Ancestry.com has greater than 32,000 databases and if you are only using the global search (all collections), you are only seeing the top 10% of the databases. That’s right, almost 29,000 databases are not even used during a global search. That document you’re looking for might be in one of the 29,000 and you will never see it.
How do I get to this data? By using a search form that is designed for that area of the website. The global search will have given you census data and maybe birth, death, or marriage records (or maybe not). You may get census records for 1900, 1910 and 1930; but nothing for 1920. Could be due to mis-spelling, bad transcription, or other reasons; but you can go to the 1920 census, a specific state (if known), specific county and look again. If you can not find a birth record, but know exactly where a person was born, maybe a newspaper birth announcement can be found.
We are going to use a case study to find the father and mother of an adoptee who has DNA results. Can we find out who the mother and father are by starting with a global search and then moving to specific databases?
Pastfinders of South Lake county; Genealogical Society will teach you the ins and outs of searching for your ancestors online at the Computer User Group Class. for more information please go to WWW.PastfindersSLC.org
