There are times when I really wonder just how many genealogists are really involved in the construction of the website interface at Ancestry.com.
This is one of those times.
I was usingAncestry.com‘s “Illinois, Wills and Probate Records, 1772-1999” to look at the 1885-era Adams County, Illinois, probate file for Heinrich Mennen Aden. I was hoping to find something on his brother Ehme Mennen Aden. No such luck. I did make a find. While looking at the list of individuals who purchased property at the estate sale in 1886, I noticed the name of two ancestors of my own: Hinrich Sartorius and Ulfert Behrens.
I decided to add the page to my Ancestry.com shoebox for later viewing.
Upon going back later and clicking on the item in my shoebox, I had hoped that the link would take me to the specific page in Aden’s probate file that I had been on when I had saved the item to my shoebox.
Nope.
No such luck.
It took me back to the first image in Aden’s probate file.
That seems somewhat illogical to me.
Why can’t it take me back to the actual image in the file I was on when I saved the item to the shoebox?
————-
Note: Hinrich Mennen Aden (1841-1885)’s brother was Ehme Mennen Aden (1832-1915). Ehme was married to Reenste Focken Tammen (1826-1892). All died in Adams County, Illinois and were born in Ostfriesland, Germany. Reenste was a sister of my 3rd great-grandmother, Tjode Anna Focken (Tammen) Goldenstein.
Randy Seaver says:
Because it used the link for the indexed item (the first image of the file) instead of the page in the file you wanted.
The same thing happens if you try to attach the page – it tells you it can’t do it because that page was not indexed. Only the first page of the file was indexed. It’s frustrating.
Then you find that many of these “files” have more than one person’s probate packet included, and you can’t attach or shoebox the one you wanted (assuming you found it because it wasn’t indexed).
I don’t bother attaching them, I just download the file pages and put them in my family file folders.
Cheers — Randy
Pam Sarno says:
Just because someone clicked the ‘save to shoebox’ option while on a certain image doesn’t necessarily mean they were only interested in that image. They may have made the decision to save the record as they were reading through the images and randomly clicked at that spot. Ideally there should be 2 choices, one to save the record you are viewing , which is what happened. Or, to save the image you are viewing, which is what you wanted to happen.
mjnrootdig says:
That’s very true. The “save to shoebox” apparently saves the “record,” not the precise image. It might be nice to somehow bookmark specific image within a record (when the record contains multiple images).