TIP: SURNAME BASED RESEARCH ??

Dennis J Yancey · March 25, 2022

ARE YOU RESEARCHING A PARTICULAR SURNAME(S) across the world – or across an entire region?

How many of you are doing a “One Name (Surname) study” whereby you are focusing your research on anyone by a given surname – either globally or just in a certain region?

Or even if you are not doing a “one name study” per se - - are you still interested in finding documents and records for a particular surname (not just one specific family)

If the above applies to YOU – one really interesting exercise is to see what other people have uploaded to FamilySearch Memories for given surname along with a specific subject or key word.

You can do this by using the FamilySearch Memories FIND utility

Here is the link: https://www.familysearch.org/photos/find

Note that this FIND utility will look for any keyword(s) you type in – and look for those keywords in the title or description of millions of items that have been uploaded to FamilySearch Memories.

Please be aware that if you wish to do a COMPOUND search (use two or more search terms) - - you MUST use the “AND” phrase between those terms – and it must be in CAPS for it to work as it should.

BELOW are just some interesting examples of items one can find.

Below the links are set to use the surname SMITH - - but to look for any other surname - after you click on the link – simply change the SMITH to your surname of choice – and re-execute the query.

What are some keywords that you would look for??

FAMILY BIBLES

https://www.familysearch.org/photos/find?searchTerms=SMITH%20AND%20BIBLE&searchType=text-search&searchCategories=IMAGE%2CPDF%2CTEXT%2CAUDIO%2CALBUM&page=1&maxRecords=50&firstRecord=0&_=1648225029673

NEEDLEWORK SAMPLERS

https://www.familysearch.org/photos/find?searchTerms=SMITH%20AND%20SAMPLER&searchType=text-search&searchCategories=IMAGE%2CPDF%2CTEXT%2CAUDIO%2CALBUM&page=1&maxRecords=50&firstRecord=0&_=1648225029673

FRAKTUR

https://www.familysearch.org/photos/find?searchTerms=SMITH%20AND%20FRAKTUR&searchType=text-search&searchCategories=IMAGE%2CPDF%2CTEXT%2CAUDIO%2CALBUM&page=1&maxRecords=50&firstRecord=0&_=1648225029673

AUDIO FILES

https://www.familysearch.org/photos/find?searchTerms=SMITH&searchType=text-search&searchCategories=AUDIO&page=1&maxRecords=50&firstRecord=0&_=1648225193620

PROBATE RECORDS

https://www.familysearch.org/photos/find?searchTerms=SMITH%20AND%20PROBATE&searchType=text-search&searchCategories=IMAGE%2CPDF%2CTEXT%2CAUDIO%2CALBUM&page=1&maxRecords=50&firstRecord=0&_=1648225308076

CERTIFICATES

https://www.familysearch.org/photos/find?searchTerms=SMITH%20AND%20CERTIFICATE&searchType=text-search&searchCategories=IMAGE%2CPDF%2CTEXT%2CAUDIO%2CALBUM&page=1&maxRecords=50&firstRecord=0&_=1648225410331