| Samwalton9-WMF | |
| Jan 23 2023, 1:47 PM |
| F73131034: ancestry yes.PNG | |
| Mar 19 2026, 11:51 AM |
| F73130634: ancestry no.PNG | |
| Mar 19 2026, 11:51 AM |
| F66727626: Screenshot 2025-10-04 at 3.17.40 PM.png | |
| Oct 4 2025, 1:23 PM |
| F37130002: image.png | |
| Jul 6 2023, 12:12 AM |
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| Jul 6 2023, 12:12 AM |
| F36437274: Screenshot 2023-01-23 at 13.47.01.png | |
| Jan 23 2023, 1:47 PM |
While we can access Ancestry via the proxy successfully, the site looks to be having some issues when browsed.
Steps to reproduce
As a temporary fix, I've found that whenever this happens, I've been able to refresh the page, and it will load the search results from the page URL.
Nikki reports that the back button in your browser will cause you to stop being recognised as having access. This may be an unrelated issue.
At first glance, the issue looks identical to T322916. My guess is that both sites are configured similarly, given how closely linked they are.
I'm starting with the same cookie change we made for newspapers.com, which is currently waiting on deployment to staging.
https://github.com/WikipediaLibrary/twlight_ezproxy/pull/37
It looks like we'll need to do a little bit more here to address the hostname rewriting that happens on the cdn side of things. Happily, there's a decent breadcrumb for the problem in the other task.
@Samwalton9 I believe I have taken this as far as I can on my own. Our web requests are going to the right hosts and the cookies I spot checked looked good to me. Could we bring in some partner technical assistance like we did with newspapers.com?
There are several features on Ancestry and Newspapers which don't work via the proxy. For example, in the family-tree viewer the "Media gallery" and "Family group sheet" options send you to a 404 page. More seriously, trying to view an Ancestry user profile also results in a 404 while on Newspapers user profiles are viewable but attempting to Follow a user (Following is apparently necessary to contact registered users through their profiles) brings up a login prompt for an individual Ancestry or Newspapers account. I don't know whether it's worth trying to figure out how to report all this, or if it's all just considered (not)-working-as-intended.
I've resolved a number of underlying issues in staging, though I haven't solved the paging issue yet. I have a lead on where that problem is happening. See the the previous & next properties of this JavaScript object:
window.ancestry.search.pageModel = {
"number": 2,
"cursor": null,
"size": 20,
"max": 182750,
"firstHit": 21,
"lastHit": 40,
"allowedPages": {
"1": "?name=jon_doe&defaultFacets=PRIMARY_YEAR.PRIMARY_NPLACE",
"2": "?name=jon_doe&pg=2&defaultFacets=PRIMARY_YEAR.PRIMARY_NPLACE",
"3": "?name=jon_doe&pg=3&defaultFacets=PRIMARY_YEAR.PRIMARY_NPLACE",
"4": "?name=jon_doe&pg=4&defaultFacets=PRIMARY_YEAR.PRIMARY_NPLACE",
"5": "?name=jon_doe&pg=5&defaultFacets=PRIMARY_YEAR.PRIMARY_NPLACE",
"6": "?name=jon_doe&pg=6&defaultFacets=PRIMARY_YEAR.PRIMARY_NPLACE",
"7": "?name=jon_doe&pg=7&defaultFacets=PRIMARY_YEAR.PRIMARY_NPLACE"
},
"prev": "http://www.ancestryinstitution.com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org:9080/search/?name=jon_doe&defaultFacets=PRIMARY_YEAR.PRIMARY_NPLACE",
"next": "http://www.ancestryinstitution.com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org:9080/search/?name=jon_doe&pg=3&defaultFacets=PRIMARY_YEAR.PRIMARY_NPLACE"
};There's another error I noticed (alongside infinitely-loading search results) that looks to be related. Drop-down lists also infinitely load, despite clearing cache, disabling ad blockers, and using a different browser. Refreshing the page freezes selections in place.
To reproduce:
I spent a few hours today trying search & replace for all of the hostname building javascript functions for the search page. I was not having any luck, but I realized why at the very end of my time with it: the search function I was using was deminifying the javascript, making all of my queries for text replacement incorrect. I'll keep that in mind on my next pass at this. Of course, it would go quicker if we had some support from ancestry to just let us know where the properties for the search pageModel are set.
Resetting task status from "In Progress" to "Open" as this task has been "in progress" for more than one and a half years (see T380300).
Over the last few months I have had the following issue on and off when using Safari on Mac OS. When this error message appears I can't do anything to get around it. It only happens with the Wikipedia Library version of Ancestry in Safari. Switching to a different browser seems to work fine.
I also would like to ask whether you please could look into the trouble with Ancestry again. Perhaps we could get some help from Ancestry themselves to sort this out? I've just tried to search for my relatives in Ancestry, but search yielded no result, forwarding me to a login page in the end. It looks like our access has just expired. This should be checked first, before we look into any other technical issues.
I don't believe there is any problem with the general Ancestry connection through Wikipedia Library (it works perfectly well for me), but I do believe the original problem from January 2023 continues. My workaround, though this is far from ideal, is to reload my browser page each time I turn to a new search results page, as this then successfully display the results that previously did not populate on the page.
Yes, I just have to refresh each results page, which is a bit inconvenient. Surely it should have been fixed by now.
I'm afraid I cannot confirm that refreshing the results page solves the problem. When proceeding from one of my grandparents I get the message: "We were unable to find your grandparent in our records. Try a different grandparent."
Is it possible that what you are identifying as a problem with Wikipedia Library's connection with Ancestry is actually a "problem" (if you can call it that) with Ancestry? You've twice now have said that the issue is that no search results are shown when you search for one of your grandparents, but not everyone's grandparents are in Ancestry's database. Even if you paid for a direct Ancestry connection, you might not find everyone you search for. (This could be for a variety of reasons, such as whether Ancestry has records for the places your family lived, spelling variants, issues with interpretations of handwriting, etc.) For example, even if I knew a relative of mine lived in the United Kingdom in 1921, that doesn't guarantee that a search of Ancestry's 1921 UK Census will find that relative. That has nothing to do with Wikipedia Library access to Ancestry.
For example, are you finding results for your other grandparents/relatives on Ancestry? If so, any searches you run that produce no results are not because of Wikipedia.
I think the user is referring to the “grandparent” search on the homepage of Ancestry. It says “To find your family’s stories, start with a grandparent.”
I think the user is referring to the “grandparent” search on the homepage of Ancestry. It says “To find your family’s stories, start with a grandparent.”
Any kind of search, whether from the Search menu at the top of the home page, the "grandparent search" in the middle of the home page, or any other type of Ancestry search might produce no results. But you're probably right that that's the kind of search @Aschmidt is doing. It's still the case that a search not finding a match is not, in and of itself, a sign of a technical problem.
It seems my report was not clear enough. I am sorry about that. In fact, I used the grandparents search, and one of my grandfathers indeed was shown as a search result, but then there were no more data. When I clicked on my grandfather's entry, the said error message was shown. And this did not change when simply reloading pages. I then tried to reload all pages in Ancestry I came across, to no avail. I cannot say whether this is a problem in Ancestry or in Wikipedia LIbrary. This is why I reported my problem and why I asked for further investigation. I hope this makes it more clear so that you can have a further look into the issue that still is indicated on the Wikipedia Library overview of databases. Thanks, again.
@Aschmidt, what happens when you search for your grandfather using the search function, which you can access at the top menu of the Ancestry screen?
Thanks for insisting on this issue, @Coining . Over the Search entry in the top menu I could indeed find and retrieve documents on relatives of mine.
So, I think we can say that the Family history search in the main page seems fo fail, but the general search from the top menu works. The former seems to be an issue with Ancestry. Nothing we can do about it, can we?
I'm glad we found you a workaround. To check whether this is an issue with Ancestry or Wikipedia Library's connection with Ancestry, the best way would be to access Ancestry some other way (not through Wikipedia) and see if the error still occurs.
At the very least, the original issue (from January 2023) still exists, and even though there is a workaround to that one (refreshing the page on the web browser), it would be nice if the issue were addressed. Alas, I only have enough skill to identify the issue, not to fix it.
Emphasis mine.
Working on your own personal family tree is NOT how Wikipedia Library access should be used. It costs a lot to subscribe to Ancestry.com starting at about US$115 every six months for basic access within the US. It varies by country and increases for global access. (There's limited free access to Ancestry.com too.) I don't know if you are a paid subscriber or use the free version of Ancestry.com. In either case:
Ancestry and the 80+ other services including newspapers.com donate access to us through Wikipedia Library. It is a privilege to get access. If granted, it is to be used for our WMF-related project work.
I doubt that Wikipedia Library Team resources would be assigned to this. We still haven't resolved the original January 2023 "infinite scrolling" problem, i.e. T327653, and there is another concern as of July 2023. Those would likely take priority. (Also, data providers won't be thrilled if they find out we're using our free Wikipedia Library access to evade paying for subscription services.)
Perhaps you were misled by the test suggestions made in the discussion thread by @Coining and @TrottieTrue and @Aschmidt in January 2026. Even though there is mention of doing a search for one's own grandfather, that was meant as part of testing the existing problems we've had on Wikipedia Library with the Ancestry connection. This summary by Coining seems accurate. Please forgive me, @MaplesyrupSushi if that was a cause of confusion to you and motivated your comment.
Please notice that the Grandparents search is for a specialized (and not an especially useful!) "Stories" purpose. It is described by Ancestry as:
Family history search. Simplified.
StoryScout® can bring the fascinating details of your ancestors’ lives directly to you, and put you on a path to start making your own family discoveries. To find your family’s stories, start with a grandparent.
StoryScout brings up very little information if any. It is some sort of collated service. Don't use it. It doesn't have anything to do with grandparents either. The StoryScout URL is of this form https://www.ancestry.com/stories/public/connect/matches-found? Note that it is much further down on the landing page.
As @Coining wrote earlier, search using the Search function, which you can access from the top of the Ancestry landing page. This is the URL form for actual searches https://www-ancestryinstitution-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/search/? It works from either of the two search areas I redlined. Remember, there is nothing to stop you from searching for a grandparent or other family member from this entry point.
To summarize, it appears that our Wikipedia Library subscription to Ancestry.com remains active, i.e. it has not expired. Nothing is failing, neither the recommended Search functionality nor the so-called "Family History" StoryScout. On the other hand, the initial problem from Jan 2023 remains. This workaround described by @Coining https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T327653#11572114 is effective but inconvenient.
Also: Remember to refresh/reload the page. Don't hit the back button as that will log you out of Ancestry as described here https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T327653#8729963