Valerie Moore wrote: > > > <snip> > > > > Hmmm...Cheryl is correct here in that the Ancestry search engine > > doesn't support leading wildcards. The Ancestry Daily News had an > > article about using wildcards when searching database at Ancestry on > > or about Oct. 17, 2001 and I quote from that article: "Due to the > > nature and size of the data being searched and the need to deliver > > speedy search results, the use of wildcards is restricted to > > keywords and names that have at least the first three letters > > specified." > > > > The wildcard symbol ? will find exactly ONE unknown or missing > > character and the wildcard symbol * will find zero to five unknown > > or missing characters. you can extend the number of missing > > characters with ?? finding exactly TWO missing characters and ??? > > finding three) and ** finding more than 5 missing characters (not > > sure what the upward limit is on this one and using *** doesn't seem > > to extend the results beyond what ** is finding). > > > > Joan <JYoung6180@aol.com> > > May I ask how one used the Keywords on Ancestry.com, how are they > used? I am new to all of this. Thank you, Valerie It's an ADVANCED SEARCH capability. I rarely use it because most of the surnames I search are rare enough that I'll take anyone with the surname because he'll fit in somewhere! However, if you're looking for someone with a common name in a large, populous county, you can often narrow the search down by using the township or PO name as a keyword. John Smith in Texas is going to get a lot of hits; even John Smith in Mitchell county might get a lot of hits; but John Smith, Mitchell county, Big Springs will get a lot fewer, maybe even only one -- yours. The downside is if you've got a different piece of data than the census shows, you'll miss him (say, ol' John there is in Colorado City, not Big Springs ... or say he's using J.W. Smith ...) In some non-census databases, you can use keyword to search for "show me all the harness-makers", which is useful if you know your guy was a harness-maker, or "show me the milliners" if you know his wife was a milliner. Cheryl singhals@erols.com