Here’s the next in my occasional series of bite-size Quick Tips. Click on the Quick Tips tag for my other Quick Tips. Because I tend to write longer posts, I wanted to provide a quick-to-read (and quick-to-write) post every couple of weeks on a small topic that pops into my head. I learned this trip from Amy Johnson Crow’s excellent, Getting Savvy with FamilySearch workshop.
Search for an ancestor without using his name
When you fill out a search form on FamilySearch on Ancestry, you typically enter the name into the search box of the ancestor whose records your searching for. That seems like a no-brainer, doesn’t it? But if you’re having trouble finding records on a research subject whose parents’, spouses’s or siblings’ names you know, try the leaving the person’s name blank an instead entering the name of one or more of those relatives. Sometimes you’ll find documents that did not come up with a search on the ancestor’s name.
Why does it work? There are lots of possibilities. Perhaps there was an indexing error on the research subject’s name. Or maybe you were searching on a full name when the document in question uses a nickname or initials. It’s an easy thing to try and you might be pleasantly surprised by the results!
Photo by Sam Dan Truong on Unsplash
