Those who are using Classic FamilySearch will find that all of the census collections and the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) have been migrated over to the upgraded FamilySearch site. What this means is that if you use the Classic site and you click on a census collection or the Social Security Death Index, you will see that the search screen has a new look and feel. You can still access the information from the Classic site, but the search screen will look different. You will be pleased to see that the new search screen format provides users with a far more dynamic and flexible search experience.
For the most part, this change will not alter how you search and access information. The one exception is with the England and Wales Census, 1881. On the Classic site you were able do neighbor searches, which allowed you to see the households of neighboring families. In the current FamilySearch site you can no longer do neighbor searches. Nor can you do head of household searches. However, FamilySearch will direct you to a paid subscription site where users can view the original digitized image. You can then visually see each census page and search households as they were enumerated by the census taker.
If FamilySearch does not have free access to original images, we may direct users to paid sites where they can access the images they are looking for. We feel it is better to show our users where images of original records can be found (even at paid sites) and let them chose if they want to use those services. Many users find it helpful to know when images are available and where they can be found.
