What does All Records cover?

The "All Records" search screen is findmypast.com's cross-database search. If you search using this page, you are searching all our records with the one exception of the Living Relatives database. At the time of writing, Living Relatives still has to be searched separately here.

First and last name

You must enter a last name. Wildcards cannot be used, but you may tick the Include Variants tick-box if you wish to include variations of a name. For instance, if you search for the last name Miller you will also receive results for Millar, and so on.

You do not have to enter a first name. However, including a first name may make your search results more manageable. As with forenames, it is possible to tick the Include Variants tick-box. This is especially useful for census records, for example, where first names are often abbreviated (for instance, Charles may appear as Chas, or George as Geo, and so on).

Un-ticking collections

Your search will cover all our records (except Living Relatives) unless you un-tick one or more of the seven tick-boxes. You may decide to un-tick one or more collections, if you do not want to include them in your search. For instance, if you un-tick the Census box, our Census collection will not be included in your search.

Years to search

Your search automatically covers all the years spanned by our records. However, you can enter your own From and To dates if you wish, so long as these dates are within the default date range (currently 1656-2004). For instance, if you wish, you can type in 1820-1920 and receive back only results that fall within these two dates.

Results

Your results are returned grouped by record collection. To the left of each collection is an expansion button (a plus sign in a box). If you click on the expansion button (such as that for Births), details of the results within that particular collection will be shown. The expansion button will now have changed to a minus sign in a box: if you click on it now, the results will collapse back into their header.

Two different types of result may be returned:

Firstly, "records" are the type of result returned for those of our datasets which have been fully name-indexed. If you search and a number of "records" are returned, you know that these contain persons of your chosen name or (when the original data shows only an initial rather than a forename) possibly of your chosen name. For instance, a "record" would be a reference to a James Smith or a J Smith.

Secondly, "pages" are the type of result returned for those of our datasets which have been indexed only by name range (for example, first and last name on the page). If you search and a number of "pages" are returned, you know only that these are the pages of the original dataset which would contain persons of your chosen name if they were in it. For instance, a "page" would be a reference to a page indexed as "SMITH, Henry to SMITH, John", as any persons named James Smith would be on that page if there are any. You should always be returned some "pages" results, even when dealing with a very unusual name, as these results are possible/probable rather than actual results.

Viewing results

To view results, click on the link along side the dataset which interests you. Results will be in the form of a link such as 603 pages or 315 records. If there are no records, you will see the text "0 Records" without a hyperlink.

Clicking on the link such as 603 pages or 315 records takes you a detailed summary of individual results. You are only charged if and when you click on a VIEW button which takes you through from the detailed summary to actual individual results.

If you hover over a VIEW button, you will see the number of units you will be charged for that particular record.

Redefining your search

Once you are in a particular dataset, if you click on the redefine search link, you will be redefining you search within the particular dataset you are in at that moment. For instance, if you are in the 1841 census, you will be taken to the 1841 census person search screen.

If this was not what you meant to do, you can return to the cross-database search by either clicking on the All Records link on the blue bar across the top of the page; or by clicking on the stage you want in the pale blue underlined "crumb trail" which should read "home search all our records summary results" etc.

Returning to your results using All Search Results

Once you are in a particular dataset, if you click on the All Search Results link with its backward-pointing arrow, you will be taken back one step to your cross-database results.