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Is there a way to browse a resource, rather than using search functionality on ancestry.com?
I'm looking for a death certificate for a death in Massachusetts in 1939. In my situation, I am finding nothing via the search function. The core of the issue is that my ancestors didn't speak much English (if any) and the surnames were recorded differently on just about every document I could get my hands on. So far I've discovered Cordeiro, Manze, Manzs, Menise, Moniz, and most recently discovered, Marshall.
I discovered the last one purely on a whim. I know my great grandparents had a child who died at 1 year old, and I had the year of death from the family tombstone. Searches by the known surnames never turned up anything. I was clicking around on Family Search and found "Massachusetts State Deaths 1919" and decided to browse through it. Fortunately for me, 25 clicks in and I found the death certificate which listed the surname as Marshall (home address, age, death date, parents name all match my ancestors so I knew it was it).
So then I figured I'd browse for other family members and an internet search shows that Ancestry.com, and not Family Search, holds the MA death records from 1926 to present. So to my question, how can I find the death records for a given year and simply browse through them as I have time?
If it's a collection that has images, yes, you can browse the images. But an index-only collection you will have to use the search engine.
It looks like on Ancestry, the only Massachusetts death records collections they have after 1915 are an index. That's probably for privacy reasons.
You can try searching without a surname at all though, if the wildcards aren't working. Just make sure you have enough other details to narrow down the results.
If it's a collection that has images, yes, you can browse the images. But an index-only collection you will have to use the search engine.
It looks like on Ancestry, the only Massachusetts death records collections they have after 1915 are an index. That's probably for privacy reasons.
You can try searching without a surname at all though, if the wildcards aren't working. Just make sure you have enough other details to narrow down the results.
How do you get to the various collections without going through the search engine? I think given my issue with the names used it may be my only hope.
I just signed up for the Ancestry free trial and so far am not liking it. I'm sure it's just me...to your suggestion I did search by name and under criteria, I selected Death then exact match on year and it still returns records from every year. Just to test it I put in the exact name and exact year of the person whose record I found on family search and it didn't come back with any results. Not sure what I'm doing wrong.
How do you get to the various collections without going through the search engine? I think given my issue with the names used it may be my only hope.
I just signed up for the Ancestry free trial and so far am not liking it. I'm sure it's just me...to your suggestion I did search by name and under criteria, I selected Death then exact match on year and it still returns records from every year. Just to test it I put in the exact name and exact year of the person whose record I found on family search and it didn't come back with any results. Not sure what I'm doing wrong.
Good luck. I find family searches searching easier than ancestry for those reasons. I rarely look for records there.
Maybe PA2UK can give you a direct link to that database if ancestry even does that.
You can actually tweak your search in the search engine by checking to see what other members are searching the same line you are and you might have luck that way. If they have images or comments about a family member the information can be be on their tree.
How do you get to the various collections without going through the search engine?
Go to the Card Catalog, use the title or keywords field to find the collection you're looking for and click on it. The index covering Masschusetts death records for 1939 is here: https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/3659/
Quote:
I just signed up for the Ancestry free trial and so far am not liking it. I'm sure it's just me...to your suggestion I did search by name and under criteria, I selected Death then exact match on year and it still returns records from every year. Just to test it I put in the exact name and exact year of the person whose record I found on family search and it didn't come back with any results. Not sure what I'm doing wrong.
The exact year seems to work for me: https://www.ancestry.com/search/coll...&death_x=0-0-0 - there's still 48,000+ results, but if you add a first name, and narrow down the location, you might get more manageable results.
For example, I don't know what first name or location you're looking for, but putting in the first name Daniel (not exact), exact year of 1939, and exact location of Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts, there's only 16 results and some of those can be ruled out because they don't actually have the name Daniel (middle initial is simply D): https://www.ancestry.com/search/coll...th_x=0-0-0_1-0
If you're worried the first name was mangled too, try using wildcards. Ancestry's search require at least 3 actual letters, which is super annoying, but try different variations. * replaces any amount of letters, and ? replaces a single letter. You can also try them on the surname.
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