indomitable_merged

I use that widget myself and don't have a problem with searching.  So it might be something unique to your setup.  Also try reinstalling it again and see if the problem comes back.  It might just be a bad install.  

Thank you but it seems I blamed your widget unfairly. I re-enabled it and search still worked - so I have no idea why it was producing an error but it no longer is!
Thanks all.

Curious to know what a widget that has absolutely nothing to do with search breaks your search. 🤷🏻‍♂️
Post any logs you have. Let’s check it out.

I see you have found the issue now, but if you ever need this again, its in the support section of the admin CP, as indicated here

Anja, we did a work around for this issue.  It takes a good bit of time and effort. 
I first searched for members who had visited with the last year.  I checked everyone on this list to see if they had added their birthday to their profile.  Then I made a hand written list of these members and their birthdays.
Next, with the created list of recently visiting members and their birthdays, I went into the calendar and added each birthday as an event, marking them as hidden.  When you add an event, it will post about it, so if it is hidden, only admin can see it.
Now, I look at the calendar every day, and at night before someone's birthday, I click on the event and 'unhide' it.  Then I post a comment under the announcement or add a birthday emoji to make the post current.
Another way to recognize birthdays is, once you have made your own list of members with their BD,  create an announcement for each one.  Yes, this is very labor intensive, but with an announcement, you can set the date for the announcement to be displayed and then made inactive the next day.  After a member's birthday, I go in and delete the announcement.
It doesn't make sense to me that the birthday function was written out of the software, how much space can that possibly take?  😠