08/24/2026
Have you ever searched Ancestry® for an ancestor you know should be there... only to come up empty? https://youtu.be/eYzJKp-jnFI&list=UULFcvpi8XvOScBogIxmarmADw
The problem may not be your ancestor—it may be how you're searching.
In this video, I'll walk you through 10 practical search strategies I use when Ancestry isn't finding the records I know should exist. These are the same evidence-based techniques I use in my own professional genealogy research to uncover hidden records, work around indexing errors, and find ancestors who seem to have disappeared.
In this video you'll learn how to:
• Search with purpose instead of searching broadly
• Use the "less is more" approach to improve search results
• Take advantage of the Card Catalog like professional genealogists
• Search the FAN Club (Friends, Associates, and Neighbors)
• Find records despite spelling and indexing errors
• Search using only first or last names when needed
• Understand record collections before concluding a record doesn't exist
• Use AI tools to help transcribe and translate historical records
• Preserve records you find outside of Ancestry
• Master my favorite technique—the Side Panel Trick—to browse records page by page when search fails
Sometimes the fastest way to break through a brick wall is to stop relying on search and start thinking like the records were created.
If this video helps you, please subscribe for more evidence-based genealogy education to help you go further, faster, and factually with your family history research.
