I recently made an interesting discovery. Entering the name of a person you are seeking as "spouse", "mother" or "father" with the primary search window(s) blank will sometimes turn up different results than if you just enter that person's name for a simple primary search. As an example, searching for Anastasia Connick as a primary search will turn up nothing. However, if you enter that name as "spouse", she will turn up as the wife of Michael Kennedy. Similarly, entering her name as "mother" will turn up some of their children. This can obviously result in vary large returns if the name sought is something common like 'Mary Smith", but knowing this may sometimes have useful results. Eleanor

elebourd wrote: > > I recently made an interesting discovery. Entering the name of a person > you are seeking as "spouse", "mother" or "father" with the primary > search window(s) blank will sometimes turn up different results than if > you just enter that person's name for a simple primary search. As an > example, searching for Anastasia Connick as a primary search will turn > up nothing. However, if you enter that name as "spouse", she will turn > up as the wife of Michael Kennedy. Similarly, entering her name as > "mother" will turn up some of their children. This can obviously result > in vary large returns if the name sought is something common like 'Mary > Smith", but knowing this may sometimes have useful results. > > Eleanor Are you sure? I can't find a "spouse" or "father" at Rootsweb/Ancestry. Do you mean the Mormons? Doug McDonald

On Thu, 2 May 2002, elebourd wrote: >I recently made an interesting discovery. Entering the name of a person >you are seeking as "spouse", "mother" or "father" with the primary >search window(s) blank will sometimes turn up different results than if >you just enter that person's name for a simple primary search. As an >example, searching for Anastasia Connick as a primary search will turn >up nothing. However, if you enter that name as "spouse", she will turn >up as the wife of Michael Kennedy. Similarly, entering her name as >"mother" will turn up some of their children. This can obviously result >in vary large returns if the name sought is something common like 'Mary >Smith", but knowing this may sometimes have useful results. Interesting. If that is in fact true, then they have a large "bug" in their search code.... Have you reported this to them via their help web page form?

elebourd <elebourd@direct.ca> wrote: >I recently made an interesting discovery. Entering the name of a person >you are seeking as "spouse", "mother" or "father" with the primary >search window(s) blank will sometimes turn up different results than if >you just enter that person's name for a simple primary search. As an >example, searching for Anastasia Connick as a primary search will turn >up nothing. You might have just hit the engine at the wrong time. [or you did what I've caught myself doing a couple times--- putting the given name in the surname field. There are 30+ Nelson LYONs there, but only a few Lyon NELSONs.<g>] It gets 2 hits when I search for Anastasia Connick. . . Mrs Michael Kennedy & another Anastasia b.1841. Jim