Learning How To Tune Your Ancestry.com Search

1. Learning How to Tune Your
Ancestry.com Search
Anne Gillespie Mitchell
Roots Tech 2014

2. Basic Search Techniques Everyone
Should Know

3. Searching at Ancestry.com
Global searches = 31,000+ titles, 12 billion+ records

4. Two Things to Think About
1) What makes your ancestor unique?
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Name
Places
Events
People
2) What unique aspects will be included in records?

5. What you put in your search form
will be matched in your search
results.
Unless you “tune” your search, just
one field needs to match the record
to be in your results.

6. Start with just a few basic facts
Name, location, estimated year of birth

7. Advanced
Search Options

8. First and Last name filters
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9. Wildcards
Try wildcards
with exact on
names to find
unusual
spellings of
names.
Sm?th*
matches
Smith, Smyth,
and Smythe.
You must
have at least
3 characters
to use a
wildcard.
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10. Wildcards
• * matches zero or more characters
• Ann* matches Ann, Anne, Anna,
Annabelle, etc.

11. Wildcards
• * matches zero or more characters
• Ann* matches Ann, Anne, Anna,
Annabelle, etc.
• ? matches one character
• Ann? matches Anne, Anna

12. Types of Locations
Lived in matches
a residence
event, such as a
census location
Any event
matches any
location in the
record

13. Location filters
Start searching at the “smallest location” you know, such as a county.
Expand your search as needed.
Then select adjacent counties
and work your way out
geographically to expand your
search.
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14. Location filters
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15. Location
filters
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16. Sneak Peek Time!

17. Sliders

18. Sliders

19. Sliders

20. Sliders

21. Sliders

22. Back to Tuning Your Search

23. Lifespan Filtering
• Entering only a birth year
• Assume the person lived about 100 years.
• Records returned = birth year – 5, and birthdates + 102.

24. Lifespan Filtering
• Entering only a birth year
• Assume the person lived about 100 years.
• Records returned = birth year – 5, and birthdates + 102.
• Entering only a death date
• Assumes the person lived about 100 years.
• Records returned = death year – 105 to death year +2.

25. Limit your scope
At the bottom of the advanced
search, you can see the types of
records you will see
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26. Collection Priority

27. Use facets
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28. Do a Category Search
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29. Search in a Data Collection
What’s there is what is indexed
Lived In in Census Records will get
you that specific county
Exact means exact
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30. Search in a Data Collection
What’s in the description?
• Source information
From Maine Marriages, 1892-1996

31. Search in a Data Collection
What’s in the description?
• Source information
• Data coverage
From Maine Marriages, 1892-1996

32. Search From Trees
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33. Photos and Stories
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34. Photos and Stories
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35. Photos and Stories
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36. What Question are You Asking
and Why You Need to Ask It

37. Global Search is great.
It’s a quick way to get started
finding information about your
ancestors.
But you need to know what you
want to know before the
information is useful.

38. Ask yourself, what do I want to
know?
When and where was James Smith
born?
What was Jane Jones’ maiden
name?

39. Now that you have the question, you
can identify where you might find the
answer.
Let’s say James Smith was likely born in
the 1800’s in South Carolina.
South Carolina didn’t have birth records
then.

40. There are still lots of records that will
have the information:
• Census
• Obituaries
• Marriage records
• Family bibles
• Military records
• Passenger lists
• Naturalization records
• And on, and on….

41. Location, Location, Location

42. Records are usually created at the
location the event happened.
Understanding where it might have
happened is key to your search.

43. Timelines!

44. Framework Records

45. Start with the Card Catalog
Choose Census & Voter Lists

46. Now you can filter by location

47. Every data collection you see is
part of the Census & Voter List
category and has at least a few
records from the United States
Select Virginia

48. Every data collection you see is
part of the Census & Voter List
category and has at least a few
records from Virginia
Unlike the Place Pages which were
data collections specifically about
Virginia but nowhere else, these
collections may have other places
as well
Choose 1800

49. There are 31 Data Collections that have at
least some Census & Voter List Records
from Virginia from the 1800

50. Maybe make a spreadsheet of Sources
you want to check every time you
research Virginians from the 1800s

51. You may want to browse to see
what is available
Ancestry.com has added over a billion
records from City Directories

52. Vital Records: Birth, Marriage
and Death

53. Before you look for a Vital Record,
determine if it exists

54. The Source and Red Book are both
available for free

56. Select Virginia Vital Records

57. Select Virginia County Resources

58. Summary of what was recorded and when

59. There are also Resources and History on the
Place Pages

61. Looking for Possible Locations for Virginia
Death Records in the 1850’s?

62. How about Augusta, Virginia?

63. Immigration: Where did they
come from?

64. Try http://www.ancestry.com/immigration

65. How about the Ancestry.com Wiki?
http://www.ancestry.com/wiki/index.php?title=Overview_of_Immigration_Research

66. Immigration Records for a Specific State or Country?
Place Pages

67. Immigration Records for a Specific State or
Country?
Place Pages

68. Military: What Wars Did They
Fight?

69. Search records by conflict
Try http://www.ancestry.com/military

70. Military Records? Fold3
Ancestry.com members get a 50% discount

71. Want to filter by time and place?
Card Catalog

72. Want to educate yourself?
Try the wiki

73. Categories of Records:
Local, Family and
Church Histories

74. Some of the most underused BUT most
valuable resources are Local, Family and
Church Histories

75. Need information about a specific County?
Even if your ancestor isn’t in a particular
history you may learn about what life was
like during their lifetime

76. Card Catalog will also help you filter down
your selections

77. Try putting a location into Keywords(s)
which will search title AND description
And choose Schools, Directories & Church
Histories

78. Or try a surname

79. Or try a religion

80. References and Useful Links
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Where you can find me
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