Anatomy of a search
1Search Field
Where to look — Surname, Given Name, Town, or Any Field. This tells the engine which part of each record to match against.
2Search Type
How to match — phonetic, exact, starts-with, and so on. This controls how forgiving the match is.
3Search Term
What to type — the name or place itself, where you can add operators and wildcards for finer control.
Search Field — where to look
Each row of the search form lets you pick which part of the record your term applies to. You can combine several rows to require, for example, a surname and a town.
| Field | What it searches |
|---|---|
| Surname | Family names as recorded in the index (the most common starting point). |
| Given Name | First names. Pairs well with Is Exactly, which also pulls in JewishGen's built-in name synonyms. |
| Town | Place of residence, birth, or event as recorded. Historical spellings vary widely, so phonetic matching helps here too. |
| Any Field | Searches across all indexed text at once. Broadest option — useful when you are not sure which field holds your term. |
Search Type — how to match
The Search Type controls how closely a record must match your term. JewishGen defaults to Phonetically Like, which is tuned for Jewish and Eastern European names — in most cases you should leave it there.
| Type | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Phonetically LikeDefault | Groups names that sound alike across languages using the Beider-Morse system, which understands how one name is written in German, Polish, Russian, Yiddish, and more. It works from the linguistic root of a name rather than a fixed code, so it forgives the v/w, tz/z, and vowel shifts that fill transliterated records. This is the right choice for almost every surname search — leave it here unless you have a reason not to. | Schwartz → Shvarts, Cvartz |
| Sounds Like (D-M) | Matches on Daitch-Mokotoff Soundex codes: each name is reduced to a numeric code, and names sharing that code come back together. It is a coarser, rule-based grouping than Beider-Morse — it can surface variants the default misses, and miss some the default catches. Use it as a second pass when Phonetically Like does not turn up a spelling you are confident exists. | Moskowitz → Muszkat, Moskovic |
| Starts With | Matches names that begin with your letters. | Gold → Goldberg, Goldstein |
| Contains | Matches your text anywhere inside the name — beginning, middle, or end. | gold → Feingold, Goldberg |
| Is Exactly | Matches the spelling you type, with one important twist: it still expands JewishGen's standard given-name synonym groups, so it is not literally letter-for-letter. Searching one form quietly returns the whole family. It is also the only Search Type that honors wildcards and brackets (see the operators table below). | Chana → Hannah, Anna |
| Fuzzy | Allows roughly one letter of difference from your term — enough to catch a single typo or transcription slip without widening the net much. | Cohen → Cohan, Kohen |
| Fuzzier | Allows roughly two letters of difference. A wider net that trades precision for reach, so expect more unrelated names to mix into the results. | Rosen → Rosin, Rozan, Roson |
| Fuzziest | Allows several letters of difference, scaled to how long your term is. Casts the widest net of the three — best kept as a last resort when the other types come up empty. | Abramowitz → Abramovic, Abromowits |
Operators & wildcards
These symbols go directly in the Search Term box for finer control than the dropdowns alone. One catch to know up front: wildcards and brackets only work with the Is Exactly search type, while the comma (OR) works with every type except Exact.
| Symbol | Name | Works with | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| * | Wildcard | Is Exactly only | Stands in for one or more unknown letters, anywhere in the term — including the middle. Useful for poor handwriting or uncertain spellings. Switch the Search Type to Is Exactly first; the phonetic default ignores it. | Sch*artz → Schwartz, Schvartz Sp*l*ng → Spelling, Sperling |
| [ ] | Bracket | Is Exactly only | Forces a specific starting letter, so you only get names that begin the way you expect. Like the wildcard, it needs the Is Exactly search type. | [F]isch → Fish, but not Visz |
| , | Comma (OR) | All except Exact | Matches records containing either term — good for a name with two known spellings. Does not work with Is Exactly. | Schwartz, Weiss → records with either name |
| space | Space (AND) | All types | Requires both terms in the same record. | Schwartz Weiss → records with both names |
Good habits
Trust the phonetic default
Leave the Search Type on Phonetically Like. It is built specifically for Jewish and Eastern European names, mathematically grouping names that share roots or sounds — so you will not miss a record just because a clerk swapped a "v" for a "w."
Jumping straight to Is Exactly is the most common beginner mistake.
Less is more
It is tempting to fill in every box — name, town, and dates. Resist. Old records are incomplete, and over-filtering hides the very record you need.
Start broad with just a surname. If you get too many results, add a given name, then a town or region — one filter at a time.
Two phonetic tools, not one
Phonetically Like (Beider-Morse) is your default. If a spelling you expect does not surface, try Sounds Like (D-M) — it groups sounds differently and sometimes catches names the default does not.
"Exact" still means synonyms
Even Is Exactly expands standard given-name variants. A search for one form quietly returns its whole family — for example Jankel = Jakob = Jacob = Jack. Handy to know before you assume a name is missing.
The index is a signpost
Most results are indexes — a short summary of a record, not the full document. Click the collection title to learn where the data came from and how to request the original, which often holds far more detail.
Narrow by place last
A geographic filter is powerful but blunt: borders and place names changed constantly. Add a region only after a name search returns too much — and if it hides expected results, loosen it again.
New to all this? Walk through the full How to JewishGen guide, or head straight to the Global Search and try these out.