Richard Rands and Kathy Campbell both offered the Advanced Focus Filter for given names containing the first name as a method to search for someone whose given name one knows, but whose surname escapes memory. I have been back into PAF and tried this filter several times, and it does not turn up the given name though I know it is in the database. I know because I remembered the husband's name, and found my "missing person", but the focus filter did not find her. I had it set to Advanced Focus Filter->Relationship Filter = All, ->Define -> Field Filtering Name-> Given Names Only -> matches ->Sandra. Out of a database of nearly 5400 names, I got only ONE RETURN, and it was not the one I was looking for and found in my alternate route through recalling her husband's name. But what if I had not recalled her husband's name? Can someone explain to me why my search did not return ALL women with the given name of Sandra? Thanks, Charlotte Geier Richard Rands wrote: > Yes there is. > Search>Advanced Focus/Filter>Field Filter Define>Name>Given Names > Only> Contains> "the first name" > > Richard Rands > > > At 08:59 AM 3/1/2005 -0700, Charlotte Geier wrote: > >> Does anyone know of a way to search in PAF for an individual by the >> first names? I'm particularly interested in being able to locate a >> female within the database; but say for instance, I have forgotten >> her married name and her maiden name, yet easily recall her given name. >> (This could be true for a man as well, but compounded with married >> females.) Is there a simple method to search on the first name only? > >

By using the restriction of "matches" you will exclude all Sandras that also have middle names entered. For example, I did the same search looking for my first name. If I put in matches Gary I got zero returns. If I enteredGary Robert I received one - me. My guess is that you need to use "contains" rather than "matches". Gary Templeman ----- Original Message ----- From: "Charlotte Geier" <chargerfree@mindspring.com> To: <PAF-5-USERS-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, March 02, 2005 12:28 PM Subject: [PAF-5] Can one Search on first names > Richard Rands and Kathy Campbell both offered the Advanced Focus Filter > for given names containing the first name as a method to search for > someone whose given name one knows, but whose surname escapes memory. > > I have been back into PAF and tried this filter several times, and it > does not turn up the given name though I know it is in the database. I > know because I remembered the husband's name, and found my "missing > person", but the focus filter did not find her. I had it set to > Advanced Focus Filter->Relationship Filter = All, ->Define -> Field > Filtering Name-> Given Names Only -> matches ->Sandra. Out of a > database of nearly 5400 names, I got only ONE RETURN, and it was not the > one I was looking for and found in my alternate route through recalling > her husband's name. But what if I had not recalled her husband's name? > > Can someone explain to me why my search did not return ALL women with > the given name of Sandra? > > Thanks, > > Charlotte Geier > > Richard Rands wrote: > > > Yes there is. > > Search>Advanced Focus/Filter>Field Filter Define>Name>Given Names > > Only> Contains> "the first name" > > > > Richard Rands > > > > > > At 08:59 AM 3/1/2005 -0700, Charlotte Geier wrote: > > > >> Does anyone know of a way to search in PAF for an individual by the > >> first names? I'm particularly interested in being able to locate a > >> female within the database; but say for instance, I have forgotten > >> her married name and her maiden name, yet easily recall her given name. > >> (This could be true for a man as well, but compounded with married > >> females.) Is there a simple method to search on the first name only? > > > > > > > ==== PAF-5-USERS Mailing List ==== > PAF-5-USERS Mailing List Search > http://searches2.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl?list=PAF-5-USERS >