FamilySearch – Should I Use the Catalog or the Map to Find Unindexed Records?

Both.  No question.  Both.  Why?  Because sometimes one way into the records will have a hint or a clue, or maybe even an index that’s not available when approaching the records from another direction.
 
Take for example the Saskatchewan Provincial Records.  If you go into FamilySearch through the Search page, click on the map for Canada and select “Saskatchewan” you can scroll to the bottom of the page to see the “Unindexed Records.”  These are browseable records.  There are thousands of images of records, maybe even the homestead record of your ancestor, but unless you have the date the homestead claim was recorded, or better yet the claim number, good luck.  You will find yourself searching through file after file looking for a needle in an entire province of haystacks if you start your search using the map.

Go to familysearch.org/search From here you can click on the map, select a country, and if available a smaller jurisdiction such as a province or state

Near the top of your next page will be "Indexed Historical Records" but keep scrolling down to fin the "Image Only Historical Records"

If you click on "Saskatchewan Provincial Records, 1879-1987" you'll be taken to this list. You can browse through all the homestead files, but there is no index

​But if you click on FamilySearch.org/Catalog/Search, type “Saskatchewan, Canada” into the search box, and scroll down to “Land and property,” you’ll find “Saskatchewan homestead records, 1870-1930, and index.”  An index!  Yes, it’s an external index that will take you out to http://www.saskhomesteads.com/search.asp.  But that index will lead you to the file number for your ancestor’s homestead record.  The Saskhomesteads website provides a link where you can purchase a copy of the file, but once you know the file number, just go back into the “Land and property” in the Saskatchewan page in the FamilySearch catalog and browse through the records for that file number.

Using the FamilySearch catalog to search by location

Once you've selected your location you can search by record type. Here I've selected Land and property

When I click on the "Saskatchewan homestead records, 1870-1930, and index" FamilySearch gives me a link to an outside (non-FamilySearch) index. Note that the link to this index is NOT shown when getting into the Saskatchewan Provincial Records using the map search

Here is the Saskatchewan Homestead Index. FYI, the "starts with" option has worked best for me, but you can also try "Contains," "Exact Match," and "Sounds Like."

Here's a partial list of results from my search. The numbers to the left of the names refer to the homestead file numbers. I can go back to that list of Saskatchewan Provincial Records we saw earlier and see if FamilySearch has the file I'm looking for. If not, I can order it from the Saskatchewan Homestead Records site.

​The map search is quick and easy to get into, just “point and shoot,” but sometimes it doesn’t have all the tools.  Be willing to explore the catalog and its PlaceName search to see if that might offer a more helpful way into the millions of unindexed records on FamilySearch.