Enhancing Full Text Search with AND/OR Operators for Name Variants
I'm researching an ancestor from the late 1700s to early 1800s, but transcription inconsistencies due to historical handwriting variations are making it difficult to locate relevant records.
One specific challenge is name spelling variations. For example, I am researching the surname Yarborough, which appears with different spellings after the "b"—this is manageable with the ? operator. However, the first letter is often misinterpreted, leading to variations such as Harb* or Tarb* instead of Yarb***. The problem arises because the ? wildcard cannot be used as the first character (+?arb* returns zero results).
To improve search flexibility, I suggest adding AND/OR operators, allowing queries such as:
+(Yarb* OR Harb*)
This would ensure records containing either "Yarb" or "Harb"** are returned, rather than limiting searches to only one spelling at a time.
Additionally, a full chat-based search interface could enhance usability, allowing users to refine queries dynamically with AI assistance.
Does anyone have insights on the current implementation of logical operators in Full Text Search? Are there alternative approaches that might achieve similar results within FamilySearch’s system?
Comments
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@DaleRoss I am not aware of any query format such as you suggest +[yarb* OR harb*]. I think your stuck, for now, with doing multiple/independent searches.
What is unfortunate is that presently you can't use a wildcard within quotation marks which would be really helpful to find given/surname combinations and dealing with issues like yours e.g. +"thomas yarb*"
To answer your question about how Full Text Search logical operators work….
If keywords are simply listed in the Keywords search box [not recommended], results may include one, some, or all of the words entered. Essentially an 'OR' operation. Not much value in that…
If keywords are listed in the Keywords search box and preceded with a plus [+] symbol, those words and/or numbers so 'marked' MUST be in the transcription. So +thomas +yarb* search would return image transcripts that MUST HAVE BOTH the word thomas and any wildcard version of yarb… Not necessarily 'close' to each other, but they must be in the image transcript. Essentially… an 'AND' operation. Any other words also included in the Keywords search box WITHOUT a plus symbol will not change your results, but it will cause a 'highlight' to appear IF the word appears in the transcript. So… +thomas +yarb* tarb* search will result in the same transcripts, but if a wildcard version of tarb… appears it would be highlighted
Full Text Search is still a work-in-progress, so your idea might get picked up along the way…0 -
@DaleRoss Your suggestions will recorded and sent to the engineers for consideration. This is still in the Labs area so changes are inevitable and still being worked to refine the capabilities. Check back periodically to see what has changed.
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