Search by first name is not working

Question

 Hello!

Example 1:

First Name is empty, Last Name = Плотников

Search Results: 45 Matches for Плотников

Example 2:

First Name = Михаил, Last Name = Плотников

Search Results: 58 Matches for Михаил Плотников

Why there are more matches with First Name than without First Name? 

Comments

Hi Сергей. Maybe something has updated between when you tried and when I tried, because for me a search for first name blank and last name Плотников returns 58 results, and a search for first name Михаил and last name Плотников also returns 58 results (I think the same ones, though I didn't check in detail).

So the bug is that adding Михаил in the first name field doesn't make any difference or narrow the results down at all: there are still overwhelmingly many results where the first name is not Михаил.

You can draw attention to this by editing your question and adding the tag

 bugs 

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Hi, Jim!

I found out that it all depends on how to fill in the search fields located on the main page wikitree.com or in the header of the site. If you fill in the search fields on the main page with the First name, then in the future, regardless of whether the First name is in the parameters, the search will return 58 positions. If you specify only the last name on the main page, then in the future, regardless of the presence of the First name in the parameters, the search will give 45 positions.

It turns out that there are not one, but two bugs.

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I see what you mean, Сергей. Thank you for the details. I did my tests that both gave 58 results at

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Special:SearchPerson

but I agree that if you use the search in the middle of the front page

https://www.wikitree.com/

or the little boxes at the top of any profile, then searching for the surname with the first name blank gives only 45 results. Indeed, two different bugs!

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Searching just a last name from the homepage or the header sets "only last names at birth" and "no, only exact name matches". Searching directly from the search form uses the default search settings, even if you only put a last name, which is why the numbers would be different. So that part isn't a bug.

But it does look like there is a bug with the first name in Cyrillic.

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Hi, Jamie!

Now I see that the default search options on the first page and in the menu "Find" - "Search" are different. And search options are also dependent on filling the first name field. Thank you!

Answer 1

My post from the other day (Apr 16) may give you some insight on how search is working versus how we think search should work:

• https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1732408/the-search-page-is-not-working-correctly