Is there a wildcard character, like * on Ancestry?
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@Debbie Pavlos
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Debbie
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Provided you are talking/referring to "Searching" ...
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Short Answer: 'Yes'.
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You can just the 'Asterisk' ( * ) symbol, as a "Wildcard" character for searching, both, within "Family Tree" of 'FamilySearch'; and, 'FamilySearch' generally.
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If you are not referring to "Searching", can you please explain.
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Brett
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Yes. The ? mark is for one unreadable character and the * is for two or more unreadable characters. They also work in searches.
Here is a link to the FamilySearch knowledge article:
https://www.familysearch.org/help/helpcenter/article/fields-marked-as-unreadable-in-an-indexed-batch
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The original question appeared to have been about wildcards "on Ancestry". Was this about Ancestry.com?
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@JeffWiseman JeffWiseman
Jeff
"... like * on Ancestry? ..." [ eg. "like" and "on" being the operative words. ]
Brett
ps: I just was not sure it was to do with "Indexing" or not.
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Assuming you are talking about searching in FS FT or in FS Records
in most cases the system is doing a "fuzzy" search anyway.
so in many cases the * is unnecessary.
FS will automatically find similarly spelled versions.
From those who are providing answers here on this subject - I'd be interested in seeing a very explicit example of how adding the wildcard really brings up something that not using the wild card would not.
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I use wildcards all the time. For example, earlier today I was looking for a person whose last name I knew to be either FOSTER or FORSTER. I typed FO*STER in the last name field and got the desired results, plus FORRESTER ones. Typing just FOSTER produced FOSTER and FEWSTER results, but no FORSTER. Inputting FORSTER gave me FORSTER, FOREST and FORRESTER results, but no FOSTER ones.
I just now inputted WRIGHTSON, adding "Yorkshire" as a place name and "1800-1820" for the date range. This produced 11,640 results. However, inputting WRIGHTSON* (with these same search limits) gave me only 529 results. The wildcard prevented thousands of WRIGHT results being displayed, which was otherwise the case in the first search.
In these and, I have found, in other situations the wildcard * can make a lot of difference. Try different combinations / alternatives, however. For example, checking the "Exact match" boxes can also help in filtering your results down.
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Heh! I missed the comma after the word "character" 😨
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I also use wildcards alot to verify information in indexing and in general internet searches. For FamilySearch, especially with cursive, sometimes it is difficult to decipher a name or a place. By using wildcards I am able to bring up possible related images to compare. IMHO, wildcards allow for a more efficient search.
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