This new feature is one of the most exciting new features that FamilySearch has created in a long time. It’s a great new way to find several historical records you may not have found in your searching. You can start this search right from the Family Tree. So go onto FamilySearch.org and try out this new feature by going to Family Tree. I am sure you will be delighted with how easy it is to find records you may have missed.
- Select a deceased person in the tree and click to go to their details page.
- Click the new Search Records link. FamilySearch conducts a search on our historical records using the person’s name and first vital date.
3. The search results opens up in another browser window that shows records that match for the person you were searching on. Click on a record to see the full details of the original record or to see a copy of the original record.
4. The full record will be displayed. To add the record to that person, click Attach to Family Tree. You can also click Add to My Source Box to add the record to your source box.
5 . A box will appear with the name of the person whose tree you want to attach the record to. If that person does not appear, click History List to show the list of people you recently viewed in Family Tree, or click Search Family Tree to begin a search for the person you want to attach the record to.
6. When you click the History List, you will see a list of people you viewed in Family Tree or set as a root. The History List remembers the last 50 people you put at the root of the tree or looked at their personal details page. When you find the person you want to attach the record to, click Select.
7. Verify that this is the correct person. Fill in the reason this record is valid for this person. Then click Attach.
Please note that this search feature may not find all of the records that are in the FamilySearch database. The records that come back are based on the information you used to do your search. That information consists of the person’s name and the earliest vital date (birth, christening, death, or burial) on the person’s Tree record. The automatic search will find a lot of the records in the database, but it may not find everything.
If you think there may be more records available, try using some other search strategies to find all available records. For example, if the record contains a woman’s maiden name, you won’t find records about her that show her married name instead (such as census or death records.)
The new Search Records feature now provides vital dates with a range of plus or minus 2 years. Previously, it only used an exact year date. This is useful for finding records like census records where birth dates can be calculated and slightly off.
