FamilySearch Search Tips and Tricks
There is also an instruction video about searching indexed record collections on FamilySearch.org: FamilySearch Search Tips. The handouts and presentation slides for this video can be downloaded here: FamilySearch Search Tips Handouts. You may need to activate Microsoft Silverlight to watch the video (you will be asked to do so once you visit the webpage).
1. Starting a search:
- Start with someone who is deceased and try searching for them in a specific record.
- For example, search for your great grandmother on the 1910 U.S. census.
- Don’t fill in every field.
- Most records don’t have all of your ancestor’s information.
- Start with a basic search that includes first name (without middle name), last name, birthplace (state or country), and birth year.
- Only add death information if you are searching for a death record
2. If you don’t find your ancestor:
- Change your search parameters and search again.
- On the search results page, use the fields at the top left to change your search parameters (which fields have information).
- Possible search combinations include first name and birth place and date or last name and place of residence.
- Use filters to narrow your search results.
- On the search results page, use the filters at the bottom left to narrow your search by residence, dates, or collections.
- You can add and remove as many filters as you need.
- Try searching only a single record collection.
- There may be an error on the record such as a name spelled differently or an age that is ten years off that is making it difficult to find the record.
- Searching only that record will make it easier to find your ancestor.
3. Other Search Tips:
- Search with a year range.
- Ages are oftentimes incorrect on records for a number of reasons.
- Searching with a year range is more likely to pick up those variations.
- Search for variations in the spelling of names.
- Names are often spelled differently either by the person recording the name or by the person trying to read the handwriting and indexing the name.
- Make sure to search for variations in spelling, middle names, nicknames, initials, and longer or shorter variations of the same name.
- Use Browse Only record collections.
- FamilySearch has many record collections that have not yet been indexed. You can access these record collections online though you will have to search them page by page.
- Don’t ignore these collections, despite the time it takes to use them as they are often goldmines of information.
All FamilySearch Family Tree Tips Pages