AmericanAncestors.org Has New Menus

I received an email from AmericanAncestors today saying that their website has new menus.  You can read the announcement at https://dbnews.americanancestors.org/2018/04/04/new-menus-on-american-ancestors/.

I wanted to see for myself, so I went to the AmericanAncestors.org home page and saw:

There are buttons in blue across the top of the page for:

*  Search - Databases and special collections
*  Services - Consult or hire research experts
*  Learn - Improve your research skills
*  Library - Access our leading research center
*  Events - Lectures, tours, exhibits & more
*  News - Updates and latest publications
*  Bookstore - Books and products from NEHGS
*  Join/Renew

I am most interested in the online databases offered on the site, and clicked on the "Search" button and a popup box appeared on the left side of the screen (two screens below):

I have the choice to:

• Search All Databases – the standard Advanced Search page to search across over 450 databases with 1.4 billion records
• Category searches – the recently announced category specific search pages, are available for a tailored search experience to each category of databases; such as Vital Records
• Browse Databases A to Z – previously on a separate menu, the database lets you find a specific database to use for your research
• Special Interest Databases –the externally provided searchable databases, made available to NEGHS members
• Articles Guides and Study projects – provides access to the ongoing study projects that are used to create unique searchable databases and publications
• Library Catalog – lets you search through the entire NEHGS library catalog
• Digital Book and Manuscript Collection – the place to search through our digital collections from the NEHGS Library and the Jewish Heritage Center.

I clicked on the "Search all databases" link and the page with a number of fields appeared:

This appears to be the same page I saw several days ago and for several years past.  I think that the "Help" and "Search by category" links on the right side of the screen above are new.

I entered "seaver" in the "Last name" field, and saw:

There are 1,927,739 matches in many databases to search through.  The top matches are for "Iowa Marriages, 1809-1992," followed by Worcester County Probate records, so there doesn't seem to be any real order to the listing.

I decided to sort the list by "Probate records" so I selected "Court, Land and Probate Records" from the Category list on the left-hand side of the screen above.

There are only 4701 records in this category.  I specifically want "New York: Abstracts of Wills, Admins, and Guardianships, 1787-1835:"

There are 790 records in this sub-category.  I clicked on the first one for Luther Seaver to see what it was:

The screen above is the summary page for the record for Luther Seaver in Queens County, New York.  There is a citation below the frame with the summary information and the link to view the record.  It provides a link to the summary page, but doesn't mention the record type, county, the name of the person or the year of the record.

I clicked on the link to "View" the record and saw:

It turns out that Luther Seaver was a witness to the will of a James Bennet.  Oh well. I wonder which Luther it was in my database?  That's a research question for another time.

I chose to search for only a surname - and this would be useful if I was mining a specific collection.  I usually search by first name, last name, and record type, often with a year range and general location in order to reduce the matches from non-useful years and places.

I don't know that this new Menu system will be more helpful to my research, but at least I'm aware of it.

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

Disclosure:  I have been a paying subscriber to the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) since 1992 (I think).  I have not received any compensation from NEHGS for writing about or using their products over the years.  I have found many very useful documents on their website.

The URL for this post is:  https://www.geneamusings.com/2018/04/americanancestorsorg-has-new-menus.html

Copyright (c) 2018, 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.