredb, I have used Ancestry for quite a long time and the new image is drab to say the leased.
The original is clean and easy to use,I cannot understand a company wanting to change something that works well for something that looks confusing and awful. If they wish to have different color's then so be it but keep the same style and allow the user to choose from a range of color's or not

Regrads to all members

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I just returned to Ancestry looking for an answer and some way back to the old search and found that if you click on your Ancestry name a list drops down offering among other things a choice to return to the old ancestry. When you click to return to the old search it asks you why, but then I was back in the land I know best.

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You did exactly as I, lol

Always seems to be old stuff is better than the new

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Thank you for the information. I switched as soon as I read this. Wonderful to be able to access the old presentation.

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Thank goodness it was not only me that was having trouble with the new-style Ancestry. My tree went all over the place with very annoying pop-ups, so bad in fact that I thought my computer was infected with a virus!!! Several people that I know are considering not renewing their subscriptions and if it gets much worse I will probably do the same.
Has anyone else had problems with their - timeline maps??? For some odd reason Ancestry has included maps that show my Forest of Dean ancestors as having been born in e.g. The Netherlands, Germany, France & even odd places in the United States of America??? I have managed to edit some of these howlers but not all - which is very, very annoying.

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I totaly agree with you I much prefer the old style set up.

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The most irritating thing to me is the loss of the "use mouse wheel to zoom" facility. This seems to have gone from both the old and the new version. I know zoom is still available but it's not the same.

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I have been using Ancestry since 2007 and much prefer the old style. It seems to me as if they are making information more difficult to find not easier.

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Re 'use mouse wheel to zoom', I'm still using that on the old Ancestry. If you click on the tools icon on the right, then settings, you should have an on/off slider for 'mouse wheel to zoom'.

Though you've probably found it by now!

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You are right, I have found it, but thank you anyway. I know they might want to update but I don't understand why they would want to interfere with the old version at the same time.

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Bad News.
I voiced my opinion to ancestry and was told that as of November 6th we will no longer have a choice.
That along with the down grade of memberships and the increased fees to get back what one had previously, I can't see renewing our membership.

Terry MARFELL

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Bad News.
I voiced my opinion to ancestry and was told that as of November 6th we will no longer have a choice.

Terry MARFELL

Only just found this thread. I have to agree with the others, like most things in life I much prefer the old style of Ancestry presentation, in fact it was largely the visual look that swayed me over other company's offerings. Yes I too thought I had a virus, talk about poor if not non-existent communications to the users !. Thankfully and by lucky accident I found I could opt out, tho' I suspected that might be a temporary option only.
That said, contrary to what Terry was told, it seems to me that the old-style is still available now as-of 21st November. Perhaps this is a climb-down following complaints, or just a short-term appeasement to (dare I say) encourage users to renew subs to cover their busier winter months before forcing the horrible new-look on to us anyway ??. Having spent money on the new-look I cannot see them ditching it.
Are any other Ancestry users still able to access the older style presentation, or is it just me ?

Anyway, my subscription recently finished so I told them my reason for not renewing was the awful new look, altho I suspect that like many worldwide corporations in this day and age, the voice of some "out of touch old fogies" like me will go unheard...

Has anyone else read any responses from Ancestry, or more recent news, perhaps the FH magazines etc have been discussing it too, all comments welcome.

Thanks, Jeff.

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Further to the above thread, I see that Ancestry have indeed, unsurprisingly in my view, decided that they "know what's best" for their users and subscribers, and their website WILL ONLY offer the "new improved" (where have you heard that before) "experience" to all users after 15th December 2015.

Speaking for myself I'm thoroughly depressed about this, and have told them so. I've also chosen not to renew my subscription. Altho' I doubt it will make any difference, please join me and spend a few moments signing this online petition against the changes. I suspect this is just one of several such actions being taken by disaffected users worldwide, I'll continue to try and search them out and add my voice to them all, but in the meantime please sign this petition, even if you're not an Ancestry user. Don't forget, you don't have to be a subscriber to use their site, at the very least it's a good way to build and display your family trees, all free-of-charge.
Or at least it WAS....

Many thanks, Jeff.

PS It's makes us even more thankful there are still excellent, user-friendly, FH websites like this Forest of Dean one; please consider donating towards it's upkeep this Christmas, thanks.

http://blog.eogn.com/2015/08/11/online-petition-to-save-the-old-ancestry-com-classic-us...

I'll also be adding to this, altho it seems clear that only favourable comments are actually welcome.
http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2015/06/05/new-ancestry-feature-update/

UPDATE;
I'm pleased to add that a few hours after signing the petition, I've been sent a poll by Ancestry, which has given me another formal way to comment on their new format. I didn't score it very highly...

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Will "OLD SEARCH" fans get what they want?

I had trouble with the findmypast 1939 survey too, anyone else struggle?

They claim 90+% accuracy which is way off. Some of the addresses are confused, no local knowledge plus transcription errors. My family didn't show so I did an address search for Wyesham (Monmouth) but half the addresses are missing. I asked FMP why, they replied telling me I'm probably searching wrongly, which is like telling me I don't know where I live. I wondered if the missing Wyesham addresses had been added to Redbrook, part of Redbrook usually appears as part of the Dixton - Newton census. I did an address search for Redbrook, West Dean and it shows just one Dovey family, so no luck there.
I have no idea if it was down to me reporting the errors, but today I did a search for Beach - Monmouth only expecting Oswald Beach in town to show up and my family show up too, but still not if you search by address.

They sent out 60,000 people to collect the census details, why didn't they use postmen who would have known the names and accurate addresses. Still some lucky fellas might not have got called up. FB

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