Southeast Missouri Roots & Branches: Full Text Search: 'Game changer' for family historians

One of the most frustrating things about family history research in original records is finding individuals. Some records are indexed, but others are not. Additionally, key information about a person may be in records in which they were not the primary parties involved, so their name fails to appear in indexes. The only way around these problems used to be searching the records page by page. Recently, though, FamilySearch has harnessed artificial intelligence to “read” these records and locate information not in indexes.

FamilySearch introduced Full Text Search in 2024. To say that this feature is a game changer is an understatement. In brief, Full Text Search is a tool for searching digitized records filmed over many decades by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The films became available online in the last decade. Searching was done either by using indexes, indexes generated by volunteers or by scrolling through the images page by page.

Full Text Search started with probate and land records, but new groups of records appear regularly. This column provides a basic introduction to its use, while numerous training videos or websites provide even more details.

You need a free FamilySearch account to access Full Text Search. Log into your account and scroll down until you see “Family Search Labs” with a large button for “View Experiments." Click on this button, then scroll down to “Expand Your Search with Full Text." Click on “Go to Experiment." You can also directly access Family Search Labs by entering www.familysearch.org/en/labs/ in the search bar.

A search screen appears next. The options include searching by keywords (names, locations or unique text strings), name, place, date range and image group number (that is, film number assigned by FamilySearch). Enclosing text strings in quotations (examples, “Samuel Smith” or “north elkhorn river”) is often useful, and you can search names in either the keyword or name blocks. The location is one that is recognizable for record organization, often a city, county, state or country. Date range allows you to narrow a search, although often results from outside that range appear as “hits." Searching an image group number allows you to focus on specific records. Note that you do not have to fill in every field to search.

Several features allow you to refine your search. A “+” allows you to search for records with more than one keyword. For example, if my ancestor Samuel Smith had a wife, Nancy, I could search for +“Samuel Smith” +Nancy to avoid hits for other Samuel Smiths. To avoid any records with Nancy, search for +“Samuel Smith” -Nancy. Wildcards in the form of “?” or “*” are useful to account for varied spellings of a surname. For example, Ed*l*m*n for Eddleman of various spellings.

Additionally, there are filters activated by clicking on buttons in the upper left of the search view for collection (as organized by FamilySearch; for example, “Kentucky, Wills and Deeds”), 10-year time ranges, place and record type. Clicking on any of these buttons gives choices to further focus your search.

Once you have defined your search, click on the search button. Oftentimes, you may find you need to improve the focus of your search. That is, you may get hundreds of thousands of “hits.” Focusing strategies depend on what you are seeking. If you have a “reasonable” number of hits, click on the ones that seem most likely, and you access an image of the original page on the left and a transcription done by the AI on the right. The transcriptions vary in quality depending on the quality of the handwriting. Proofreading is necessary to correct transcription errors.

You have the option of downloading the image (either PDF or JPG format) with or without the transcription. A link to the citation to add to your source list is above the document image. The format for the citation is not the best, but you can supplement it by going to the original film. The film “strip” is at the bottom of the screen, so you can check other pages before and after the one you found with the search.

While Full Text Search opens many more records on your ancestors, it does have limitations. First, there is no one perfect search. Try different options for names, check adjacent counties or other jurisdictions, and keep in mind some records may not occur in proper date order (notably deeds). Because FamilySearch is constantly improving the experiment, it pays to repeat the searches periodically. More detailed hints from genealogist Kimberley Powell are at: www.learngenealogy.com/familysearch-experimental-full-text-search/.

Bill Eddleman is an eighth-generation Cape County resident who has spent the last 30-plus years researching his family. He is currently the part-time associate director of the Cape Girardeau Research Center of The State Historical Society of Missouri, and conducts professional genealogy research and presentations.