Find an ancestor using Historical Records

Search for Specific Historical Records or Collections

WHERE DO I LOOK?

When searching for records, we may not know how to find the records we need. 

We may not even be aware that they exist.

• You will want to know as many of the following as possible:

• Name of the Record/Collection/Topic
• Location or area covered by the Record
• Time the record covers.

• Other Actions that may help to search the Wiki
  • Use different ways to search and browse

• Example:

• Carlisle Indian School Records

Can you help me?

Looking for  answers to my Family History Questions, I came to the Family Search Wiki and  asked "Can the Wiki help me?"

• By going to the wiki and following many of these steps we can often find sources that help.

How do I find the Carlisle Indian Industrial School?

1. We went to the Main Page

2. Browsed by county/ state or country and found:

• (example: Pennsylvania). Also we can browse by topic
• (example: Carlisle Indian Industrial School (Pennsylvania) Picture at left)

3. Clicked on a county/state or country page or topic page that would lead to possible pages.

• You may find Topics on the right side of the page with many items to search:

• (example American Indians)

4. Clicked and searched.

• At the resulting page you should find a list of sources:

• (example: Indians of Pennsylvania)

5. Then within these sources you may find the item that you need:

• (example: Carlisle Indian Industrial School (Pennsylvania))

Further Help for Beginners

• Principles of Family History Research
• Family History for Beginners
• Help:Keys to success using the Wiki
• FamilySearch Wiki:Success Stories

You can Help on the Wiki

You can help.

• An easy beginning to adding to the Wiki
  • Create an internal link also
  • Create an external link

Check out the following links for things you can do to make the Wiki a better research tool.

• Wiki care and support
• Contribute to the Wiki

Group Communication and Actions

We can work together and communication is a main part of that work.

• We have Forums that help us work with each other. The link below is to the three forums that are specifically for the Wiki. By reading the posts and posting our own ideas and questions we can help ourselves and others understand the goals and work on the Wiki.

• Wiki Forums

We also can communicate to each other in several other ways both on the discussion pages for each article and page and on the User discussion pages.

• We can discuss each of the pages and items on these pages by putting our comments on the page connected to each page.
  • Help:Discussion Pages (Talk Pages)

• We can also talk to each of the User in the Wiki that are registered.
  • Talk pages