Sex, Sourcer and FMP

Question

If you use Sourcer to search FMP for the person in a profile, it includes their sex in the search form. This is odd as the standard FMP form doesn't even offer that option but, more importantly, it actually seems to prevent some records being found. For example, https://www.findmypast.co.uk/search/results?gender=male&firstname=Francis&firstname_variants=true&lastname=Carswell&lastname_variants=true&yearofbirth=1530&yearofbirth_offset=2&yearofdeath=1611&yearofdeath_offset=2&keywordsplace=Devon%2c%20England%2c%20England&keywordsplace_proximity=5&sourcecountry=england finds nothing, but if "male" is deleted it finds the correct burial.

As far as I can see, records that should be returned have no sex specified but that's not a complete explanation as others that are found sometimes have no sex either.

Would it be better if Sourcer didn't add the sex field?

Comments

Hello David,

Funnily enough i found that 'gender' attribute for the first time yesterday, when using WikiTree Sourcer, yet the current version (2.2.1) release notes (25th Feb 2024) doesn't mention any change relevant to FMP.

Separate question David - do you use FMP to store your family tree ? - i am on a quest to find anyone else on Wikitree who does that.

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Hi Allan

I use FMP to store my family tree. However, it's a bit of a disaster after falling into the trap of accepting matches without checking them first. I now use it to try and test things out as I'm slowly trying to transfer everything over to WikiTree.

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A couple of years ago I tried to maintain our tree on FMP and Ancestry plus in our private DB. It got too much. I now have our biggest tree on Ancestry because I like the GUI better, but find that the search engine is better on FMP. However I get a lot of the data from the Ancestry hints. (Don't like their search interface). I also use FS when the others don't give me what I need but I have no tree on that site. After doing all the searches I upload to WT.

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Well i need to use FMP because as far as i know it is the only service that provides access to the 1921 England and Wales census - i think it also includes Scotland but i have had problems trying to look at the original records.

I could not justify the expense of having both FMP and Ancestry subscriptions.

Unfortunately, the GEDCOM upload process does not work with a GEDCOM produced from FMP, which i further fine tune via Family Tree Builder.

Previously it removed sources, so i made certain that i duplicated sources, after this was advised to me, and now i get duplicated sources - there is no happy medium. I still have over 200 profiles to go back to and add sources.

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I did try the tree at FindMyPast, I do not use the tree.   Actually the trees I do have on other online sites are basic and mainly for DNA matches to see how we line up.   I much prefer my main details on WikiTree.  I use my home database for collecting data while researching and when I am satisfied, I have enough information I then upload to WikiTree.   My way of doing things.

Answer 1

Hi David, Thanks for reporting this. I have been meaning to improve Sourcer FMP searches to only include certain search terms if they are relevant to the category/collection being searched.

The gender is used in the advanced search options for some searches, for example this one. So I need to test which categories or collections are being searched before including that search term (and others).

Comments

When I use search FindMyPast via the Sourcer App I nearly always remove the gender from the search before I start.

I have been a FindMyPast user for years and I am used to searching without and gender.

So for me I would prefer it not there.