Ancestry.com - FAQ from the Editor's Mailbag: "Try wildcards. Ancestry.com now allows for wildcard searches. This simple tool allows researchers to insert an asterisk (*) or a question mark (?) in place of letters in a name.

Rules for the use of wildcards at Ancestry.com:
1. An asterisk (*) represents zero to six characters, i.e., A Search for john* might return john, johnson, johnsen, johnathon, johns, etc.
2. More than six characters is represented by a double asterisk (**), i.e., Wil** would find both Wills and Williamson.
3. Any use of the asterisk requires at least the first three letters of a name (i.e., it won't allow searches for Ad*, but could use Ada*.)
4. A single character is represented by question mark '?' and does not require the three-letter minimum (i.e., Sm?th equals both Smith and Smyth.)


Your ancestors were invisible. Just kidding! The truth is though, that sometimes people were missed in indexes, directories, censuses, etc. But you should always go through and try a manual search of the original record wherever possible before throwing in the towel. In some cases, such as in Ancestry.com databases that are accompanied with images, you may be able to browse through the records online and locate your ancestor no matter how bad the name was butchered by the enumerator, compiler, or indexer.

There are more search tips available in the Ancestry.com Library here. "Ancestry.com - Tips for Online Research