FamilySearch introduced Full Text Search in 2024. To say that this feature is a game changer is an understatement. In brief, Full Text Search is a tool for searching digitized records filmed over many decades by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The films became available online in the last decade. Searching was done either by using indexes, indexes generated by volunteers or by scrolling through the images page by page. Full Text Search started with probate and land records, but new groups of records appear regularly. This column provides a basic introduction to its use, while numerous training videos or websites provide even more details. You need a free FamilySearch account to access Full Text Search. Log into your account and scroll down until you see “Family Search Labs” with a large button for “View Experiments." Click on this button, then scroll down to “Expand Your Search with Full Text." Click on “Go to Experiment." You can also directly access Family Search Labs by entering www.familysearch.org/en/labs/ in the search bar. A search screen appears next. The options include searching by keywords (names, locations or unique text strings), name, place, date range and image group number (that is, film number assigned by FamilySearch). Enclosing text strings in quotations (examples, “Samuel Smith” or “north elkhorn river”) is often useful, and you can search names in either the keyword or name blocks. The location is one that is recognizable for record organization, often a city, county, state or country. Date range allows you to narrow a search, although often results from outside that range appear as “hits." Searching an image group number allows you to focus on specific records. Note that you do not have to fill in every field to search. Several features allow you to refine your search. A “+” allows you to search for records with more than one keyword. For example, if my ancestor Samuel Smith had a wife, Nancy, I could search for +“Samuel Smith” +Nancy to avoid hits for other Samuel Smiths. To avoid any records with Nancy, search for +“Samuel Smith” -Nancy. Wildcards in the form of “?” or “ *” are useful to account for varied spellings of a surname. For example , Ed*l*m*n for Eddleman of various spellings.
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