Question: "When I try to search for a name I get thousands of results. How do I sort through them all to find out who my ancestor is?”
Answer: At Ancestry.com, we currently have more than 4 billion historical records, which is great because it gives you many chances of finding records of your family. However, it can also mean that you have to do some detective work to narrow down to the right person, particularly if you have a common surname.
The best way to start is to enter the full name, ideally with middle name if you know it. Our search engine takes that information and searches through these billions of records to find the right match, and then sorts these into how best they match your queries. This is likely to be a large number, because many names were spelled differently in historical times, or were commonly misspelled by a census taker, and by default Ancestry.com will search for common variations of those names (for example, there are over 800 ways to spell Catherine). The exact matches for the name you put in will appear at the top, and variants will appear below that.
If you have too many results, you need to narrow the list down. If you know a date when your ancestor was born, or lived, or died, you can enter this into the search (an easy way to do this is to hit “r” from the results screen, which acts as a “hot key” and brings up the refine box – or some people prefer to click on the refine box on the left hand side of the results). We will then reduce this list to only those records which could have come from within your ancestor’s lifespan—we’ll limit your search results to the years you specify for birth and death, with a fudge factor of five years before and two years after. If you only specify a birth year we’ll search for 100 years after that date; if you only enter a death year we’ll search for 100 years before that date. So, if you enter a birth year of 1901 and a death year of 1929, the search engine will return records between 1896 and 1931. If you put in a death year of 1920, but no birth year, the search engine will return records from between 1815 and 1922.
Next, add in the place where your ancestor lived, which will narrow the search still further. You may still have many results, but the ones that most closely match your information will be nearest the top.
You can also narrow your results by using the advanced search feature—just click the “Show Advanced” link in the top, right-hand corner of the search box. This will allow you to select a date range (e.g., 1850 +\- 5 years). You can also select the “exact” box next to a name, date, or location to limit your results to those which match what you entered exactly. Be careful with this feature, however, since—as mentioned—many names and locations were spelled differently in the past, or since a record taker may have misspelled a name, used a nickname, etc.
Click the “Show Advanced” link in the Search box to get more searching options.
In the advanced search box you can narrow names, dates, and locations to “exact” searches and add date ranges.
