TWEEKING THE DATABASES (or How to Search an Online Database to Get Quick
Results)
General Search Tips
1.Don't Depend on Soundex –
-gives words that sound like or have similar consonants that the word you are looking has.
2. Search Surname Variants or Spellings
-Garbage in = Garbage out
-Try several ways of spelling the name or names
3. Use Nicknames and initials or even Middle Names
Elizabeth could be Liz, Lizzie, Lisa, Beth, Eliza, Betty, Bessie, or Rose
Women can show up a “Mrs. Wright”
4. Consider Alternate Surnames
-names change when people immigrated
- Use “begins with” in some databases (first 3 letters of name)
5. Swap the first and last names
-try entering the surname in the first name field and vice versa
6. Use “Wildcard Search”
Read the individual database search tips to find our what the wildcard symbol is.
Ancestry is * -- Dem* will return Dempsey, Demsey, Demprey, Demdrey , etc.
Canadian Archives %
7. Combine the search fields
-leave the name off entirely and search for place only and/or age/ or sex etc.
8. Less is More - Search for the bare minimum first
Search for only a surname and place or a surname and an age.
9. Search for other Family Members
- Search for brothers and sisters or aunts or grandparents or even neighbours
10. Search by individual Database when doing a global search
- Each database will have different search criteria that you may not get from the first global search
Ancestry.com $ - Specific Tips
A. Use “Advanced Search” whenever searching.
-provides many more options for effective searching.
-apply some of the tips easier with the advanced search option like date range or marriage only
B. Narrow the search with locality
Please note that a surname plus locality search for Dorset records would give you birth,
marriages etc. for Dorset only but would not give you any military records as that would be a
federal government record and not a Dorset record.
C. Alternate Locality Search
If New Brunswick didn’t get any results need to try. NB or N.B. or even just Canada
Try putting locality in the “key word” search field and leaving the locality field empty.
D. Ancestry now does Soundex searches
-can be useful but it does give you many more hits.
E. Sometimes Manual is better
-I personally feel you more correct hits using the “exact” feature box checked and use wildcards.
F. Wild about Wildcards
-more often than not, transcripts of records cannot be read properly because of age, poor
spelling or just mistakes. Wildcard searches help to circumnavigate those mistakes
-must use the first 3 letters plus *
-can use a ? Instead of a letter - “Sm?th” will get Smith and/or Smyth
Five Ancestry Advanced User Search Tips
1. DATE : In the date area, it’s always best to fudge the year by +/-1 or +/-2. This brings you a
broader range of results where a date is miscalculated or given incorrectly. So this is one
example of where you can choose “exact” but broaden the scope beyond one date.
2. LOCATION: As you type in a location, options for place names appear. It’s a good idea to click on
the appropriate match for your search. This allows you to produce the most matches based on
how Ancestry.com has identified place names in its records
3. EXACT: In addition to finessing an exact date by adding or subtracting a few years, you can also
change the “exact” default settings for names by clicking on the link under each search box and
choosing the settings that help your search. These options also appear when an exact match is
unchecked. Use them judiciously.
4. GO BACK: After conducting an advanced search, on the upper left you will see a “Searching for
…” box that provides you with a quick overview of your search criteria, as well as an “Edit
Search” button if you want to further fiddle with your dates, places or relationships. Any time
you want to adjust your search parameters, use this button. If you use your browser’s back
button, you’ll automatically wipe out much of the search.
5. BE SELECTIVE: Shorten the number of hits by selecting a certain category to search individually.
Like if you are looking for a census records, select Census records and zero in on the time you
want to search by selecting the census that is the closest match.
Find My Past.com $-Searches several English Databases but most effective to search specific ones
more thoroughly.
 Search over 1.5 billion family history records
 Find your ancestors and start building your family tree with findmypast.co.uk's comprehensive
British family history records. You'll also find collections from Ireland and around the world to
help you continue your research.
 They add new records every month, but their most popular records currently include:
 Birth, marriage and death records
 Census records
 British newspapers
 Parish baptisms, marriages and burials
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Military records covering WWII, WWI and earlier
Passenger lists of ships leaving the UK
My Heritage.com $
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Search for all the names you need, plus their spelling variations, in hundreds of major genealogy
databases, effortlessly.
In a single search, you can: Search 1526 + proven genealogy databases worldwide
Include up to 5 spelling variants
Store and annotate your search results for further research
Schedule your searches to recur automatically, notifying you of new findings
Save time and focus on the results instead of the mechanics of the search
FreeREG.org.uk –Transcripts of English Parishes- must put in surname and county as minimum.
FreeBMD.org.uk- index for British Civil Registers – 1837 until almost present time
Rootsweb.com –great for completed genealogies, start with only a name and then add it another
keyword
World Vital Records $ WorldVitalRecords.com was founded in 2006 to provide simple and
affordable access to more than 4.2 billion names in family history record collections worldwide,
including:
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Over 158 million digitized images, including US and UK Censuses
Over 300 million names from birth, marriage and death records
Over 75 million names from military records
Over 100 million pages of newspapers, 1739 to present
One of world's largest historical map collections with 1.5 million maps
More than 8,000 high school, college and military yearbooks
More than 30 million tombstone photos
basic searches, will take keyword and has an exact selection function
www.rootsireland.ie – largest source of Irish Records $
FreeREG.org.uk –Transcripts of English Parishes- must put in surname and county as minimum.
FreeBMD.org.uk- index for British Civil Registers – 1837 until almost present time
Rootsweb.com –great for completed genealogies, start with only a name and then add it another
keyword – Roots Web Thingy searches the whole site http://sitesearch.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgibin/search
Manitoba Vital Stats : http://vitalstats.gov.mb.ca/query.phphttp
Canadian Census Records: http://automatedgenealogy.com/census11
Saskatchewan’s Vital Stats : http://genealogy.ehealthsask.ca/vsgs_srch.aspx
Irish Records - http://www.irishorigins.com/