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If you want to explore more than 12 billion historical records on MyHeritage, your first stop should be the search engine redesigned in 2020.
How to Search Record Collections For Your Ancestors
Click "Research" in the top menu bar on MyHeritage.
Type in identifying details about your ancestor in the search form.
The simple search form asks for only:
First and middle name(s)
Last name
Year of birth
Place
You can also add more details to the search firm before you click the orange "Search" button.
Father
Mother
Spouse
Death
Click more to access:
Marriage
Residence
Military
Immigration
Any
Child
Sibling
Keywords
Gender
While I see the value in many of the search forms, I often use search by:
Surname Only
First Name and No-Surname
First Name, NO Middle Name, Surname, and Birth Year.
MyHeritage will put this simple search form, with the capacity to add more advanced selections, to the top of your results page. That way, you can update your search queries quickly to continue filtering your results.
To see how to search for records and evaluate them, watch this video.
Warnings About MyHeritage Search Results
Be advised that the search results often have many possibilities that don't have your last name or the location if you search without using exact matches.
For instance, I would find Mary Held (born Holzberger) when I searched for Mary Karlsberger. I would find results from Teisendorf, Germania, and Krakaudorf when I didn't key in an exact match for Ohio.
If this happens to you, you will need to select the match exactly option that pops up in the search forms when you click on each field.
How I Found a New Newspaper Article for My Family
As you may know, I'm a huge fan of city directories and newspaper research. While searching for my Karlsberger relatives on MyHeritage, I discovered why my great-grand uncle's son was in a state instruction in Ohio.
To find this newspaper clipping, I followed these steps:
Searched for George Karlsberger b 1825
Noticed newspaper results for in Napolean, Ohio, not Columbus, Ohio.
Click on the newspaper result and discover the entry was a report out of Columbus, Columbus, Ohio.
Discovered the news clipping in 1895 mentioned that George was 35 years old, not 70.
I consulted my family tree to discover George, born in 1825, had a child named George Karlsberger, born in 1860.
Examined the US Census record of 1900 for George (b. 1860) - was an inmate in the Ohio State Hospital.
Reviewed the newspaper article to discover why George was institutionalized.
Now, I can write a family history story about my great-granduncle and what happened to his son.
Dive into the MyHeritage record collections to see what you may find. After you find a record, please save it to your family tree and/or transfer the information to other online trees, so you have backups.
More Tips for Using MyHeritage
If you found this post helpful, check out these blog posts and videos available through our YouTube channel.