Where do I start? / How do I find someone?

Once you've become a member, the best place to start is to look for someone you know (perhaps look for yourself even!). If you know the person's first name then type their first name in the First Name box and click search. However, do note that for older generation names like Thykandy Patannakara Bharatan for instance, Thykandy and Patannakara are deemed first names whilst Bharatan is considered a surname. We follow this convention because over time, families have dropped the Thykandy and Patannakara and adopted Bharatan as the family surname. Note also that ladies' names are always maiden names ie. any name changes post marriage are not reflected on this site (yay, women's lib rules!!).

If you're looking for someone and you only know their surname, then type that name in the Surname box and click the search button below it. You will arrive at a page with a list of surnames. For example, a search for "Jayaram" would show you a list of six Jayarams and from there, you can hopefully clcik on the Jayaram you're looking for.

There is also and Advanced Search option which allows you to search using combinations of names, dates, places and the like. This feature would probably gain prominence as our database becomes more complex over time. 

Individual profiles

Once you have found the person you're looking for using the search function, clicking on the individual's name takes you to their profile page. Each individual has a profile page which includes basic details such as relevant dates, names of family members and so on. It is to be expected of course that the older the generation, the greater the scarcity of information. For instance, we generally would not have exact birth dates for our ancestors born in the 19th century or earlier. Apart from perusing basic details, there are a number of options one can take to learn more about a particular individual. To do this, you need to click the tabs at the top of an individual's profile.

Ancestors, descendants and relationship tabs

Click on the  tab to view an individual's ancestry and put a number into the generations box to choose how many earlier generations you would like the pedigree chart to display. By clicking on a person from the earliest known generation in the ancestors chart, you can then view that ancestor's profile. From that ancestor's profile, now click the tab and once again choose the number of later generations you would like to view. The chart will now show you the complete family tree from the earliest known person to the latest generation of family members. When viewing an indiviual's profile, click the tab and search for any other person in the family tree. A chart will then be displayed showing the relationship between the two individuals.

Viewing media - photos and photo albums

When browsing through an individual's profile page, click on the tab to view all media connected to the individual. Currently media is comprised almost entirely of old photographs. The website has provision for videos and/or audio recordings to be uploaded. These would have to have some historic value before they can be added to the website. For everything else, there's always Facebook isn't there?! From the home page, you can also navigate directly to photo albums by simply clicking on Photo Albums in the left hand menu bar.

We are on Facebook

The Sandarsanam.com page on Facebook allows all family members to share more recent events like family gatherings, weddings and the like. Facebook should be at the leading edge of user-friendly applications especially for media sharing so do click and become a Sandarsanam.com fan!