Does FamilySearch look at Alternate Name when I use Family Tree Find?
FamilySearch Help suggests that the system looks at Alternate Name when I use Family Tree Find but I don't see that in practice. Here is a segment of help text that I found:
Alternate names can make it easier for others to find the person in Family Tree. The system includes alternate names in Family Tree Find.
I have a Family Tree record for which I have added an Alternate Name. When I use Family Tree Find to search for that Family Tree record using Alternate Name in the Name search field, the Family Tree record does not appear in my results list. When I expand my search to use Alternate Name in the Alternate Name search field, the Family Tree record also does not appear in my results list.
Does the system not consider Alternate Name when processing a Family Tree Find request contrary to the published Help text? Or is it possible that I am not correctly constructing my search. If that is the case, how do I construct a search to look at Alternate Name?
Answers
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Yes, the Find command looks at all alternate names. To illustrate, here is one of my wife's relatives:
Searching using her maiden name with no clues as to her first name:
Puts her at the top of the search results:
Repeating the search with her married name and again with no clues as to her first name:
Gives the same results with her displayed with the name I was searching for so as not to confuse things. I can learn later that this is an alternate name:
So there must be something with the search you are setting up. If you post the ID number of the person who is not showing up and post the URL of your search by copying from your browser and posting it here
so people can see exactly how you set up your search, it might be possible for someone to explain why you are not getting the results you want and expect.
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Thank you, Gordon. Your example is very clear, and your results are similar to those I would have expected when I was running my test on the day I submitted my question. On that day, I entered an Alternate Name surname and did not find the associated record in my results list. Today, I ran the same test with the Alternate Name surname and did get the associated record in my results list. I also ran the test using Alternate Name first name and surname; and well as Alternate Name first, middle, and surname, and again found the associated record in my results list. So today, the process worked as I would have expected. Thank you for taking the time to provided examples for me and others.
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I haven't tested this out for a long time, but a few years ago I found that if I created a new profile then immediately used FIND to try to find it, it would not appear. It took a day or two. I had no idea then, or now, what the cause of the delay might be. Is there some syncing between servers that need to occur? Is there some pre-caching of an index the FIND command uses? Whatever the cause, it sounds like you ran into the same thing and that the FIND routine has a slight delay in catching up with recently changed profile data.
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