Searching with Wildcards in FamilySearch • FamilySearch
Searching with Wildcards in FamilySearch • FamilySearch
The Search features in FamilySearch.org are very powerful. One that is especially powerful is the ability to use Search with a character kno…
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I've been researching my family for 50 years ad for the past 15 years taught how to research bimonthly in my local library. I've also written articles published by genealogical forums, societies on wildcard searching. Many are available through Google searches.
I'll make this simple with a German ancestry example. In former years, many, most? German boys were baptized with a first name of some form of John and a second or Rufname (calling name). George Foreman, the boxer named all his boys George, with a second "calling name".
I therefore teach students to enter an asterisk before and after the name they "think" is their ancestor's name to cover the possibilities.
Today, I believe for the first time, that approach bit me in the butt. Unless there actually was a first name preceding the "known" name, no records with the known name were returned. Specifically, the student thought her grandfather's name was "Moses", because her grandmother called him "Mos". I entered mos, believing I had covered all possibilities, including Moses, Mose, Amos and any unknown first name.
For the first time, I think, the only records returned had something preceding the M. No records starting with M were returned.
So, has something changed? And, if not, had do I do research effectively for the cases I posed?
Thank you
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I am not sure what happened, but the comments I left last night no longer apply to the same searches I tried yesterday. The asterisk before and after First Names no longer excludes records with names starting with the letter following the first asterisk. For example, "Mos" now returns records for Mose and Moses.
Also, Amos and names preceding Amos, Mose and Moses.
If my comments had anything to do with this, thank you
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@Bob Vornlocker Thank you for your comment. Online Genealogy Consultations are freely available from the FamilySearch Library.
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