Can Ancestry.com Add More to the “Suggested Records?”

I’ve been using the database “Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1519-1969,” as published on Ancestry.com. We’ll have a more detailed post about this database later, but for now there’s one limitation to the search results interface.

The “Suggested Records” section is inadequate. Even with the relatively unusual name of Elsche Tjarks Janssen there are three additional suggested records. It is difficult to determine from the details listed in the “Suggested Records” just in what capacity Elsche appears in the record or the specific village where the record is from.

Some German names are very common and the lack of detail in the “Suggested Records” list does not facilitate the research process.

It would also be nice if there were a way to tag the record as having been one that has already been viewed before and that a small icon could appear next to the suggested record on this list on this screen. Otherwise I can easily end up going in circles.

And circles.

And circles.

An extremely important part of the genealogical research process is the ability to duplicate the search and to know what one is doing.  The lack of detail in the “Suggested Records” column, combined with the inability to tag items already seen really encourages users to go in circles.

In summary:

• more details–at least a village and maybe the year of the record
• the ability to tag previously viewed records