Help

Why can't I see the image matching my search?

In the list of search results, above each match is a link with the name of the source (e.g., 1939 Poznan Telephone Directory). Clicking on that link should take you to an image of the matching page, and when it does not, there are several possible reasons. The most likely reason is that the image is in DjVu format and viewing it requires a DjVu browser plugin or extension, which you do not have installed. If you did previously install a DjVu plugin, then it is possible your browser no longer supports your plugin (many browsers recently dropped support for so-called NPAPI plugins). Our current recommendation for plugins and extensions is to first try this Chrome extension, then try this plugin, though some users cannot get either to work.

Another possible reason why you are not seeing the image is that the external website hosting it has changed the location of the image. In that case, you might see the external website (e.g., a Polish digital library) load in place of the image, with an error message that the file cannot be found. If you see that, please notify me, and I will try to find the new location of the image.

If the external website does not load in place of the image, but you simply get an error message from your browser, then it is likely the external website is temporarily offline. Please try again later.

If you do not see anything at all in place of the image, then please wait as the image might just be slow to load. Some external websites host the images in such a way that the entire source must first be downloaded to your computer, instead of just the image you are interested in, which can take a few minutes.

If you are viewing a source hosted by the Russian State Library and do not see the image, there might be a dialog box on the screen in Russian. Clicking the "OK" button in the dialog box should dismiss it and reveal the image.

Finally, in the unlikely event that your browser does not support iframes or has iframes support temporarily disabled, you will not see the image (but should see an error message about iframes support) and will have to go directly to the external website hosting the image by clicking on the "From" link.

How can I find the search match in the corresponding image?

Have patience and examine every word. The text snippet provided in the list of search results can help guide you by showing you nearby text (e.g., section headings). Often, images are alphabetized entirely or within blocks, but the alphabetization might be incomplete. For example, a business directory might list a business jointly owned by Mr. Smith and Mr. Jones under "S" as "Smith and Jones," but not under "J". Automatic highlighting of search matches on the images is available only for a small percentage of the sources.

What does Genealogy Indexer ID: d209 mean?

Each source is identified uniquely by a letter-number combination like d209 or m3. You can use these identifiers to restrict your search to any single source or any group of sources. See the guide.

How can I learn when you add more searchable sources?

Subscribe to our email list for announcements (once per week at most) or follow @gindexer on Twitter.

How can I learn when there are new matches to my searches?

Use saved searches, they allow you with one click to see whether there are new matches to up to 500 searches. We plan to eventually provide an option to receive email notification of new matches to saved searches. If you do not want to use saved searches, you can change the option below the search box from "Regular Sort" to "New Matches First" when you search, but this requires re-entering each search.

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