Hi
I would appreciate advice as to what the wildcards are to be used when searching records on Family Search website.
regards
John
Wildcards in terms of Given & Surnames in Family Search
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John Bird
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SarahND
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Hello John,
Every site is different in terms of the wildcards allowed for a search. The links Marilyn gave are very helpful for the Scotland's People site, which is one of the most flexible that way.
If your question is referring to FamilySearch.org, however, I don't believe it allows wildcards at all. Unless you check "use exact spelling" the search will automatically use a type of phonetic Soundex and return names that are close but not exactly as you have typed them in. It will also give variants like Lizzie for Elizabeth, etc. What it will not give you are variants that might have been introduced by mis-transcription, for example if a capital S was mistaken for an L. No way around that except to use the batch numbers to scan through all the results in a locality and see if you can spot one that might reflect such a mistake. These sorts of mistakes are rare on that site, however.
Here is the link in the Talking Scot Library that explains the use of batch numbers on the IGI:
viewtopic.php?t=10332
All the best,
Sarah
Every site is different in terms of the wildcards allowed for a search. The links Marilyn gave are very helpful for the Scotland's People site, which is one of the most flexible that way.
If your question is referring to FamilySearch.org, however, I don't believe it allows wildcards at all. Unless you check "use exact spelling" the search will automatically use a type of phonetic Soundex and return names that are close but not exactly as you have typed them in. It will also give variants like Lizzie for Elizabeth, etc. What it will not give you are variants that might have been introduced by mis-transcription, for example if a capital S was mistaken for an L. No way around that except to use the batch numbers to scan through all the results in a locality and see if you can spot one that might reflect such a mistake. These sorts of mistakes are rare on that site, however.
Here is the link in the Talking Scot Library that explains the use of batch numbers on the IGI:
viewtopic.php?t=10332
All the best,
Sarah
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marilyn morning
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Thanks for correcting that Sarah.