Search for people who are in my family tree

Denise373

I wish I could do a search for people who are just in my family tree.

My mother will remember a name of a family member and the only way for me to find that person is to dig through 249 pages of random suggestions.

If I could just narrow that down to just my family tree and not have to search through the entire data base, it would be so much better

Julia Szent-Györgyi

If it's a profile you've edited, then you should be able to find it in "My Contributions".

If it's a direct ancestor, you can use the fan chart and your OS's text-finding function (such as CTRL-F in Windows).

Otherwise, you're going to need to use third-party software in some form, because FS's Find function has no means of determining who is in "your tree" and who isn't.

A moderator combined a few of the previous threads on this topic: https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/comment/499184#Comment_499184

genthusiast

@Denise373

As Julia mentions, probably the most efficient current method of name only searching - assuming current linkages of tree profiles is accurate - involves expanding your Fan Chart to 7 generations,

possibly locating the Surname with Ctrl+F search, OR expanding that Surname to Starting person and try Ctrl+F again.

If that Surname is not in the list in either the first/second iteration (taking the seventh generation as possible starting persons) - you may as well use the general search, because hunting/pecking is likely to take you as long either way.

If the Surname is located in the Fan Chart Ctrl+F search, then you can either switch to Descendancy view (up to 4 generations are viewable) if the particular person is not listed - because that should give you more possible descendants to result in that name location.

If that doesn't help - it demonstrates the difficulty of not having My Tree separate (or in a 3rd-party solution) from FamilySearch Family Tree - and the difficult of programming such a solution (it would have to iterate through all the possible family lines of that name).

When the FamilySearch My Tree solution is implemented - announced at Rootstech 2023 - it might fill your request. Until its implementation and possible related filtering/search capability - Julia is correct - you would need to have your tree in a separate 3rd-party tree solution (or memory space) to locate the person more efficiently than the Tree general person search. Or if you have any further limiting search criteria - such as place or other family relationships (Spouse/ children) - the general search is probably more efficient.