🔍 A Surprise from FamilySearch: Finding Rev. L. F. Vance in Five Minutes

How Full-Text Search in Books Helped Me Uncover My Great-Grandfather’s Legacy

Rev. Lafayette Franklin Vance (1861–1952), Born in Hodges, Abbeville County, South Carolina.

Dear GenFriends,

Have you ever searched and searched for an ancestor, only to come up with nothing? I think we’ve all been there. But sometimes, the breakthrough comes just when we least expect it—and in a way we didn’t think to try.

I have been writing about Beverley Vance (1832-1899), and I guess his son, Rev. L. F. Vance, wanted me to show him some love. I recently received my usual summary of Ancestry updates, but this time something else in my inbox stole the show. I’m subscribed to Rootsquad Roundup by Kyla Bayang on Substack, and her recent post, My Summary of Ancestry Updates and A Surprise From FamilySearch, was a game-changer. After reading it, I’ll never search FamilySearch’s Books the same way again—and you might not either.

🌟 FamilySearch Just Got Even Better

FamilySearch has added Full-Text Search to their digital book collection. That means we’re no longer limited to just searching book titles or authors—we can now search for any name, phrase, or location that appears anywhere in the book’s text.

I decided to give it a try. I typed in: “L. F. Vance.”

And there he was—my great-grandfather, Rev. Lafayette Franklin Vance (1861–1952) in Laurens County, South Carolina.

📖 A Treasure Found in Five Minutes

One of the first results was a local history book titled:
The Scrapbook: A Compilation of Historical Facts About Places and Events of Laurens County, South Carolina
Published in 1982 by the Laurens County Historical Society and the Laurens County Arts Council, with help from The Old Ninety-Six Tourism Commission.

The SCRAPBOOK, A Compilation of Historical Facts About Places and Events of Laurens County, South Carolina; Published by Laurens County Historical Society and Laurens County Arts Council;1982; Additional Funding by The Old Ninety-Six Tourism Commission (FamilySearch Books: https://www.familysearch.org/library/books/viewer/680168/)

Here’s the link to the book on FamilySearch Books:

👉 Read it here

Inside, I found a detailed write-up on Mount Pleasant AME Church, where Rev. L. F. Vance served from 1901 to 1903. Not only was his name there—abbreviated, as I’ve often seen—but so were other leaders I recognized.

Among them was Rev. Griffin C. Johnson, who organized the church in 1873. Some of the Johnson’s mentioned in the book are my family members. This discovery felt like turning the pages of a living history—my history.

🕵🏾‍♀️ What This Means for Our Research

This all took just five minutes. And now I know—FamilySearch’s Full-Text Book Search is going to become one of my go-to tools. Whether you’re researching for yourself or helping others, this update opens a new door for finding names, places, and connections that may have remained hidden before.

Thank you to Kyla Bayang for the heads-up, and to FamilySearch for continuing to preserve and expand access to these valuable records.

Now, if you’ll excuse me—I’m off to do some more digging. There’s more work to do, and I can feel the discoveries coming!

Have you tried the new Full-Text Search yet?
Comment below and let me know what you've found—or what you're hoping to uncover.