rdeknijf/familysearch

FamilySearch — Historical Records Search

Search billions of genealogical records worldwide. FamilySearch is free and nonprofit, with extensive collections including civil registries, church records, census records, immigration records, and more.

Requires login — credentials are stored in .env as FAMILYSEARCH_USER and FAMILYSEARCH_PASSWORD.

Browser automation via playwright-cli

All browser interaction uses playwright-cli via Bash. Use a named session to keep the browser open across multiple commands:

# Open browser (once per session)
playwright-cli -s=familysearch open

# Navigate
playwright-cli -s=familysearch goto "https://www.familysearch.org/en/search/"

# Get page snapshot (returns file path)
playwright-cli -s=familysearch snapshot
# Read the snapshot file to find element refs
cat .playwright-cli/<snapshot-file>.yml

# Interact using refs from snapshot
playwright-cli -s=familysearch fill <ref> "search text"
playwright-cli -s=familysearch click <ref>

# Close when done
playwright-cli -s=familysearch close

Important: After each action that changes the page (click, fill+submit, goto), take a new snapshot to get updated refs. Refs change between snapshots.

When to use FamilySearch vs other sources

• WieWasWie — Dutch civil registry records with structured results
• OpenArchieven — aggregated Dutch/Belgian archives, wide net
• Gelders Archief — Gelderland-specific records with scans
• FamilySearch — best for international records, church records, collections not indexed elsewhere, and cross-referencing Dutch records with a second independent source

Login workflow

FamilySearch requires authentication. The playwright-cli session persists cookies, so login is only needed once per browser session. Use state-save/state-load to persist auth across sessions.

1. Check if already logged in

playwright-cli -s=familysearch goto "https://www.familysearch.org/en/search/"
playwright-cli -s=familysearch snapshot

Read the snapshot file. If it shows button "Account: Rutger de Knijf" in the header, you're already logged in. Skip to step 3.

2. Log in (if needed)

playwright-cli -s=familysearch goto "https://www.familysearch.org/en/"
playwright-cli -s=familysearch snapshot

Read the snapshot, find the "Sign In" button ref, then:

playwright-cli -s=familysearch click <sign-in-ref>
playwright-cli -s=familysearch snapshot

On the login page, find the Username and Password field refs:

playwright-cli -s=familysearch fill <username-ref> "$FAMILYSEARCH_USER"
playwright-cli -s=familysearch fill <password-ref> "$FAMILYSEARCH_PASSWORD"
playwright-cli -s=familysearch click <submit-ref>

Important: Read credentials from .env using the Read tool — do NOT hardcode them. The password contains special characters (!@%^) and must be used exactly as stored.

After login, you may see a "Please confirm your contact information" page. Click "Continue" to proceed.

If a cookie consent banner appears, click "Accept".

Save auth state for reuse:

playwright-cli -s=familysearch state-save .playwright-cli/familysearch-auth.json

Load saved auth in future sessions:

playwright-cli -s=familysearch open
playwright-cli -s=familysearch state-load .playwright-cli/familysearch-auth.json

3. Search historical records

playwright-cli -s=familysearch goto "https://www.familysearch.org/en/search/"
playwright-cli -s=familysearch snapshot

The search form has these fields:

• First Names — textbox
• Last Names — textbox
• Birth Place — combobox (type to search, e.g., "Netherlands" or city name)
• Birth Year — textbox

Find the refs in the snapshot, fill the fields, then click "Search".

For more filters, click "More Options" which expands additional fields:

• Death place and year
• Marriage place and year
• Residence place and year
• Any place and year
• Gender
• Relationship filters (spouse, parents, etc.)

4. Search sub-types

The search page has tabs for different record types:

• Records — /en/search — historical records (primary use)
• Full Text — /en/search/full-text — full-text search across documents
• Images — /en/records/images — browse digitized document images
• Family Tree — /en/search/tree — search the shared family tree
• Genealogies — /en/search/genealogies — user-submitted genealogies
• Catalog — /en/search/catalog — library catalog of microfilm/records
• Books — /en/library/books/ — digitized books
• Wiki — /en/wiki/Main_Page — research guidance wiki

5. Read search results

playwright-cli -s=familysearch snapshot

Results show a list with:

• Person name
• Event type and date
• Location
• Collection name

Find the ref for a result and click it to see the full record detail page.

6. Record detail page

Shows structured data including:

• Person details (name, gender, age)
• Event date and place
• Related persons (parents, spouse, witnesses)
• Source collection and reference
• Link to browse the original document image (if digitized)

Important: FamilySearch often has scanned images of original documents. Click "View image" or similar links to see the actual document — this elevates the finding from Tier B to Tier A if you can read the original.

7. Search by collection

To search within a specific collection (e.g., "Netherlands, Civil Registration"):

1. On the search page, scroll down to "Find a Collection"
2. Type the collection name in the "Collection Title" combobox
3. Select the matching collection
4. This opens a collection-specific search form

Alternatively, browse all collections:

playwright-cli -s=familysearch goto "https://www.familysearch.org/en/search/collection/list"

8. Search by place

To find records for a specific location:

1. On the search page, scroll down to "Search by Place"
2. Type the country/province/state in the combobox
3. This shows available collections and resources for that area

Key Dutch collections on FamilySearch

• Netherlands, Civil Registration (births, marriages, deaths)
• Netherlands, Church Records (DTB — dopen, trouwen, begraven)
• Netherlands, Population Registers
• Netherlands, Notarial Records
• Netherlands, Military Records

Output format

## FamilySearch Result — [record type]

**Person:** [name]
**Event:** [type], [date] in [place]

**Father:** [name]
**Mother:** [name]
**Spouse:** [name] (if applicable)

**Collection:** [collection name]
**FamilySearch ref:** [record URL or reference]
**Original image:** [available / not available]

**Confidence:** Tier B — indexed record from FamilySearch collection
(Tier A if original image was reviewed)

Tips

• FamilySearch has the largest free collection of Dutch church records (DTB), which predate the civil registry (pre-1811)
• Use "Full Text" search for finding names in unindexed documents
• The Family Tree is user-contributed and may contain errors — always verify against actual records
• Some record images are restricted to viewing at FamilySearch Centers only
• Wildcard searches: use * for partial name matching
• For Dutch names, try both with and without prefixes (e.g., "de Knijf" and "Knijf")
• Use playwright-cli -s=familysearch screenshot to capture record images