SearchTips

SearchTipsRank: "Welcome to the Ancestry search help area. Ancestry supports two powerful search methods: exact match searching and ranked searching. The tips we have included below will help you used the ranked search method to search our website with greater ease and efficiency. You can switch from a ranked search to an exact match search by clicking on the blue "Exact Matches Only" tab. "

Ranked search automatically returns alternate spellings and abbreviations for your ancestor’s name(s). For example, a search for “Bill Smith” might return “William Smith,” “Wm Smith,” “Bill Smyth” or “B. Smith.” An exact name match is the closest match, and therefore the most relevant, followed by common variants, misspellings, and nicknames.

Search Tips for Searches Organized by Match Quality: "Exact match searching gives you complete control over your search results because each record that is returned must match all of the search terms you enter. Only matches that meet your criteria exactly are returned in the search results list. "

I mostly use exact match searching