Note: This article was published previously on the FamilySearch Blog site.
While FamilySearch has billions of digitized historical records available to browse, only a small portion of them is indexed and searchable. However, with the aid of artificial intelligence and handwriting recognition technology, now over 1 billion more historical records can be searched. Full-Text Search is a powerful new tool that allows you to search unindexed record collections.
By returning search results in minutes or even seconds, this tool is helping thousands of users find relatives in documents they hadn’t considered before. Discovering new evidence in previously unsearchable records has helped users add names to their family trees.
Where Can I Find the Full-Text Search Tool?
Full-Text Search is available in FamilySearch Labs. We invite you to experiment with this feature and give feedback to improve the experience. https://www.familysearch.org/en/blog/full-text-search
To try Full-Text Search, follow these simple steps:
- Go to FamilySearch.org, and sign in to your free account.
- On your home page, scroll down until you see “FamilySearch Labs” on the right side of the page, and click View Experiments.
- On the FamilySearch Lab page, find the Expand Your Search with Full Text box, and click Try It. (Note that after the first time you use this tool, you may see “Go to Experiment” instead of “Try It.”)
- On the Full-Text Search page, type a few details about an ancestor you would like to know more about, and click Search.
Using Full-Text Search
Full-Text Search uses the power of artificial intelligence (AI) and handwriting recognition to create a transcript that can then be searched. Using keywords, names, places, and dates, you can now search over 1 billion genealogically significant records that have not been indexed. You can obtain results in seconds.
You can view an informative video by Robert Raymond from RootsTech 2024 and from RootsTech 2025 about using Full-Text Search.
You can also find a short how-to video here.
Here is an example of a search result for “Elizabeth Jane Russell Day” in the Keywords field and “Utah” in the Place field.
The search result lists possible records your targeted ancestor might appear in with a short summary of the text. If you find a search result from the list that looks promising, you can click it. Full-Text Search will then provide a digital image of the record and a transcript. The transcript is very helpful when the handwriting on an old document is difficult to read. Look at this example:
Note the details gleaned from this record:
- The title includes the record type, place, and date of the collection (Register of Births, 1853–1865, Lee County, Virginia: Lee. Birth Records 1853–1865, Enslavement Records 1853–1865).
- A digital image of the original document.
- The ability to add this document to your source box or attach it to an individual in your family tree.
- The option to download the record image with or without highlights, the transcript, and a citation.
- A summary of the document with highlighted keywords or names.
Because the transcripts are AI-generated, you may see some transcription errors. It’s always good to look at the original image.
New Functionality for the Full-Text Search
Since RootsTech 2024, several new features have been added:
- An AI-generated summary of the record, with relationships and names.
- Year, place, and image group number (DGS) search fields.
- Over 1 billion more records from multiple countries and languages.
- The ability to search by a specific collection. AI helps group records into collections using the metadata gathered when the records were digitized.
- When you view a record that potentially matches your ancestor’s name in its original language, the tool can do an automatic translation of the record summary into your language.
5 Tips for Using Full-Text Search
Use the Keywords Field to Your Advantage
Keywords might be something such as “indenture,” “last will and testament,” or even a name. If your keywords make a phrase, you might consider using quotation marks when you type it in the field. In other words, if you search for “last will and testament” without the quotation marks, the system may look for any document with the words “last,” “will,” “and,” and “testament.” However, if you search for the same phrase in quotation marks, the system will look for that exact phrase.
Example:
Keywords: Eliza Bowman
Name: <BLANK>
Place: Lee County, Virginia
Year range: 1840–1940
Number of results: 364
Users can refine the list of 364 results considerably by adding quotation marks.
Keyword: “Eliza Bowman”
Name: <BLANK>
Place: Lee County, Virginia
Year range: 1840–1940
Number of results: 10
It’s a great idea to search without quotation marks and then to search again using quotation marks. Different search parameters may give slightly different results.
Experiment with the name in both the Keywords and Name fields (with and without quotation marks) to see what results you get.
The Keywords field is powerful and can be used to search for any specific words or phrases in a document. For example, you could enter a specific occupation (such as “farmer”) to help narrow your search results. You could also enter terms to help identify relationships, such as “son,” “adopted,” or “widow.”
Use the Plus (+) Symbol
Did you know you can place a plus (+) symbol before a name or word to narrow your search? Let’s imagine we are looking for a record about John Cole, but not just any John Cole. We are interested in the one who married Eliza. The plus symbol can help find the right John Cole. To include a specific word like farmer, use the plus (+) symbol. For example, +farmer. To include a specific phrase, use the plus symbol and quotations. For example, +”Hollybrook Farms”.
Filter by Collection, Year, Place, or Record Type
Filter options are listed across the top of the list of results. Click one of the filter types you want to use, and choose from the list of drop-down options. Click Apply. The filters are especially useful if you have too many results to examine manually. Use the filters to refine your search.
Check Out the Search Tips
Tips to help you refine your searches appear in the light blue box below the search fields. Learn how to find an exact word or phrase or how to include or exclude a specific word or phrase.
You can also learn how to find different spellings.
For example, a name may have many different spellings. Take the surname of Cole. When written in cursive writing, it sometimes looks like “Cale” or “Cele.” To search for any possible spelling, add a question mark in place of the “o” in “Cole.” Type C?le as the search term.
Many words may have a similar root, such as carriage, Carson, or Carstenson. You can use the wildcard asterisk to find all words beginning with the root “cars-” by typing cars*.
Use Auto-Translation
This image shows an example of using auto-translation to change the original language of the document into your own language.
Have you tried Full-Text Search yet? If not, give it a try today, and see what long-lost records you might discover for your ancestors. Be sure to share with us what you find by using the feedback button on the side. We would love to hear your best tips for using the Full-Text Search tool and what worked for you!
If you have tried Full-Text Search, come back and try it again; more features and content are being added continually. Try Full-Text Search Today