We probably all remember the Ancestry advertisements that told us we could reveal our family history by simply typing in a name. And that is the way we often search family history websites and databases. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Fortunately, Ancestry’s card catalogue provides another way to search.
Ancestry’s card catalogue
Ancestry organises its records by grouping them into collections. The collections (sometimes referred to as databases) are listed in Ancestry’s Card Catalogue. Instead of typing in a name and asking Ancestry to search all of its records, you can focus your search by first selecting the relevant collection.
The Card Catalogue is found under the Search tab. If you are using the Australian version of Ancestry, when you open the catalogue it will list all the Australian collections by default. You can change than by unticking the filter on the left that says ‘Only records from Australia’.
Note that, if you do that you will see lists of collections from around the world. However, you will only be able to view or search collections if they are included in your Ancestry subscription.
The right side of the screen lists all the collections, which are grouped by category. You can sort them by collection title, date updated, date added or record count. On the left side you can filter by record category, location or date.
This is a great place to look if you want to know about the latest additions to Ancestry or get a feel for how extensive their collections are for a particular place, date or record type.
Searching Ancestry’s card catalogue
Choose the most relevant record category from the list of filters on the left side of the screen, based on your research questions. For example, if you want to know when someone arrived in Australia, search the Immigration and Travel collections. Click on that category in the filters list and the list of collections under that category will appear on the right side of the screen.
Alternatively, you can identify relevant collections by searching by a word in the Title or Keyword search bars which are located on the left above the filters.
Convicts example
For example, if I type ‘convict’ into the Title search bar, a list of eighteen collections with that word appear on the right. When I untick the box that says ‘Only records from Australia’ the list expands to 24, as there are convict records held in other countries that may also be relevant to Australia – such as the UK Surgeon Superintendents’ Journals of Convict Ships, 1858-1867.
If I type the same search term into the Keyword search bar, a list of 36 collections appears. If I untick the box that says ‘Only records from Australia’ the list expands to 43.
Searching by title or keyword is a good approach if you are unsure which category holds the records of interest to you.
Choose the collection you want to search from the list on the right side of the screen. Click on the title and that brings up the familiar search screen where you can search by name, date, key word and other fields.
On that same screen, you will sometimes see an option in the top right to browse the collection. This can be a useful alternative to searching for a specific name. You will also usually see a list of related data collections which you can use to expand your search.
In the example where I typed convict in the search bar on the first screen, the list of filters tells me that Ancestry has placed convict records into two categories. Convict Criminal Land & Wills, and Immigration and Travel. This information can also help you expand your search by suggesting you search those categories for other collections about your subject.
More information
For more articles on improving your search techniques, go to the Research page.
Post last updated 11 June 2024
