One of the features I really like on Ancestry.com is the "Suggested Records" found after a searcher has found one record for a person. Let me use George Knapp, born in 1848 in New Jersey, as an illustration. He's my first cousin, three times removed (a first cousin of my second great-grandmother, Sarah (Knapp) Auble. He is in my database and I want to add his wife and children to my database, and perhaps find male descendants for a Knapp Y-DNA connection.
1) I did a search for George Knapp, born 1848 (plus/minus 2 years) in New Jersey, with the exact match box checked, on Ancestry.com:
I think that Ancestry.com changed the relative size of their search screen here, and added some color background to dropdown fields. This is, I think, part of their "coming changes."
2) Here are the search results:
There are matches shown for the 1850, 1860, 1870, 1900, 1910, 1920 and 1930 U.S. census; note that there is no 1880 U.S. census match. There are also matches in the Iowa State Census collection, 1836-1925, and in the Iowa State Census, 1895.
There were no matches in any other record collection except for the Public and Private Member Trees on Ancestry.com.
3) I started with the 1850 U.S. census, and there is George as a 2 year-old male in the home of Charles and Sarah Knapp, with 3 other young Knapps and one Smith:
There were no "Suggested Records" to the right of the image thumbnail.
4) The 1860 U.S. Census record shows George S. Knapp, age 12, with Charles and Sarah Knapp, 5 other Knapp persons, and a Shrader:
Over on the right side of the screen are suggested records for: 1930, 1920, 1910, 1870 U.S. census collections, and two Iowa State Census Collection matches.
5) The 1870 U.S. Census record shows George S. Knapp, age 23, with Charles and Sarah Knapp, and 4 other Knapp persons:
Over on the right side of the screen are suggested records for: 1930, 1920, 1910, and 1860 U.S. census collections, and two Iowa State Census Collection matches.
6) The 1880 U.S. Census record (which was not found on the Matches list in the second screen above) shows George S. Knapp, age 32 born in New York, with Mary A. and three Knapp children:
Over on the right side of the screen are suggested records for: 1930, 1900, and two other 1880 possible matches.
7) The 1900 U.S. Census record shows George I. Knapp, age 52, with Mary A. and two Knapp children:
Over on the right side of the screen are suggested records for: 1930, 1920, and 1910 U.S. census possible matches.
8) The 1910 U.S. Census record shows George G. Knapp, age 62, with Mary A. and one Knapp child:
Over on the right side of the screen are suggested records for: 1930, 1920, 1900, 1880, 1870 and 1860 U.S. census collections, and two different Iowa State Census matches.
9) The 1920 U.S. Census record shows George G. Knapp, age 72, with Mary A.:
Over on the right side of the screen are suggested records for: 1930, two 1910, 1900, 1880, 1870 and 1860 U.S. census, and three different Iowa State Census matches.
10) The 1930 U.S. Census record shows George S. Knapp, age 82, with Mary A.:
Over on the right side of the screen are suggested records for: 1920, two 1910, two 1900, 1880, and 1860 U.S. census, and three different Iowa State Census matches.
11) Do you see the inconsistencies here? What I noticed was:
* The 1850 U.S. census entry was not found in any of the other "Suggested Records."
* The 1860 U.S. Census entry was not found on the 1880 or 1900 list of "Suggested Records."
* The 1870 U.S. Census entry was not found on the 1880, 1900 or 1930 list of "Suggested Records."
* The 1880 U.S. census record was not found in the "Results list" (because his birthplace was listed as New York and not New Jersey), but was found in the "Suggested Records" for 1910, 1920 and 1930.
* The 1900 U.S. census record was not found on the "Suggested Records" for 1860, 1870 and 1880.
* The 1910 U.S. Census entry was not found on the 1880 list of "Suggested Records."
* The 1920 U.S. Census entry was not found on the 1880 list of "Suggested Records."
* The 1930 U.S. Census entry was found on all of the lists of "Suggested Records" (except for 1850).
I did look at the Iowa State Census collections, and there are entries for 1885, 1895, 1915 and 1925. The 1925 collection provides the parents' names for George S. and Mary A. Knapp.
12) What does all of this mean to me? My conclusions are:
* A searcher needs to check all of the matches on each "Suggested Records" list (s/he might make a list to save time).
* If the target person has a somewhat different name (or middle initial), a different residence, or a different birthplace, that target person may not be on some "Suggested Records" list.
* This "Suggested Records" list is not foolproof, but it works pretty well. I estimated that it had 80% to 90% accuracy for the Records it finds (meaning the suggested record is the target person), but not for the Records it misses (meaning that it doesn't always find the target person for whatever reason).
* I believe, but I don't know for sure, that these "Suggested Records" are created dynamically from an actual search with the given search parameters, rather than looking up records attached to one or more Ancestry Member Trees. I may be wrong!
* You cannot trust these "Suggested Records" to find every match possible in all of Ancestry's databases, but it really helps pick off the "low hanging fruit." Many databases don't have a birth year or a birth place, and an exact search will not find those entries. A searcher should do a name only search, and perhaps a name only plus a state residence search, in order to find the "hiding" entries in the Ancestry databases. For instance, I did a "George Knapp" exact name and a "Iowa, USA" exact residence search and found his marriage record in 1874 to Mary A. Blessing. I haven't found his, or Mary's, death record yet.
13) What are your experiences with the "Suggested Records?"
The URL for this post is:
http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/08/puzzling-over-how-ancestrycom-finds.html
Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver
