Get More Hints by Taking Out Invalid Characters/names in Your Ancestor’s Name Field
It's important to get a persons’ name(s) you are looking for correct for the search engine “magic” to happen in FamilySearch searches. Search engines ignore all that “other stuff” in a name field so formatting correctly is the best way to optimize search engines work.
Editing the extra information around a name out of the “Name” entry on the person’s detail page will help a lot. The FamilySearch Engine ignores all of that anyway, so it’s useless to be there and it does not help. By removing the “or”, double quotes, parentheses, question marks and other items around a name, your searches become more effective. You can keep the name with its extra information by putting it into the “Reason This Information Is Correct” field.
Another item to clean up is using names as “Infant” “Son” “Unknown” etc. Using these can be a great start to adding relatives, but in the long run, searches will not be complete when using these terms.
Alternative names can be kept in the “Other Information” section of the detailed record. Example: we would keep Elizabeth, her legal name, in the name area and move her nickname “Lizzie” without the quotes down to an Alternate Name entry. Don’t forget to include her maiden name there as well if you have it. Or if you have only her married name, create an Alternate Name entry with a married name in it, while leaving the surname blank. It helps the computer searches to be more effective.
However, you don’t need all 25 ways to spell Elizabeth. Those are already programmed into FamilySearch and many of the other search engines. FamilySearch will start to look at the “Name” and then also known as (aka), Nicknames, or Married Names you added as an “Alternate Name” entry to find matching records. By doing this, you get the legal name, and the family name that the person used, which could help your searches break through research roadblocks!
HINT: When doing a search, especially for wives, try substituting her married name after using her maiden name. A lot of times this may bring up an alternate set of records especially for Find-a-Grave or Billion Graves entries on FamilySearch.
Happy searching!
Jennifer Corder, Group Leader