5 Tips for Getting More Out of Hope Chest

Hope Chest has a lot of features packed into a small interface. Here are five tips — from quick tricks to more advanced settings — that can help you get better results with less effort.

1. Put a PersonID in your label name

If you include a FamilySearch Person ID in a label name, Hope Chest automatically turns it into a clickable link that opens that person's tree. For example, name a label ABC1-234 Baker Line and you've got a quick reference to the root of each branch, right inside your label list.

2. Use column filters to narrow your results instantly

After a search finishes, you don't need to run a new one to find a specific person. The filter bar at the top of the Hope Chest table lets you type a Name, PersonID, or Relationship and instantly see only the matching rows.

3. Turn on the log tray to see why names were skipped

In Settings, enable Open log window on search or click Open Log on the Hope Chest Sidebar. When you run a search, a live log appears showing each person as it's processed; green for saved and red for skipped, with the exact reason, too (gender filter, possible duplicates, permission required, date range not matched). It's the fastest way to understand why a search returned fewer names than you expected. The log will be cleared anytime you start a new search.

4. Set a date range to make searches faster

Under the Save settings tab, you can set a Most Recent Year and Oldest Year to limit searches by birth year. This is also how you enforce the 110-year rule automatically. As a bonus, Hope Chest uses the oldest-year setting to prune branches during ancestor searches. If a person was born before your threshold, the extension stops climbing that line entirely, which can significantly speed up a search.

5. Re-check ordinance status without re-running a search

If someone else has reserved ordinances for people in your list, you don't need to search again to find out. Click the magnifying glass icon in the Hope Chest toolbar to re-check the current ordinance status for everyone in the active label. This queries FamilySearch directly and updates the status badges in your table, so you always know what's still available.

Sincerely,
The Hope Chest Team