Enhancements to the Historical Record Search Experience on MyHeritage
We’re happy to share that we’ve added two new features that will enhance the way you search for historical records on MyHeritage: refining search results by record type, and recent searches. Both features are available on desktop and from a mobile web browser, and are described in detail below. Support for these features on the MyHeritage mobile app will be added soon.
Refining search results by record type
Until now, search results on MyHeritage displayed all record types: both historical records and family tree collections. Many users requested the ability to filter out family tree records from their search results, because family trees are more likely to contain mistakes. You asked, and we listened! We’ve added the ability to refine the results on the page by record type, so in one click you can display results from only historical records, only family trees, or both. The default on the search results page is the same and will display all records, which you can then refine to your liking with the new filter.
Search historical records on MyHeritage
A new section appears in the top left panel of the search results page, where you can filter out family trees or historical records from the results.
Search results page on MyHeritage (click to zoom)
To refine your search to display results that come only from historical records, select “Historical records,” marked below in red. The search results will refresh automatically to show only those originating from historical record collections. This is also indicated in the message directly above the results showing how many search results were found (marked below in green).
Search results page showing only those results coming from historical records (click to zoom)
Follow the same steps above to display all records, or only records from family trees. You can then narrow down the results even further in the “Narrow down by category” section on the left panel.
To refine your search results from a mobile web browser, tap the “All Collections” dropdown, marked below in red.
Refining results by record type — mobile web (click to zoom)
Then, tap “Records” or “Family trees” to refine the results.
Refining results by record type — mobile web (click to zoom)
Recent searches
When searching for historical records on MyHeritage, it can take time to sort through the list of search results and find the ones most relevant to your research. If you don’t have much time to review them all at once, until now, you would have had to leave your browser window open and come back to the results later, or, as is often the case, you would have to restart the search from scratch the next time you visited MyHeritage.
Fortunately, the days of starting your most recent search from scratch are over, thanks to the addition of recent searches. Now, when you conduct a search for historical records, you’ll be able to view your most recent searches from the main page of our historical record search engine, and reopen the search results in one click.
Recent searches from MyHeritage’s search engine for historical records (click to zoom)
The basic information from your search query will appear on the card, including the person’s name, year of birth, and the place. Click any card from the recent searches to rerun that search. From the results page, you can use the new filtering options described above to refine the search even further.
To remove a specific search from your recent searches, hover over the card and click the X on the top right.
Removing a search query from your recent searches
If you do not want your search history to be stored in any way, you can disable the recent searches feature. To change your privacy settings and disable this feature, click your name and select “My privacy” from the dropdown menu.
Accessing privacy settings on the MyHeritage website
Under “My member preferences,” uncheck the box that says “Enable Search Connect™”. This disables recent searches and the SearchConnect™ feature, and ensures your search history is not stored.
Disabling storage of search history (click to zoom)
Cost
Refining search results by record type and recent searches are premium features on MyHeritage. To access them, you’ll need a Data, Complete, or Omni plan.
Summary
At MyHeritage, we’re committed to bringing genealogists of every level new features and content to advance all areas of your family history research, whether it’s new capabilities in the family tree, valuable historical record collections, fun and engaging photo tools, and new features that can improve the way you search for historical records. Many of our product enhancements are based on requests from our users, so if you have an idea for a useful new feature you’d like to see on MyHeritage, let us know in the comments!
