Wednesday, October 18, 2017

RootsMagic WebHints for Henry Arnold White (1824-1885)

I am always curious as to how many records are found in the RootsMagic WebHints on the four major record providers - Ancestry, FamilySearch, Findmypast, and MyHeritage.  

1)  For my 3rd great-grandfather, Henry Arnold White (1824-1885) born in Rhode Island and died in Connecticut, I received these WebHints in RootsMagic:


For this person, there are:

*  21 WebHints on Ancestry.com
*  1 WebHint on FamilySearch
*  3 WebHints on Findmypast
*  0 WebHints on MyHeritage

2)  On Ancestry.com, the 21 WebHints are for:

*  1880 U.S. Census record
*  1844 Marriage (first marriage, in pre-1870 Barbour Town Marriage Record Collection)
*  Find A Grave memorial
*  1885 death and burial record (in Connecticut Hale collection)
*  1860 U.S. Census (but this was for Arnold White, not this Henry White)
*  15 Ancestry Member Tree entries
*  1 photo (a RI outline map)

On Ancestry.com, a non-exact Search for records (from the Tree profile) found the above records, plus:

*  1863 U.S. Civil War Draft Registration record
*  Connecticut Deaths and burials Index
*  1850 U.S. Census record
*  1870 U.S. Census record

3)  On FamilySearch, the 1 WebHint is for:

*  Find A Grave memorial

On FamlySearch, a non-exact search (+/- 2 years on birth, marriage, death) for records found the above record, plus:

*  1870 U.S. Census record
*  1880 U.S. Census record
*  1850 U.S. Census record
*  Connecticut Deaths and Burials

4)  On Findmypast, the 3 WebHints are for:

*  1850 U.S. Census
*  1870 U.S. Census
*  1844 Marriage record

On Findmypast, a non-exact search (+/- 2 on births, marriages and deaths) for records found the above records plus:

*  1880 U.S. Census record
*  1866 Marriage record in Rhode Island (second marriage)

5)  On MyHeritage, there were no WebHints.

On MyHeritage, a non-exact search (+/- 2 years on births, marriages and deaths)) for records found:

*  About 30 MyHeritage trees
*  Geni World Tree
*  FamilySearch Family Tree
*  WikiTree
*  1850 U.S. Census
*  1870 U.S. Census
*  1880 U.S. census

6)  I wondered why the 1860 U.S. census record wasn't found on any of the record providers.  The birth date on the census record is 1827 (age 33) and birthplace is Connecticut.   None of the sites found it with a +/- 2 year search.  If I had used +/- 5 years, they all would have found it.

7)  While the WebHints are useful, they are limited by the search parameters that RootsMagic (?) and/or the record providers use for years and places.  To get the best results, researchers should perform a  search with broad search parameters to cover age and place errors.

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Copyright (c) 2017, Randall J. Seaver

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