Family Search On LDS

[Cell]

I'm attempting to search for a last name without entering a first name and get the following message which doesn't make much sense to me ... "If you enter a last
name without a first name, you must not fill in any other field except a country."
Could someone explain to me how this can be done
How do you bypass the event section

Christopher

Hi,
which search page are  you using? If you are using "all resources" with just a surname you can't select an event . You will  get that message if you select an event, which means what it it says - you leave the event "as all", you don't select anything from that box .

If you want to select an event with just a surname  you can use the search on the IGI search page (if it's the IGI's that you're after) with the person's  surname, place and event.

Kind Regards

[JAP]

Hello Christopher,

As Cell has explained, the messages which one gets vary according to what part of the FamilySearch site one is searching and more can be specified in an IGI search.

It's just an outcome of the way the search engine has been programmed i.e. in an 'All Resources' search, it's been programmed to allow surname-only searches with or without a country specified - but not to allow you to specify anything else.
If you try to enter anything else up comes the following red message:
If you enter a last name without a first name, you must not fill in any other field except a country.

In the 'IGI' however, the search engine has (much more helpfully!) been programmed to allow one to search with several other parameters specified.
One can, for instance, search with just two parameters - the surname specified plus a region selected.
Or, as well as those two parameters, one can also specify all or any of
-an event
and/or
-a country
and/or
-a county.

But nothing else!  If one tries to enter anything in the parents boxes, or the spouse boxes, or the year boxes, one gets the following red message:
If you enter a last name without a first name, you must either not enter parent or spouse names, a year, or you must enter a batch number or a film number

I hate those red messages 

JAP 

[LizzieW]

In the 'IGI' however, the search engine has (much more helpfully!) been programmed to allow one to search with several other parameters specified.

Thanks for that JAP - now I know why people can find ancestors I can't.  It makes life so much more simple.

Lizzie

[JAP]

Well ....

I thought I'd tried most searches on the IGI.

But no!

Only today, I've learned from a post on another forum that, in the IGI, one can do the following search:
Given name only
Mother's name only
Region
One can also add Country and County if wished.

Not a bad search if the father's name is very variable, but one knows the mother's name, and suspects there is a child with a particular given name.

We all keep learning 

JAP

[stonechat]

Could be an update going on?

[JAP]

Hi stonechat,

I don't think so - though I can't guarantee that.

My understanding (certainly far from perfect!) is that the online IGI isn't being updated - though I know for certain, from personal experience and written correspondence with FamilySearch, that corrections (perhaps I'd better use the word amendments!!) are being made to the IGI.

I suspect it's just that this is a search that I've never tried in the past ...

Cheers,

JAP

[jillruss]

I'd be interested in how you do a search on mother's name only? I've never been able to manage it! What other info do you need to include?

Jill

[LizzieW]

Jill

You have to search on IGI only, not the whole of Familysearch.  Just put in the child's first name, mother's surname, then you can choose the region, i.e. British Isles and the country, i.e. England (but it won't let you choose the county too), you can even put in the event, the year and the time span.

It also works with father's surname, but not both parents surnames, unless you put in a surname for the child, which rather defeats the object of finding a missing person, whose name you are not sure of.

Lizzie

[jillruss]

Got it, thanks Lizzie - although it did allow me to put country and county in.

What would be really helpful would be to search by surname only, with either father or mother's name but at the moment you can only do it with both names - or have I missed something there as well? 

Jill