Search Tips

1. This website contains many “links” to Roots websites; therefore, those names will not appear in this search tool because they are on another server.

2. You no longer need to search for “French” because all the data is about the surname French. You will no longer receive searches about French cooking, French restaurants, the French language, a French family from France, or French people.

3. You can type in just one city name or a spouse’s name to get data, i.e., Braintree or VT or Smith. If you enter only NJ, you’ll get all the Frenches from NJ.

4. You can type in your chart number to get data, but type it in with quotes because of the space, i.e., “Chart #1”. In computer language, the space is a delimiter and acts as the end of a search; therefore, without the quotes, you will be searching for all the occurrences of Chart and all the occurrences of #1, but not necessarily those two items together.

5. To search for many items, you do not need to add a “+” symbol, i.e., you may enter Dorcas Peake 1636 Billerica, and the search tool will find the file with all those words in it.

6. If you get too many responses, i.e., with the name John, then try “John French” or “French, John”.

7. Keep trying your search. New data is added all the time.

8. If you comment using email, make sure to add the topic of your email in the subject. Most helpful is a Chart Number, i.e., FFA Chart #1.