Talk:Chambers County, Alabama Genealogy

Wiki pages
I have several complaints. First, how difficult it now is to even find the wiki pages. I used to regularly access the wiki from the main FamilySearch page. Maybe I'm missing an obvious link somewhere but the only way I could find this page this time was by doing a Google search.

Second, the county wiki pages have become way too generic. They have a lot of general information about types of records, but don't always have information specific to that county. For example, Chambers County, Alabama wiki page regarding probate records has a link to the online Alabama probate records at FamilySearch even though Chambers County is NOT one of the counties included in that collection, I can't find information on whether they're still being indexed or are simply not and never will be included.

This is a work in progress forever. Depends on volunteers. I have seen some mistakes made and need to be corrected time to time upon discovery.

Volunteers assigned to do placement of links as instructed.

The format was established by the committee over 5 years ago and we are sticking to that to develop from there.

As for Alabama Probates, - not one hundred percent indexed. They are in Image Only browse able. " Alabama Image Only Historical Records Can't find records for your ancestors when you search? Try our collections that haven't been indexed yet. Select a collection to start browsing the images." Dsammy 05:04, 6 January 2016 (UTC)

I apologize. When I submitted the comment, I didn't realize I was adding to a wiki page! Just thought I was givng user feedback.

Thanks for the information. In the case of the probate records, I was trying to browse the images, which I do pretty regularly in my research. Unfortunately, Chambers County does not show in the list of county links in the Alabama Probate Records collection, and that was what I had a problem with since the Chambers County page directed users there. Please let me know if there's another place I should be looking for these images.

I appreciate all of the information that is being compiled and digitized and indexed and do not want to sound in any way ungrateful for all the hard work that has entailed. As a regular user of the site, I do like to give feedback when I encounter an issue since it's what I would want to hear if I were a provider. I often rely on the county wiki pages to find out what records (in general, not just at FHL) are available for what time periods, and apparently some pages are more developed and detailed than others.

After you write your message, please sign your name with 4 tildes.

The probate records, even for any other state or county, are still in slow process of being added to collection. It's big. Dsammy 07:33, 6 January 2016 (UTC)

Response to Mscentavo
Mscentavo, we do appreciate your feedback and your contributions to the Wiki. You were not contributing to a Wiki article but putting your comments on a Talk page, which is exactly what they are for.

With respect to finding the Wiki from the main FamilySearch page, go up to the heading Search and click Wiki, which will take you to the main Wiki search page. Another way to go straight to the Wiki is to type wiki.familysearch.org in your browser. And Google search is an effective way to get there--you can just search the name of the state or country followed by "genealogy" and the Wiki page should come up in the search results.

The county pages are in the process of being redesigned over the next few months (it's a huge project) and I hope you will find them more useful. As far as the probate records, I don't have the answer but will see what I can find out.

Please do use 4 tildes ~ at the end of your message to identify who you are and the date posted (although this can also be identified from the page history, it also marks a clean ending to your comments).

S. Birdsong, Wiki Support Team 12:34, 6 January 2016 (UTC)

Thank you for the response. I wonder if the problem is my current browser, Firefox v. 37.0.1. I always accessed the wiki the way you describe but that menu at the top is no longer showing for some reason. I'll check my settings to see if I've got something turned off/on that needs to be toggled.

I wanted to sign my last response but could not remember how, thanks for the reminder. I think I registered several years ago and maybe added some edits to one page, but don't remember most of the how-to's, and didn't take the time to go find and re-read the instructions.

Mscentavo 20:57, 6 January 2016 (UTC)centavo

I figured out how to get to the main wiki page from the main FamilySearch page, by clicking on the icon (?) in the upper right, which opens a sidebar menu. Feel better now!!

Mscentavo 21:07, 6 January 2016 (UTC)