How to Use FamilySearch Full-Text Search
The artificial intelligence tool that can help you discover hidden family records
One of the biggest advances in genealogy research began rolling out in 2024, when FamilySearch announced its innovative full-text search, powered by artificial intelligence, at RootsTech 2024.
This new feature is different than the standard search already available, which searches indexed record collections.
The magic of the full-text search is that it searches images, recognizing handwriting from the entire page.
Note: It searches a limited number of collections and does not include the entire catalog. Check back often as more records are added!
How the FamilySearch Full-Text Search Has Cracked My Brick Wall
Since its launch in March 2024, I’ve played with the new tool regularly and found some exciting discoveries. Most recently, I found my ancestor’s name written in the margin of a land survey,1 9 years after the survey was originally recorded.
Transferred into Samuel Delaney’s name 1780
The original land survey was recorded on 04 November 1771, but a note was made in the margin about it being transferred to Samuel Delaney in 1780.
This simple annotation helped close a gap in my ancestor’s timeline. I had no records of Delaney between 1776-1782, so this note places him in Bedford County, Virginia in 1780 and can potentially help me find even more records.
Samuel Delany appears on the Bedford County personal property tax lists in 1782 and 1783.2
In 1784, Samuel Delany received a grant for this parcel of land, paying one pound ten shillings sterling to the treasury.3 The associated plats and certificates from the Virginia Land Office4 indicate that the Auditor’s Office received the Treasurer’s receipt for the survey on 24 May 1783 and the grant was issued 07 April 1784.
Where to find FamilySearch Full-Text Search
Go to FamilySearch.org
Sign into your account (it’s free to sign up!)
Go to the FamilySearch Labs page
Under Expand your search with Full Text, select Try It
Once you’ve activated the feature, when you return to the Labs page in the future, you’ll select Go To Experiment
UPDATE: You can now access the feature directly using this link: FamilySearch Full-Text Search
Tips for using FamilySearch Full-Text Search
Use quotation marks to find an exact word or phrase
Example: “John Smith”In addition to your ancestor’s name, search for keywords related to your ancestor, such as a place of interest or occupation.
Examples: “Buckeye Mountain” or “carpenter”Search different combinations of your keywords
Try searching “John Smith” as well as “Smith John”
Use the + symbol to include a specific word or phrase. Example: +Mary
Use the - symbol to exclude a specific word or phrase. Example: -PollySearch different spellings
Use the ? symbol to search various spellings. Example: D?lan?y will return Dulaney, Delaney, Dulancy, Delancy
Use the * symbol to find different forms of a root word. Example: Del* will return Delany, Delong, etc.Search by Image Group Number (DGS)
If you want to search within a specific record collection, you’ll need to find its Image Group Number (DGS). Use the FamilySearch catalog to find the record collection.Use filters
To narrow your search results, use the filters available at the top of the list of results. You can filter by collection, year, place, and record type.
You can learn more about this powerful tool by watching the video below:
"Bedford, Virginia, United States records," images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSKJ-M9H8-T?view=fullText : Jan 4, 2025), image 244 of 359; .
Personal property tax lists, 1782-1875; Virginia. Commissioner of the Revenue (Bedford County). https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/406609
Delany, S., Virginia. Land Office. Register., Library of Virginia. Archives., Virginia. Land Office. Register., & Library of Virginia. Archives. (1784). Land grant 7 April 1784.
Virginia. Secretary of the Commonwealth, Library of Virginia. Office of the State Librarian, Virginia. Secretary of the Commonwealth, & Library of Virginia. Office of the State Librarian. (1779). Plats and certificates from the Virginia Land Office records, 1779-1982.
Wow, that is breathtaking. I'd poked around in there before but been distracted. Armed with your clear, step-by-step (uh... "and then go to the lab"...) I landed on two documents immediately:
- A transit visa for my great aunt through Brazil in 1938 as she fled Nazis moving into her home area in South Africa... a known trip across the Atlantic I'd heard about from her daughter, who was an infant at the time. I didn't know she went through Brazil!
- Two clicks later, the probate documents from Dickinson County, Kansas, for my great-great-grandmother. Wowza. 😳
This AI thing — it's gonna be big. lol
This is amazing, the tool and information you were able to find. So the first thing I did is take a look at a topographical map to see where this location might have been. There is a Mollie Branch with similar contours in present-day Franklin County in the vicinity of what is now Smith Mountain Lake. I wonder if that is Marley Branch written on the plat. Thanks for sharing this record!