Friday, September 15, 2017

Harvey and Irma - Aren't Search Engines Great?

While trying to go to sleep last night, I wondered to myself  "How many records are there with a man named Harvey and a woman named Irma (the names given to the two recent large hurricanes that hit the U.S. mainland recently)?"

They are both relatively uncommon first names, especially in the last 50 years or so.

So this morning, in a brief bout of curiosity, I searched Ancestry.com with the two exact given names, Harvey and Irma as a spouse, and found that there are:

*  67 entries in the 1940 U.S. Census records


*  36 entries in the 1930 U.S. Census records

*  22 entries in the 1920 U.S. Census records

*  4 entries in the 1910 U.S. Census records

*  1 entry in the 1900 U.S. Census records

*  1 entry in the 1880 U.S. Census records

*  74 entries in the Find A Grave database

*  50 entries in the U.S. Social Security Applications and Claims Index database

*  24 entries in the Michigan Marriage Records, 1867-1952 database

*  16 entries in the Virginia Marriage Records, 1936-2014 database

*  15 entries in the Ohio County Marriages, 1774-1993 database

*  890 entries in the Public Member Trees database

And many more!  Ancestry told me there were 2,343 results for my search criteria - and they did it in a search that took less than two seconds!  Aren't search engines great?

I think my favorite "name" is Harvey Romeo who married Irma Jackson in 1938 in Polk County, Florida.


=======================================


Copyright (c) 2017, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Share it on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

No comments: