Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Which Record Provider Provides the Most Record Hints?

I had a little free time today, and wondered about this, since I have family trees on Ancestry.com, MyHeritage, Findmypast, and FamilySearch.

I picked a random but 19th century ancestor - my second great-grandfather, David Auble (1817-1894).  Each tree has the same basic information in my tree - birth, marriage, death, burial, children, siblings, parents, events, etc).  Here are the Hints for him on each of the four sites:

1)  Ancestry.com (the "Auble Descendants" family tree) - All Hints, including those attached to the profile:

*  Ancestry Member Trees - 12 other trees, two of them mine
*  New Jersey Births and Christenings Index, 1660-1931) - this is for a daughter, with David Auble named as the father.
*  1850 United States Census - David Auble household in Newton, Sussex County, New Jersey
*  1860 United States Census - David Auble household in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey
*  1870 United States Census - Daniel Auble household in Terre Haute, Vigo County, Indiana
*  1880 United States Census - David Auble household in Terre Haute, Vigo County, Indiana
*  Indiana Deaths, 1882-1920 - David Auble death record
*  U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current - David Auble entry
*  U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 - David Auble in 1896 Terre Haute, Indiana City Directory (after he died!)

2)  MyHeritage (the "RandySeaverAncestors - 2011-Master" family tree) - Record Matches and Smart Matches:

*  FamilySearch Family Tree - my data
*  Geni World Tree - my data
*  WikiTree - my data
*  MyHeritage Trees - 4 Smart Matches
*  1850 United States Census - David Auble household in Newton, Sussex County, New Jersey
*  1870 United States Census - Daniel Auble household in Terre Haute, Vigo County, Indiana
*  1880 United States Census - David Auble household in Terre Haute, Vigo County, Indiana

3)  Findmypast (the "RandySeaver Database-Master-2016-05-25" tree) - Record Hints:

*  1850 United States Census - David Auble household in Newton, Sussex County, New Jersey
*  1880 United States Census - David Auble household in Terre Haute, Vigo County, Indiana

4)  FamilySearch (the David Auble profile in the FamilySearch Family Tree) - Record Hints and FamilySearch sources already attached to the profile:

*  New Jersey Births and Christenings Index, 1660-1931 - this is for a daughter, with David Auble named as the father.
*  Wisconsin Marriages, 1836-1930 - this is for a son, with D. Auble named as the father
*  Indiana Marriages, 1811-2007 - marriage entry for daughter, David Auble named as father
*  1850 United States Census - David Auble household in Newton, Sussex County, New Jersey
*  1860 United States Census - David Auble household in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey
*  1870 United States Census - Daniel Auble household in Terre Haute, Vigo County, Indiana
*  1880 United States Census - David Auble household in Terre Haute, Vigo County, Indiana
*  Indiana Death Index, 1882-1920 - David Auble entry
*  Find A Grave Index - David Auble entry

5)  There they are, all of the Record Hints, Matches, etc.

FamilySearch and Ancestry.com did the best.  Some of the Ancestry Hints were obtained from FamilySearch provided databases.  The only unique Ancestry.com database was the U.S. city Directories entry.

MyHeritage did not provide the 1860 U.S. Census, the birth and marriage records of the children, or Find A Grave entry.

Findmypast did not find the 1860 or 1870 U.S. Census records (perhaps because the 1870 was for "Daniel" Auble), or the other records.

Each record provider has their own search engine and search methodology - some of them may be more broad or stringent than others.  A search on the websites using all of the tips and tricks, may result in more records.  This blog post concerned Hints only.

6)  For comparison purposes, here is the list of Events from my RootsMagic "Edit Person" profile for David Auble:


As you can see, Ancestry and FamilySearch provided every record that I have found for David Auble (although I haven't added the City Directory to my Event list).  I have only Indirect Evidence for the birth of David Auble and the marriage of David Auble to Sarah G. Knapp.  I also have an obituary for David Auble obtained from family records.  I also have a deed that no resource has provided as a Hint yet.

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3 comments:

Susi's Quarter said...

I suspect the results will vary with the various names and places. I find more links on one name on one site and more links on other names on another site. But I do get more responses to requests from MyHeritage.com members than Ancestry no idea why.

Rita A. said...

Very interesting and helpful. Thank you. I've often wondered about that but don't have access to some of them so this is helpful on deciding if I want to add them to my budget.
Again, thank you.

Unknown said...

So interesting, I am pleased you did this. I have been wondering the same thing, and thank you.