Help:Search Tips

How to use the search engine at FamilySearch Wiki to find the content you want.

There are two ways to search FamilySearch Wiki -- Basic Search and Advanced Search. This article summarizes how to use each search feature to find the content you want.

Basic Search
To do a Basic Search, simply type search terms in the Search box on any page of the site and click Search or press Enter. Basic Search supports Boolean operators.

Advanced Search
You can filter your searches eight different ways in the Advanced Search. The Advanced Search also allows for Boolean operators, phrases, parenthesis, and wild card searches. The filter options include:


 * Text: the full text of the article.
 * Title: words in the title.
 * Keywords: metadata that does not appear as visible text in an article, but which is added to an article by an author in order for the search engine to find the article when certain search terms are used.
 * Description: text that appears in bold underneath an article's title.
 * Item Type: such as Page, Folder, File, Forum, etc.
 * Author: login name of an author.
 * Review State: the status of the item in the authoring process. Examples: Public Draft, Active, Pending, Locked, etc.