FamilySearch Upgrades Offer Excellent Research Assistance

This FamilySearch upgrade improves the power of the chosen search and increases the chances of finding exactly what is needed. 

Have you used the FamilySearch Catalog? This is a good place to locate specific genealogical materials because of the helpful tools available to assist in your search. See below how the tools work in the "Place Look-up" and the "Related Places Feature" in the new FamilySearch Catalog version: the "Beta" FamilySearch Catalog.

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Place Look-Up
When doing a "place search" in the old catalog, you can see a list of places that match what you enter. This is useful in many situations, such as:

• You know that a person was born in “Franklin,” but not which Franklin. Using this feature, you can at least see the possibilities.
• You have a record where you can read the first few letters of a place but not the rest due to the handwriting or a great big smudge. Use the "Place Look-up" feature to see a list of places that begin with those same letters.

The new catalog will soon have the same feature. You can use it in a couple of ways:

1. If you know the first few letters of the place-name, enter them in the field. The drop-down list still appears. But you now have an additional option, which lets you see more of the options at once.

2. Click the binoculars icon. A list of places appears.

3. Click the place you want. That place-name is added to the field for you.
4. Click Search.

You can also just click the binoculars icon, and enter a place name:

1. Click the binoculars icon.
2. Enter the place you want to find. If you know more than one jurisdiction, go from highest to lowest. For example, if you want all places with Franklin, you could just enter Franklin:

If you want only the Franklins in Idaho, you would enter “Idaho, Franklin”:

The Related Places Feature Is Now in the New Catalog
The FamilySearch Catalog describes books, microfilms, online images, and other resources that are available on at the Family History Library and on FamilySearch.org.

You can find the "Catalog" by clicking Search in the FamilySearch header. Then click "Catalog," which is located on the Search screen’s page.

For the last few years, we have been transitioning from an older version of the catalog to a newer one. One of the most useful features that has been in the old catalog is also available in the new (or beta) catalog.

Related Places is a useful feature because names of places can change and governmental and other jurisdictions may have changed over time. It is often helpful to be able to easily see nearby places or jurisdictions that might also have useful records.

In the new catalog, the related places are displayed automatically every time you do a place search. Here is how:

1. Enter the place you want to find. In this example Floyd County, Kentucky is used. The drop-down list helps to make selecting the correct place that is named Floyd, since there are several.

2. Click Search. The search results list the types of records available for Floyd County, Kentucky. Notice that the place notes and related places are right there on the same screen.

3. If the type of record needed is not found, and consider that they might be available at a lower jurisdiction such as the city or town. To see the lower jurisdictions, click the "Places within"… link.

In this case, click "Places within United States, Kentucky, Floyd" to see all of the available places in Floyd County.

Then click any of the place-names to instantly see what records are available for that jurisdiction.

When ever more information is needed, the Catalog is a fast and easy way to discover additional information.  So remember to turn to the FS Catalog often. Many of the "how to go further" concerns can be helped by using the tools in the FamilySearch Catalog.