If you've always wondered about that disabled keyword-search button in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Family History Library (FHL) catalog online, ponder no more. The FHL activated the Keyword search button earlier this year, allowing you to find words from the Title, Author, Subject and Notes fields in the catalog descriptions for the FHL's books, microfilms and other holdings. To access the FHL catalog, go to <www.familysearch.org> and click the Library tab.

A keyword search might locate more matching records than a surname search, which finds words listed in the Title and Subjects fields. For example, our keyword search on the surname Seeger got 38 results, including The Griesmers: A Century in Cleveland, Ohio, 1882-1982. The Notes field in this book's catalog listing says Johannes Griesmer married Katharina Seeger in 1862 (see step-by-step, below). Compare that to a surname search on Seeger: It returned 14 matches, and the Griesmer book wasn't among them. Without the keyword search, we would've missed the mention of Katharina's maiden name.