Getting to the Roots of Your Family - RootsWeb - Ancestry.com

B—Serials and society publications
E—Place-names, maps, directories
H—Histories
K—Church records
R—Land and property
S—Probate records
U—Occupations and company records
V—Vital records and cemeteries
W—Migration and immigration/emigration
X—Census
There are sub-classifications and many more subjects not identified here. Also, if a record has more than
one subject, it may be difficult to pick the right letter. It is usually best not to put the lowercase letter after
the record category unless you have an exact call number.
This is great for books and maps at the Family History Library.
FILM NUMBERS SEARCH
Many times a patron will come to the desk because they can’t find a film or because they don’t believe
the film has the record they expected.
The best tips or tricks for a film or fiche search are:
• The film or fiche search is excellent for helping patrons to find films or to find information
on a particular film as well as when working with extremely large collections.
• The Film/Fiche search is an underused gem, especially for large collections. After digging
through a large collection to get a film number, keep the number and use it in the future.
• If a film or fiche cannot be found in the drawer at the Family History Library, use this search to
find the film notes; the location of a film will be next to the film number. Many films have
multiple items. Use this search to review the items on a film. Also, by paying attention to the item
number, you can more quickly find the record you want and not waste time looking at irrelevant
records.
• The “Physical” section of a title will list how many films make up a record. Only 100 films are
listed on a screen. Use the “Get film notes from number” box to jump ahead in a record to find
the film you are looking for.
• Also, the Research Outlines published by the Family History Department list the film numbers
for major collections for any given area. Using this search get you the information on a specific
record more quickly.
KEYWORDS (BETA) SEARCH
The following tips and tricks are most helpful:
• The keyword search only looks at the titles, places, authors, notes, series, and subject fields.
• I find this search most helpful when I can think of a less common keyword, such as an unusual
place-name. For example, the notes list townland names for the 1911 Irish Census. You could do
a place search for the townland but not find anything, yet do a keyword search and find the
census entry because the townland name is in the notes.
• Use Keyword Search to find other records relating to a place if the sought-after record is not
included within Place Search topics.