Resource~How to Use FamilySearch Full Text

You've probably seen some of the discussions about a new feature using FamilySearch, which will bring up results in some of their unindexed collections. Right now, it's the Probate and Land Records, including Deeds of all kinds, Court Records, Tax  and other County records are just a few of the kinds of records all added in the past year, and I have to tell you, it is a total game changer! It's using new technology to read & transcribe the documents, and it may take a little while for that to get perfected, but don't let that stop you, the search is great and can find totally unexpected documents. And they are testing with adding more kinds of records, so keep watching their website for more.

For anyone who is interested in using the new FamilySearch Full Text Search System, I am including the link to the website in my instructions.
First of all, be sure to sign in, or if you don't have an account, create one, it's easy and it's free. It will also ask you to sign in the first time of each day you go there. If you're not already signed in, you won't see the following until you do so.
This is the main website https://www.familysearch.org/en/labs/ but things are changing so quickly I suggest you skip it and go directly to the one I've written in red below:

There is also an instructional video which will help get you started in understanding how to use the system. I suggest you view it first.
https://www.familysearch.org/en/rootstech/session/unlock-the-power-of-full-text-searching-for-historical-records

Once you've got the hang of it and are used to searching, you can go directly to the Search page on  FamilySearch Full Text Search site here:
https://www.familysearch.org/search/full-text

It was recently announced that even more records on FamilySearch have been added to the Full Text Search on their website, and that it will now be the recommended way to search on their site.  Read more about that along with additional information about new ways of researching there:

https://www.familysearch.org/en/blog/full-text-search-experimental-ai

My Preferred Method

I've been using this for a while now, and I while I haven't tried out the new method much yet, I have a preferred method of searching, for anyone who may wish to try it. I'm including a set of images with these instructions. Click onto each of the images below to enlarge them:

1. Go to the Search website as I listed above. (Ignore this instruction and go to Instruction No. 2 if you've skipped to go directly to the Search page).
It opens to the Home Page, where you can select their current test function by scrolling slightly, and you will see on the far left "Expand your search with Full Text" Click "Go to Experiment" (marked with X on the 1st image below).
 

2. It opens to the Search page, which is where you start. Type in quotation marks, a Name you want to find records on, as the example where the "2" is in the 2nd image. (it's not case sensitive, doesn't matter if you use capitals or not). That's all; do NOT put in a Location, you'll get to that next.  Then click "Search".  (Note: Search page has changed, but put your search terms in the "Keyword" section now)

3. Results will come up with a number at the top, which tells you how many records they found. It's time to filter the results to see what, if any, they have for the location you want. So, beside FILTER at the top of the image, I circled "Places". Click that.

4. It's actually a 2-step process, but you'll get the gist of it with this single image. Clicking "Places" brings up a very small menu (Filter by Place) where you select United States of America, that brings up all of the States with documents for the name; keep going on and select the State, then select the County.
 

5. After clicking the County, it brings up "Filtered Results", which look like the Image No. 5, only it's filtered out everything except the County (or State, if that's what you want) you chose.
 

Click onto the title of the document, it will open in a separate tab. You can view it, look through to see if it's anything you want. You can download images 1 of 2 ways. To download the image so that you can name it whatever you want, use the icon on the image in upper right corner that looks like an arrow pointing down, with a horizontal line underneath it. Or can download using same kind of icon on the far right side of the page, under the section which says "Full Transcript". A selection box for customizing the download will pop up giving you several options of what to include.

You can check out more counties for the same individual, by clicking onto "Places" again, which will take you through the process of selecting another county. You can also do other searches for additional names, by just putting in their name in the same place the other one is in the "Keyword" box, and just click search. It will bring up Results in the same Counties you leave open from the previous Search. Or, you can click onto "Place" to go to another County, or even State, using the same method I've given above.

A note - if you're not doing so already, you should be keeping folders on your computer for the various records you save. I don't know how particular you are, but I have file folders for every Surname or Family I'm researching so that I can easily know where to put things, and how to retrieve them at any time.
 

Page created by D. Williams
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