Family Search tips for historical records and more:

As you Better Understand the way Family Search options work, you can find the historical records you need.

NB: Make sure you access all the Links below including: "Related Articles"

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Basics

• Have a goal. Know what you want to find. 
• Search for deceased people who were alive in 1950 or earlier.
• Start with a broad search. 
• You often get better results when you leave some search fields blank.
• Expect records and indexes to contain errors, spelling variations, and estimations.
• To search with additional information, click More Options.
• Try your search several times with variations:
  • Increase or decrease the date range.
  • Add or remove information. For example, if you searched with a birth city and county, search again with only the county.
  • Search for a family member of your target person.
  • Search for a woman with her maiden name. Search again with her married name. You can also search with just the first name of a woman and the names of her spouse or parents.
  • Estimate dates and places.
  • Add a spouse, father, mother, or other person to your search. To add fields, click More Options.
• Use the filters on the search results page.
• Always look at the image, if possible. Images often have more information than the index.

Field-specific search tips

First Names: Enter the first and middle names of the person. Your search results ignore the order of the names.

• Add or omit middle names.
• Try nicknames.
• Try spelling variations.
• If the individual moved to a new country, search for the name as it is spelled in the old country. Search again for the spelling used in the new country.
• Use wildcards. Enter * to replace zero or more characters. Enter ? to replace one character.
• Search with only a first name and relationships. Leave the Last Name field blank and complete the Spouse or Parents fields.

Last Names: Enter the last name of the person. Your search results preserve the order of the names.

• Try spelling and language variations.
• Search for women with their maiden names and married names.
• Use wildcards. Enter * to replace zero or more characters. Enter ? to replace one character.
• Leave the field blank, especially when you search for a woman. Enter other information, such as the names of the spouse or parents.

Life events

1. Click More Options.
2. Click the type of life event that you want to include in your search.
   • Birth
   • Marriage
   • Residence
   • Death
   • Any
      
3. Enter the place and year range.

• Try your search with different events.
• Try your search with no events.
• Sometimes you have information about an event other than birth, marriage, death, or residence. Use Any to enter information for events such as military enlistment or immigration.
• Here are suggestions for the place field:
   
  • Search at a more or less specific place level. For example, if you searched for a town, try the county, state, or district instead. Or enter just the country name.
  • Use wildcards in place names. Enter * to replace zero or more characters. Enter ? to replace one character.
  • Remove the place from your search. Instead, narrow search results with filters.
• Try these options for the year fields:
   
  • Increase or decrease the date range.
  • Search without a date. Instead, use the filters on the search results to narrow your search.
• You can include multiple events in your search when you want to find a specific type of record containing all the events.
   
  • To find a death record, you can search with both birth and death events. Death records often include both birth and death information.
  • To find a birth record, include only a birth event. Birth records usually lack death information.

Family members

1. Click More Options.
2. Click the type of family member that you want to include in your search.
   • Spouse
   • Father
   • Mother
   • Other person
3. Enter the names of the father, mother, spouse, or other person. Use the same tips as for the first and last names of the primary individual.

Other Options

1. Click More Options.
2. Click Location, Type, Batch Number, or Film Number.
3. Enter the requested information.

Exact Search

1. Next to the search button, click More Options.
2. Click the toggle next to Show Exact Search.
3. Click the Exact checkbox beneath the fields for which you want exact results.

Advanced tips and tricks

Find a child's birth record

1. Enter the child's name, place, and year range.
2. Click More Options.
3. Click the Father and Mother buttons.
4. Enter the parents' names.
5. As needed, try variations:
   • Both of the parents' full names.
   • The father's full name without the mother's name.
   • The mother's full married name without the father's name.
   • The mother's full maiden name without the father's name.
   • The father's full name with the mother's first name.
   • The mother's full maiden name with the father's first name.

Find all children in a family

1. Leave the first and last name fields blank.
2. Enter a place and year range if known.
3. Click More Options.
4. Click the Father and Mother buttons.
5. Enter the parents' names.
6. As needed, try variations for parents' names.

Find marriage records

1. Enter one person's name, place, and year range.
2. Click More Options.
3. Click Spouse.
4. Enter the name of the spouse.
5. As needed, try variations, such as the spouse's first name and the wife's maiden name.
6. To limit your search results to marriage records only, click Type, and click Marriage.

Search for a place where a person lived

Use the Residence option to find records identifying where a person lived. Some records contain an address or last place of residence. Birthplaces, marriage places, and death places are different from residence places.

1. Enter the person's name, place, and year range.
2. Click More Options.
3. Click Residence.
4. Enter a place where the person lived.

Find a woman's maiden name

Try to find a woman's maiden name on her children's or spouse's death records:

1. Enter the name, place, and year range for the woman's spouse or child.
2. Click More Options.
3. Click Type.
4. Click Death.

Search the records from a specific country, state, or province

1. Look or scroll down beneath the search fields.
2. Under Search by Place, enter the country, state, or province in the field.
3. Select the place from the list.
4. Conduct your search on the page that appears.

Search a specific collection

1. Look or scroll down beneath the search fields.
2. Under Find a Collection, enter keywords, such as the place and event.
3. Click a collection from the list.
4. Conduct your search on the page that appears.

What to do if you still cannot find a record

• Search the FamilySearch Catalog. The catalog includes books, online materials, microfilm, microfiche, and other publications.
• Try Explore Historical Images, which allows you to browse images of historical records that are not yet indexed.
• Learn more records for a specific location from the FamilySearch Wiki.
• Look in the FamilySearch Digital Library. 
• Take advantage of record hints in Family Tree.
• If you receive the error: "Too many requests", remove the wildcards from your search and try again.

Related articles:

1. How do I view a list of all record collections in Historical Records?

2. How do I search all historical record collections at once?

3. How do I search historical records by place or by using the world map?

4. How do I find an image in an unindexed collection in Historical Records?

5. What are record hints in Family Tree?

6. Getting the Most from Your Search: Understanding the Search Records Page

7. Advanced Strategies for Searching Historical Records