How do I get started in Explore Historical Images?

Audio Example

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Start your search with a place

To begin, enter a place where your ancestor lived. Get a feel for how many search results are available, and then add filters if you need them.

If your initial search brings back too many results, add filters to shorten the list.

From the Explore Historical Images main page, click More Options. Enter the desired information and click Search.

In the Refine Search panel on the right, select the desired filters to refine the results.

Places within: Narrow your search geographically. The filter suggests smaller places within the original search parameter. If you searched "France," for example, you could then narrow your search to "Burgundy."
Date: Narrow your search to records that were created during a specific year or range of years. As you type, click a standardized entry as it appears.
Life event: Narrow your search to records for a specific life event. Click an event on the list. Then you can narrow your search further with the additional options.
Select Collections: Some record sets are combined into collections of similar records. You can search most of the collections by name or browse the images.
Show Advanced Search:
- Record Type: Narrow your search to an exact type of historical record. The system filters out anything with a different label, so be careful. If you filter for Marriage Records, for example, you filter out anything labeled Vital Records or Church Records, which can include marriage records.
- Keyword: A keyword describes the entire image group. Use words that you expect to find in the record.
- Creator: Search for records created by a specific organization, government, or other entity.
- Custodian: Search for records that a specific organization, government, or other entity owns.
- Image Group Number (DGS): Search by an image group's unique identification number, also known as a Digital Genealogical Society number.

Click Update at the bottom of the Refine Search panel to refresh the page with the new filters.

Click the Options tab in the upper-right corner of the page to change how you view the results.

Search by Map: click the toggle to show a map of the area you are searching in the Refine Search panel.
Content to Show: click the box next to each item you would like shown on the results page. Unclick the box to remove that field from the results page.
- Image Group Number
- Place
- Date
- Record Type
- Number of Images
- Title
- Volume
- Language
- Creator
- Custodian
- Archival Reference Number
- Capture Date
- Date Created

Look for a table of contents at the beginning of the film or an index at the end.

See if the film is divided into books. If so, check the title of each book, and concentrate on the one that is most relevant.

Look at a few images and identify how the images are organized. Try to predict where the image that interests you could be. Here is an example:

A set of marriage records contains 1,874 images for the years 1840–1898. You can see that the images are in chronological order.
Your ancestor married in 1870—approximately half-way between 1840 and 1898.
Skip to image 937. How close are you to marriage records from 1870?
Move quickly through the image group in larger segments until you come to a record that seems close. At that point, you can use the arrow buttons to browse image by image until you find what you are looking for.

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