I recently discovered that Family Search has Advanced Strategies for Searching Historical Records, even though I’ve been using Family Search for years I’m still learning. What they did was add a huge database to expand the search and amount of content that can be added for source indexing, which is great.

Down below I put a photo of what the new layout for Advanced Strategies looks like now, it is broken down into a space for beginners to keep it simple, and a place for more advanced information that one may have to be entered. And it looks like you can add multiple sources of information at a time, in turn helping bring back more sources to index and attach. Remember to always read the attached information first. Because sometimes it can be wrongly attached. Have a neighbor instead or holds other important information you may need down the road when coming back to earlier indexed ancestors. It’s important not to think you have all of your information because there always seems to be more as new revenues open up for source indexing between organizations and more are becoming open to the public.

Never be afraid to always add more sources when it is directly involving your ancestor. It is not only building their story, but it puts the correct story together. It is always a strange feeling even to me seeing holes in my tree, which I do still have. 🙃 It seemingly is never done.

I hope this information can be helpful to a few in not only getting started, but for those already on this journey looking for more advanced ways in finding and adding records. Remember to get there, all you have to do is click the photo at the top of this blog. Happy hunting!

~Dawn Piercy, PhD