FamilySearch has probably the best search capability of any of the website where you might find pedigrees. My experience, however, has been disappointing. I could only find the ancestry of the Barry family here. My great-grandmother, Corinda (Burns) Barry, is listed, but the researcher has her birth in the state of New York rather than West Virginia. There is nothing on her ancestry at this site.
Other people may have a different experience at the FamilySearch site. It has so genealogical information, the site must come in handy for many people.
At FamilySearch, your best bet is to search first on the ancestor's and the spouse's name. If the spouse is female, just use her first name. Quite a few researchers omit the maiden name. So it is best to not try to find it. If you get too many responses this way, add the father's name of the ancestor. If you get too few responses, omit the spouse's name and use only the father's name with the ancestor's name.
This is the site maintained by the Church of the Latter Day Saints or Mormon Church.
How to Search FamilySearch for Family Trees
- Best Way to Search: Go to Active Searches for easier searching. At the Active Searches page, you need only to enter your ancestor data once to search all the websites listed at the left. Active Searches is a free service that creates the optimal searches for your ancestor data.
- Manually search FamilySearch yourself. This will open a new window so you can refer back to the search hints above.
FamilySearch Website Capabilities
See the definition of terms for any questions on the meaning of the entries.
| x | free searches |
| x | free viewing of pedigrees |
| paid viewing | |
| x | free downloads of pedigrees |
| paid downloads | |
| x | contact information for submitter |
| ability to see all the names submitted by a particular researcher | |
| ability to restrict searches to updates since a specific time | |
| x | searches with spouse's name |
| x | searches with parent's names |
| x | searches by place of birth |
| x | searches by place of marriage |
| x | searches by place of death |
| x | searches by country |
| x | searches by state, province, or political subdivision |
| x | searches by date |
| x | ability to specify date ranges for searching |
| x | searches by exact spelling of name |
| x | searches by metaphone |
| searches by soundex | |
| ability to automatically find possible matches in your ancestry |