Who among us has not scratched our heads in bewilderment when entering a simple name, date and place into Ancestry's search boxes only to be hit with thousands of hits that have not much if anything to do with what you entered? Come on, you know exactly what I am talking about, right?
Once we know WHERE to look for genealogical information we need to know HOW to find what we are looking for. We have all probably heard of filtering our search but there is a knack to it that often defies reason. That is what I have been searching for lately. Now I just need to know how to search in the places I have become familiar with.
If only it were as simple as they make it look with those little search boxes! Remember if it looks too good to be true, it probably isn't true! Once I become good at the filtering, I'll need lots of practice because every single genealogy question is like a different finger print. Each situation is unique and comes with a personalized set of problems to solve.
It has been my experience that there are not too many what we use to call "Roll Outs" in oral surgery. A roll out is a tooth that will just roll right out with the proper finessing and skills for that procedure. It doesn't happen often but when it does it is a great thing! It is kind of like hitting the Big Bertha at Tahoe. Fabulous but rare. That is how genealogy is for most of us. All the techniques and learning do not eliminate the work in most cases. And just like surgeons need practice, genealogists do likewise!
Carol's newsletter of this week had some great tips from the Ancestry Insider on the class both he and I attended with Crista Cowan at BYU a few weeks ago. With Carol's permission I am including some of that newsletter here. ***Apologizing in advance for the spacing issues on Carol's newsletter excerpt. This is what happens when two different formats collide on Blogger.
" It’s all About Knowing how to Search!
At the 2013 BYU Family
History and Genealogy Conference, Crista Cowan gave a presentation called; “Searching
Successfully To Reveal Your Ancestors
Story.” (Searching on Ancestry) Crista
is known as the “Barefoot Genealogist” at Ancestry.com, and has worked there for
nine and a half years.
Crista
began her presentation with these points:
· Ancestry.com has a
privacy rule and living people are considered private.
· People are considered
living as long as birth dates are within the past 100 years and where there is
nothing in the death date field.
· It is a good idea to
sync your tree with Family Tree Maker (if that is the software program you use), this way you can keep a copy of your
database with images and documents on your desktop computer.
· You are unable to
sync your tree between your Ancestry.com tree and Family Search/FamilyTree or
any other desktop trees other than FamilyTreeMaker.
· Ancestry’s feature
“Shaky Leaves” or “hints” are suggestion of records that might match
individuals in your tree.
· Ancestry.com provides
hints to the top 10% of their databases as a way to get people started, but
“hints” come with caution…they are only hints.
· Since 90% of the
collections are not hinted, don’t stop after only reviewing the “hints.” Search
for additional records.
· It is suggested that
at first you skip the Ancestry Family Tree and look at records first.
· Family Trees should
be used as clues and NOT facts.
· When checking the Family
Trees check which have sources.
Do
You Want Better Search Results?
Go to the
Advanced Search form. The home
page search box is as simple as possible, in the advanced mode, under every
field there is a search filter.
Different kinds of field have different filters, see the following
filters;
Name Filters: Filters for names are Default and Exact.
The Exact setting as some additional options: phonetic matches, similar
meanings, and matching initials. Any or all can be specified. As the “Insider”
understood the presentation, the Default setting acts as if all these are set.
Example:
Crista’s grandfather was always called
“Junior.” He thought his name was Frederick, but it was actually Fred. As
simple as the name Fred is, it was often spelled Fredrick, Frederich, Freddie
or Freddy.
The
Default setting will match all the above including “F.”
If “Exact”
is set, Fred will match only Fred.
BUT: if Exact is
set as Phonetic: Fred will match Fred, Freddy and others like Freda, but
not Fredrick, Frederick, Frederich, but not Freddie or Freddy.
If Exact
is set with Similar: Fred will match Fred, Frederick, Fredrick,
Frederich, but not Freddie or Freddy.
If Exact
is set with Initials, Fred will match Fred and F.
Wildcards
can be used. Using the asterisk wildcard, Fred* will match the entire above
list, while Frederic (?) will match only Frederich, and Frederick. To activate
wildcards, change the filter to “Restrict to exact”
If you specify a wildcard the search will be exact, even if the
default setting is selected. To use
wildcards, you must have at least three consecutive characters and can’t
have wildcards at both beginning and ending of the name.
Year Filter: Crista suggests not setting
an exact year. The records could be incorrect or transcribed incorrectly. The
person providing the information may have lied or the recorder may have rounded
the number. It is suggested that
the researcher estimate the birth year from the age given, Ancestry will not
return a record without a birth year.
Location Filters: Be careful about setting birth place as
exact, boundaries change, etc. and be sure not to specify a city as census
record don’t specify cities.
You can
set the filter to restrict a county, adjacent county, state and adjacent state
or country. (To use these settings, you must select the place from the drop down
list when you enter it.)
Crista
suggests for the first search, and typically
Specifies,
“Lived In” and restricts “State” and seldom uses Exact.
Other Advanced Controls:
The
advanced search form has a Collection Priority
It also
has a control which can restrict results to record types: historical, family trees, stories and publications, photos and
maps. Remember: this is also a
“Sticky” setting. {Bonnie here...Can this be why we are getting all those unrelated hits? I am going to check those setting immediately on my Ancestry account!}
Results: You can quickly scan through records on top if you know a lot about the person. “Never go through more than a page or two.” Crista said “If what you want is not coming up in the first results, on the right, click on Categories or Records.
Using these search controls and the records on Ancestry.com you can reveal your ancestor’s story."
Results: You can quickly scan through records on top if you know a lot about the person. “Never go through more than a page or two.” Crista said “If what you want is not coming up in the first results, on the right, click on Categories or Records.
Crista
suggests using the browser tabs.
When viewing a list of results, you can right click on a result to open
it up, in anew tab. (In Firefox I
(“The Insider”) ctrl-click to get the same effect.) Leave this tab open. Then it
will be easy to compare record to record.
Crista
likes to transcribe (or extract) records.
This forces you to pay attention to the information in the records and
to the entire record.
Put you
extracts in a chronological list. It won’t quite be a story, but close. Think
about additional collections that will help add to your story. Some collections are not name indexed,
consider them as well. Maps are an example of this.
Using these search controls and the records on Ancestry.com you can reveal your ancestor’s story."
Crista has worked for Ancestry for over 9 years as Carol mentioned and it is pretty apparent she knows the system. She was the only presenter that did not have a syllabus at the conference so I was typing as fast as I could and trying to listen. Her presentations are fast-paced and well-delivered. She is enthusiastic and inspirational and passionate. All the elements required for a good day of learning will be available. Crista also does live podcasts on ancestry.com Tuesday and Thursdays mornings on various topics and many of them can be found on YouTube if you prefer to watch and listen rather just read. There are so many way to learn the same things. Use what you find to be best for your learning style. For "How-To" information it doesn't get much better than YouTube.
I think this seminar where she teaches most of the day will be very valuable. Early bird registration is only $38.00 for the day! (After September 23rd it goes to $48.00.) It is being held at the Hyatt Regency right there on the Embarcadero across from The Ferry Building so it should be a snap to take BART. Look on the website about parking prices if you are not sure if BART is best now, you will be! Jim and I are going and I think Carol H and Linda B are probably going as well. Come along, it should be fun!
This is one of my favorite photos
that I took on the Bay Bridge while
Jim was driving about 50 mph. Pure luck!
You can see the Hyatt Regency
just behind The Ferry Building.
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