Is there any way to search family tree names...

[Richelle J]

...instead of ancestral surnames? Or do you have to individually go to every match with a family tree and search from inside their tree? I've noticed a bunch of people have extensive family trees with many surnames but only a few ancestral surnames listed in their profile. Thanks in advance.

Richelle

[larzus]

The ancestral surnames option is the only way, and as you say it only works on those who have updated the 'Ancestral Surnames' list in their profile.

So it is up to us. If we add the surnames to our ancestral surnames list, then they show up on the profile for others to search.

I have to admit, I often just ignore the ones who haven't provided details and just use the surname list. Once you have several hundred matches you really can't look at them all. The ones that help the process along are the ones I work with. You can't email a thousand people for details!

Well you could, but my provider would probably be blacklisted for spam and I would never keep track of who had replied and who hadn't.

That ancestral name search feature is quite powerful when used well. If someone has entered a place name, it will be found by a search too. I have made sure I have the counties, highly relevant towns and I also slipped in 'Australia' because a search on 'Australia' gives me a nice list of Australian cousins who have put the country in with one of their people.

Since I'm in Australia, they are often easier to place in the tree even if they show as distant relationship.

There was talk once, I thought, of stripping the details from the tree to automatically place in that surname list, but maybe there were privacy concerns.