FamilySearch recently updated their “Illinois, Cook County Deaths, 1878-1994.”

That database serves as a good reminder that there may be searchable fields in the database that are not apparent on the initial screen. The first search screen has the typical fields upon which one can search.

However, when viewing the actual search results, a different search screen comes up.

In this case, the search can be conducted only searching for the “other person.” In the Cook County death database this “other person” is the informant.

This allowed me to search for death certificates in the database that had someone with the last name of Trautvetter as the informant.

Not all databases in FamilySearch were created in quite the same way–some don’t extract the same information as others do. However, don’t just rely on that “initial” search screen as your source for searchable options. Look at the “refine your search” menu on the left hand side of your results screen. There may be options there that were not on the original search screen.