Tips on FamilySearch.org

The Advanced Hispanic Research Workshop offered by the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG) included a class on using FamilySearch.org, especially in regards to Hispanic research: 

•  If your ancestor came from a town with many churches, try searching the biggest cathedral’s records first. People wanted to have their baptisms/marriages/funerals at the big, impressive cathedral. 

• The magnifying eyeglass icon means some, but not necessarily all, of the records on that roll are indexed. 

• Keyword search is very important as many different catalogers over the years may have used different terms. If you do a search for record types, use English, such as census instead of censo. But with a keyword search, use Spanish, such as registros militares or Mexico padrones. 

• To search for archive holdings, try a keyword search using the phrase “Archivo general de la nacion” + the name of the country, for example “archivo general de la nacion Mexico.” 

JO