The American Ancestors website has over 400 million searchable names covering New England, New York, Canada, and more. The partnership between the New England Historic Genealogical Society and FamilySearch allows LDS members to use almost all the collections on American Ancestors.org.
On the American Ancestors homepage, you have the option to Search or Browse. Search looks through all the databases for your search terms. You can do an Exact Search or a Soundex search with Soundex as the default. The following image shows the Search fields:
The Browse search lists all the databases so you can choose. On the left side (see below), you have the option to filter by database name or partial name, location, date, and/or category. Then you click a database to search or browse in just that database.
The four icons next to each database title are:
The magnifying glass
= Search (You can also just click the title in order to search.)
The i in the blue circle = Information about the database
The blue camera = View images in the database
The blue star = Allows you to add the database to your favorites list (You must be logged in to do this.)
Clicking the magnifying glass, information, or the title will take you to a page with information about the database, including search tips for that particular database. Wildcards are allowed for many databases, and only 2 characters are needed before using a wildcard, though using more could help narrow results.
Search Characters:
- Use a question mark (?) for any single character.
- Use the asterisk (*) for 1 or more characters.
- Put multiple words in quotes (" ") to be searched together.
Under the title of the database, you have the option to View Records, Citation Information, and Search.
- View Records lets you browse the database.
- Citation Information shows what the source citation should look like (good for record keeping).
- Search lets you search the database (see below).
Go to the FamilySearch Partner landing page to sign up for your free subscription to the American Ancestors website. Have fun searching for your American ancestors!
