FamilySearch's Full-Text Search

This is a reminder to myself to always check back on resources periodically to see if there's more that has been added--either feature-wise or the underlying data.  I'd played around with FamilySearch's Full Text Search when it first came out, but for someone who didn't have ancestors in the United States before the twentieth century, it wasn't very helpful.  But Amy Cohen recently posted on her blog about a success she'd have.  I was still skeptical given that Amy's family had come to America much earlier than mine, but I was pleasantly surprised that it found records that were not indexed and which I hadn't found before.

Adoption Record for Jacob Soupcoff, 1904.  Via FamilySearch's Full Text Search

The above record is one that hasn't been indexed by FamilySearch.  But FamilySearch's Full Text Search found a match to my "Soupcoff" query in cursive to Jacob Soupcoff--as an "adopted child."

The one Jacob Soupcoff I know of in the Pittsburgh area was my third cousin three time removed.  He tended to get into trouble and made the newspapers a lot.  He was a medical doctor who made national news as part of an insurance fraud ring.  He also changed his name to Jacob Lorenz in 1904, right around when he was supposedly adopted.  (You can read more about him in a post I wrote here.)  In 1904, he was about 35 years old, so I never would have looked for him to have been adopted.  So was this Dr Jacob Soupcoff/Lorenz who was adopted?  Was there another Jacob?  Is this just alluding to his name of name?  Because of this record which is an index, I now will search for the original records to find out more.

As another example, I was searching for records with the surname Leffand.  One result was initially perplexing for me.  Why would my Russian Empire Leffands hit on the naturalization document for a Hungarian woman?

Naturalization for Regina Steinberger, via FamilySearch Full Text Search

While the main part of Regina Steinberger's Petition for Naturalization had nothing that looked like my Leffands, a bit further down the page showed why this was a match.

Witnesses to Regina Steinberger's Naturalization

Isaiah Leffand (my first cousin three times removed) was a witness to Regina Steinberger's naturalization.  And they lived at the same address.  This could prod you to do research into their connection--whether it was a family connection or just friends/neighbors.  (Regina is actually Isaiah's mother-in-law.)  I wouldn't have gone looking for Regina's naturalization documents since she's not related to me, but this led me to look more into Isaiah, realizing that his mother-in-law lived with him, that he was willing and able to support her petition for naturalization and more.

So I encourage others to try FamilySearch's Full-Text Search, keeping a few things in mind:

1. It only finds exact spellings.  So I had to search for Lefand, Leffand, Leiffand, Lyffand, Laffend and more, just for one of my surnames.  You may want to search for possible mistakes that could be made with reading typing or handwriting documents--like Sonpcoff for Soupcoff, etc.  
2. Only a small subset of FamilySearch's collection is currently included, but more is being added regularly. So this doesn't replace traditional searching, and you should also continually check for newly-added collections. 
3. Don't just search for surnames.  You may want to search for towns (especially if your family is from a small town), institution names (maybe the synagogue that your family attended or an organization in which they participated) and more

To search, go to Full-Text Search.  Note that you do need a (free) FamilySearch account. 

Happy searching! 

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