can you search just within your own family tree
can you search just within your own family tree
Answers
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Hi Grant,
The nature of FamilySearch is, by design a unified family tree in which contributors cooperate to build a single, communal tree rather than individual trees, as is common with many other platforms. Of course contributors often focus on the branches that relate to their own ancestry, but technically there isn't really what would be called one's "own tree" here to search.
Are you wanting to search for individuals or for sources/records?
If you follow certain PIDs, you can view that list and any recent changes made to those profiles by going to Family Tree > Following. There is a search bar at the top right hand of that page to search for individuals by name, but in order for them to appear you need to be following those PIDs first.
To do that you go to the profile of a PID you would like to follow and click the star next to "Following" just below the individuals name at the top of the page (also where you see "View Tree" and "View Relationship").
You can also search for individuals that exist within the tree as a whole by going to Family Tree > Find and inputting your search parameters to see if the individual you are looking for has had a profile/s generated for them.I'm not sure if that answers your question. Perhaps you could provide a bit more information on what exactly it is you are trying to search for, so I or other community members might better help you.
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Alternatively, assuming it's the Family Tree you want to search, import the relevant tree into a FS partner product such as RootsMagic and do the search there.
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I guess it's about time for this perennial question to be raised again; the previous iteration was long enough ago that I'm failing to get the Community to cough it up. (Those with more patience can probably do so, though.)
As Rani said, no, there is no means on FS of limiting a Tree search to just "your own family" (whatever that means — which is the crux of the problem; see below). Also as mentioned, your Following list offers one way to limit the scope of a search. I suggest your contributions list (Family Tree - My Contributions) as another way; it also offers a search by name. A third option is the Fan Chart combined with your browser's Find function, if you're looking for a direct ancestor.
The problem with the idea of searching the global tree for just your family is, how do you define your family? Direct ancestors only? Direct ancestors and their other spouses, if any? Them and all their descendants? Do you include the spouses of those descendants? What about the parents and siblings of those spouses? And so forth and so on.
As Mandy said, the full solution involves a third-party product: choose one of the programs or websites that can interface with FamilySearch and download your family into it. The software or webpage will allow you to specify the scope of the download. It'll take some time and work to set it up, especially if you want all of the generations. Depending on the program, you may need to do the download in multiple pieces. Once that's done, though, you can use the program's or website's search function to look for people in just your downloaded portion of the tree.
You can find the programs and websites that can "talk with" FS in the Solutions Gallery. Many of them offer free versions, and you may have extra options if you're LDS.
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Here are some conversations on this topic:
- How can I limit a search within my own tree?
- how to "search" just my family tree
- Search my family tree for a specific person
- Is there a way I can search for someone just within my own family tree, not the whole world's??
There are many, many more, but this is just a sampling.
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@Julia Szent-Györgyi has some great information on how you define just "your own Family Tree". Personally, I prefer the Fan Chart. Click on FamilySearch/Family Tree/Recents. Next choose yourself by clicking on the this icon:
That will take you to the Portrait view. You can then switch to the Fan Chart using the dropdown carrot next to Portrait 1. Then you can hover over the inside edge of the next ancestor on whose line you want to advance and a small image of a tree will appear. When you click on that image, it will put that ancestor in the center of the Fan Chart and extend the the ancestors that have been added to the tree, if any. 2. You can try this and play with the options to see what works best for you.
You might also be interested in FamilySearch Labs CETs which currently is open to testers that have a GedCom Family Tree such as Roots Magic, that they can upload, but you would have to apply for this. They are expanding this to those who want to "build" their own trees in the future. I wish you all the best in searching your Family Tree.
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