Is there any guidance / HELP article on making searches using FIND?
I have long been aware that there are limitations regarding making "Exact" searches using the FIND feature in Family Tree, but wonder if these are outlined anywhere?
It must be quite baffling to newcomers to discover the kind of filtered-down searches that can be made at https://www.familysearch.org/search/ are not possible at https://www.familysearch.org/search/tree/name?from=tree . (Note - one has to click on MORE OPTIONS to reach the required search pages)
As an example, I wanted to discover how many individuals had been added to Family Tree (within the county of Yorkshire) with the first name WRIGHTSON. A search using FIND, in spite of checking the First Name field, still produces names where no first name has been inputted, but where the last name is WRIGHTSON. This is in contrast to a search for records (using SEARCH), which - if just the First Name is entered and checked - omits results where it appears (without a first name) in the Last Name field.
The pages at https://www.familysearch.org/search/tree/results?count=20&q.anyPlace=Yorkshire%2C%20England%2C%20United%20Kingdom&q.anyPlace.exact=on&q.givenName=wrightson&q.givenName.exact=on and https://www.familysearch.org/search/record/results?count=20&q.anyPlace=Yorkshire%2C%20England&q.anyPlace.exact=on&q.givenName=wrightson&q.givenName.exact=on illustrate this difference in behaviour, although there are no doubt many other examples (involving names, places and time periods) to illustrate the problem.
Of course, the general problem in raising issues like this is our inability to get messages through to, say, the team / engineers responsible for maintaining FIND. So, how can we ever hope to discover how aware FamilySearch / Family Tree developers are of these issues, let alone if they ever intend to make the changes that would considerably reduce our Results lists when using FIND?
Failing not being able to engage directly with the appropriate team on such issues, surely there should at least be a page on the website that explains the uses and limitations of the FIND function? Sorry if such a page already does exists and remains elusive to me!
Answers
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Is this the help article you are looking for?
https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/how-can-i-find-a-deceased-person-in-family-tree2 -
Thank you for providing the URL for that.
Unfortunately, although whilst the article implies "Exact" searches are an option, as I have illustrated this is not the case. Even in a search of indexed records, checking the "Exact" boxes does not work perfectly, but FIND appears to just prioritise, instead of excluding, results that are not exact matches.
Still, that's a matter for a further post - although, unfortunately, there's no satisfactory current method of directing reports / suggestions to the teams concerned: we just have to rely on a moderator considering an issue important enough to be escalated.
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