Mocavo.com Provides List of Their Online Databases

In my post Finding Mocavo.com Record Collections for Free Searching last week, I wondered if there was a list of the database that Mocavo.com said they searched.  

 Cliff Shaw, the founder of Mocavo.com, provided links to the list of databases to me yesterday in email and encouraged me to share them with my readers:  Here is Cliff's information:

"As of right now, there are 108,000+ databases hosted on Mocavo. You can see this here:

http://www.mocavo.com/records/all (there is overlap between the categories on that page since a database can be tagged multiple ways - but there are more than 108,000 completely unique databases.

"We also built these views for you:

http://www.mocavo.com/records/new-today

http://www.mocavo.com/records/new-yesterday

http://www.mocavo.com/records/new-in-the-past-five-days

http://www.mocavo.com/records/new-in-the-past-seven-days

"You asked how we'll add 1,000 databases per day. I guess I'll just say that we're very ambitious, finally hitting our stride, and beyond determined that there's limitless content that deserves to be brought online, free forever."

Here is a screen shot of the "All Databases" page:

Over 109,000 databases!  The order of the databases is not known to me.  Perhaps it is from the first one added years ago.  Or not.  I haven't gone through all 109,000 of them to see.

The "Records Added Today" page:

Over 1,000 databases were added today, just as they advertised.

The "Records Added Yesterday" page:

Over 1,000 databases were added yesterday too.

The "Records Added in Past Seven Days" page:

Over 7,000 databases were added during the past week.

These lists will be very helpful to researchers.  A researcher can see up to 100 databases at one time on these pages.

A look through today's list of newly added databases shows that they are mostly relatively small databases - town reports, college directories, historical society directories, interviews, personal histories, etc.

Unless a researcher finds a specific record of interest, it is probably best to search (for free) using a specific name and a location to narrow the search to a number of databases.  You can search in a specific database using a name or you can browse (page by page) in a specific database.

Many of these databases are unique online - there may not be another online source for them.  They are items that might be found in a local or regional library or historical society.  As such, they are very valuable to researchers, but you will have to patiently find the genealogy gems hiding in the database pile.

The recent Mocavo announcement said that they are using over 500 servers to store these record databases.  I can see why!

I am impressed by Cliff Shaw's optimism and determination that they are "...beyond determined that there's limitless content that deserves to be brought online, free forever."

Thank you to Cliff and the Mocavo team for bringing all of this content online, and I hope that it continues.  I look forward to searching for my elusive ancestors in these collections.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/10/mocavocom-provides-list-of-their-online.html

Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver

Disclosure:  Mocavo provided me with a complimentary Mocavo Plus membership two years ago and I appreciate their generosity.  This has not affected my objectivity in reporting on Mocavo's capabilities and resources.

Treasure Chest Thursday - Post 186: 1800 U.S. Census Record for Two Simon Wade Households in Rhode Island

It's Treasure Chest Thursday - time to look in my digital image files to see what treasures I can find for my family history and genealogy musings.

The treasure today is the 1800 United States Census record for Simon Wade Jr. (one of my 4th great-grandfathers), and Simon Wade Sr. (one of my 5th great-grandfathers)  in Cumberland, Providence County, Rhode Island.

The Simon Wade (Senior) household entry shows:

*  1 Male over age 45 (certainly Simon Wade (1731-????))
*  1 Female over age 45 (almost certainly his wife, Deborah (Tracy) Wade (1731-????)

Below Simon Wade is the household of Levi Wade (I only have an unmarried Levi Wade, born 1765 to Simon and Deborah (Tracy) Wade in my database - was he married?  This census record indicates he was over age 45).  A mystery here.

Below Levi Wade is the entry for Simon Wade, Jun^r:

*  1 male aged 10 to 16 years (probably son James (1791-1838), but the age range is wrong)
*  1 male aged 16 to 26 years (perhaps a brother of Simon Wade Jr., or a worked on the farm)
*  1 male over age 45 (it must be Simon Wade (1767-1857), the head of household, but the age range is wrong.
*  1 female aged 0 to 10 years (either daughter Catherine (1793-????) or daughter Sarah (1798-????))
*  1 female aged 26 to 45 years (almost certainly his wife, Phebe (Horton) Wade (1772-????))

Simon Wade and Phebe Horton married before 1790 (I don't have a date or place), so James Wade is probably their oldest child.

The source citation for this record is:

1800 United States Federal Census, Providence County, Rhode Island, Population Schedule, Cumberland town, Page 152 (penned, top right) and 466 (stamped, lower right), Simon Wade, Jr. household; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com), citing National Archives Microfilm Publication M32, Roll 45.

While this census record doesn't provide exact ages for the household members, I think that I can estimate who might be in each age and gender group based on all of the information gathered for this family.

I think that these families resided in the town of Foster (on the border with Connecticut), not in Cumberland town (on the border with Massachusetts, north of Providence).  The Simon Wade family was in Foster in the 1790 and 1810 census listings.  There is a "header" for Foster in the census collection before page 156 (penned) and 474 (stamped), and 12 pages of census records follow.  It is possible that the "header" was put in the wrong place when the census was records were collected and filmed.  

As noted above, some of the age groupings on the census records don't exactly match the ages that I think I know...this is one of the problems with census enumerations - either the provider of the information didn't know correct ages or the enumerator may have put the check mark in the wrong column.  The enumerators weren't paid for accuracy, only on the number of persons enumerated.

The URL for this post is:

Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver

Adding a Life Sketch and Notes to a FamilySearch Family Tree Profile

In his post yesterday on the Genealogy's Star blog, James Tanner highlighted two new features in the FamilySearch Family Tree - Life Sketches and Notes.

I decided to check this out and enter information for my grandfather, Lyle Lawrence Carringer (1891-1976).

Here is the top of his Profile page:

1)  The "Life Sketch" is the first item on the list of categories in the "Details" tab:

I did note that the "Life Sketch" and "Notes" items are not included in the line just below the "Details" tab menu line, but I think that they will eventually add them.

I copied text from my "Notes" area in my RootsMagic database and edited them:

I had to click on the blue "Save" button to save the Life Sketch for my grandfather.  There appears to be no formatting functions (font size, bold, italic, underscore, etc.) available.  A "Life Sketch" of up to 10,000 characters can be added.

After saving the Life Sketch, it appears like this:

I can "Edit" or "Delete" the Life Sketch by clicking the appropriate link.

2)  The "Notes" feature is near the bottom of the person Profile, after the "Sources" and "Discussions:"

There are fields for a "Title" and the "Note" text.  I entered a Title for the 1920 U.S. Census into the "title" field, and copied information about the Lyle Carringer household in the 1920 U.S. Census into the "Note" text field:

Again, there is space for 10,000 characters in the "note" text.  After clicking on the blue "Save" button, the full Note appeared in the "Notes" category:

Again, I can "Edit" or "Delete" the Note by clicking on the appropriate button.

A researcher can Add any number of separate Notes by clicking on the "Add a New Note" link.

3)  These are very necessary features for the FamilySearch Family Tree.  I'm intrigued that they separated the information into "Life Sketch" and "Notes."  I have both sets of information in my "Notes" in my RootsMagic database, so I have to pick and choose what to put into each field.  Some of what I put into the "Life Sketch" could be put into the "Stories" category also.  There may be guidelines for what should go into each Category in the FamilySearch Family Tree Help documents.

I don't see any capability to print out the "Life Sketch" or "Notes"on the Profile page.  Perhaps those will be added to the Family Group Sheet feature in the future.

FamilySearch Family Tree has quickly become a full-featured online universal family tree program which offers more variety than other online family trees like Ancestry Member Trees (separate trees), Geni.com (universal tree) and MyHeritage World Trees (separate trees).

Researchers should note that these Life Sketches and Notes are visible for anyone to read and copy so private and sensitive information, and material under copyright protection, should be edited out.

The URL for this post is:

copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver

CGSSD Mini-Fair on Saturday, 19 October 2013

The Computer GenealogySociety of San Diego (CGSSD) meets on the 3rd Saturday of each month (except December) from 9:00 a.m. to noon on the campus of UCSD, University of California, San Diego. See our map page for directions.

The next meeting will be held on 19 October 2013 from 9:00 am to noon. Here are the details:

MINI FAIR
Two sessions and two topics per session
No user groups or SIGS this month.

9:00 a.m. - SESSION 1:

A.  “Enhance Your Research with American Memory” Presented by Gena Philibert Ortega

We will be exploring the Library of Congress Digital Collections website American Memory. The Library of Congress has so much to offer family history researchers from maps and images to histories and interviews, American Memory is a must for researchers. During this presentation we will be exploring all that the Library of Congress has to offer genealogists online.  

Gena Philibert Ortega holds a Master’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies (Psychology and Women’s Studies) and a Master’s degree in Religion. Presenting on various subjects involving genealogy, women’s studies and social history, Gena has spoken to groups throughout the United States as well as virtually to audiences worldwide. Gena is the author of hundreds of articles published in genealogy newsletters and magazines including FGS Forum, APG Quarterly, Internet Genealogy, Family Chronicle, Family Tree Magazine, and the GenWeekly newsletter. Her writings can also be found on her blogs, Gena’s Genealogy and Food.Family.Ephemera. She is the author of three books include her latest From The Family Kitchen (F + W Media, 2012). Gena is the editor of the Utah Genealogical Association’s journal Crossroads. She serves as President for the Southern California Chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists and is a board member of the Utah Genealogical Association. Her current research interests include women’s social history, community cookbooks, signature quilts and researching women’s lives using material artifacts.

B. “Peter O’Malley - A Brick Wall Case Study - You be the Judge!” Presented by Del Ritchhart

This is a case study which presents evidence of possibly identifying a record of Peter, siblings and his mother and father on a passenger list arriving in New York in 1847.  People with the same names are identified in the 1850 census near Scranton, Pennsylvania; but are they the same people and are they really related to Peter?  The evidence is presented—you be the judge!

Delbert A. Ritchhart: EDUCATION----MS Management U. S. Naval Postgraduate School; MS Military Science U. S. Naval War College; BS Education, University of Colorado

WORK EXPERIENCE—U.S. Navy 1959-1984, Retired as a Captain having had command of a Patrol Squadron and serving as the Deputy Chief of Legislative Affairs.  Overseas tours in Japan, Okinawa, Philippines, Vietnam, Hawaii and Taiwan.  Served as a Systems Analyst for Booz Allen & Hamilton 1984-1988 then was Manager of the San Diego Marketing office for Lockheed Corp. from 1989-1993.  Moved to Corporate Headquarters leading to a position as Vice President Domestic Business Development for Lockheed Martin Corp.  Retired from that position in 1999.

GENEALOGY EXPERIENCE - Began researching his family history in 1994.  Has served as President and Programs Chairman Computer Genealogy Society of San Diego, Program Chairman British Isles Genealogical Society of San Diego and currently of The San Diego Genealogical Society.   Member of The Southern California Genealogical Society, The New England Genealogical Society and The National Genealogical Society.  Has given genealogy presentations to numerous genealogy groups in the Southern California area.  Recently published, “Breathing Life into My Family Ancestors”, tracing and writing about several lines of his family tree.  

10:00 a.m. - Break, refreshments.

10:20 a.m. - SESSION 2:

A.  “Google for Genealogists” Presented by Gena Philibert Ortega

Do you Google? You may Google all kinds of things for your personal or business life but Google should be one of the first places you go to when researching your family history. Whether it's searching for a website, researching a city directory, finding a photo of your great-grandmother or mapping out your next research jaunt. Google is a must. Join me as we discuss better ways to search Google and wonderful resources like Google Books, Google Scholar, Google News, Google Maps and so much more.

B. “Heritage Photo Basics: Scanning & Organization, Quick and Simple Editing, and Using Photos on the Web” Presented by Dona K. Ritchie.

Dona is a retired graphic artist/desktop publisher who has many years of experience using Photoshop and other image editing applications, is an amateur photographer, and loves old photos. She has been using her family photos to construct digital scrapbook pages which illustrate the lives and stories of her ancestors as well as those of her husband's family. Along the way she's learned a lot about restoring old photographs which have been damaged, have lost color or turned unusual colors, and has been successful in rescuing many of those afflicted photos, turning them into digital treasures which will hopefully fascinate succeeding generations as much as they have fascinated her and assisted with her family history research. Want to know more about how you can start rescuing your own stash of vintage photos? Come to the CGSSD MiniFair in October and find out!

We meet at the Robinson Auditorium complex on the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) campus in La Jolla. From North Torrey Pines Road, turn at Pangea Drive into UCSD. Free parking is available in the parking garage on the left; use any space other than those specifically reserved for UCSD vehicles. Signs will mark directions to our meeting rooms. Please refer to our website www.cgssd.org; or the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies website (click here) for driving directions and a map.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/10/cgssd-mini-fair-on-saturday-19-october.html

Wordless Wednesday - Post 278: The Wedding Party Photo

I'm posting family photographs from my collection on Wednesdays, but they aren't Wordless Wednesday posts like others do - I am incapable of having a wordless post.

Here is a photograph from our wedding albums:

This photo was taken on 21 March 1970 in the Chula Vista Presbyterian Church sanctuary after the ceremony.  The people in the photograph are, from the left:

*  Bob Akers, a bowling buddy 
*  Marce Ziolkowski, a teaching colleague of Linda's
*  Art Hayward, a drinking buddy
*  Pam Scheider, a teaching colleague of Linda's, matron of honor
*  Linda (Leland) Seaver, the beautiful bride
*  Randy Seaver, the happy groom
*  Paul Leland, the best man, and Linda's brother
*  Sherry Kleinschmidt, a bowling and drinking buddy
*  Bob Gusky, a work colleague of Randy's
*  Scott Seaver, Randy's brother

We have lost contact with several of these friends, and Sherry died recently.

In 1970, in our mid-20s, our circle of close friends was different than it is today, and our social habits were significantly different.  In 1970, our social activities were centered around bowling, playing games and drinking.  

Note the color of the attendants dresses.  Linda has always loved the light blue, turquoise, and teal colors and they are reflected in the chosen colors.  

The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/10/wordless-wednesday-post-278-wedding.html

Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver

Doing a Free Specific Name Search on Mocavo.com

Mocavo.com made a major announcement last week concerning their record collections and free access to them.  You can read it at Mocavo Introduces Free Forever - Join Us in the Revolution, by Cliff Shaw.

I posted Finding Mocavo.com Record Collections for Free Searching last Friday in order to help readers find the content on Mocavo.com.  I also wrote Doing a Global Surname Search on Mocavo.com for Free yesterday to show the process.

Today, I want to search for a specific name (first and last) on Mocavo.com to get some idea of the range of databases available.

I entered Given Name = Frederick and Last Name = Seaver in the search fields on the Mocavo.com Search page (not the Home Page), and checked the "Nicknames & Alternates" box:

The search found 828 results for the search request.  Here are the first 10 of them (four screens shown):

 There are many more pages of matches.  Here is a summary of the first 20 matches:

*  3 Social Security Death Index entries
*  "The Whitney Family of Connecticut..." book
*   "History of the Third Pennsylvania Reserve ..."
*   "Manual of the Corporation of the City of New York..."
*   "Through Three Centuries - Colver and Rosenberger..."
*   "The History of Ashburnham, Mass..."
*  "Trow Business Directory of the Boroughs of Manhattan..."
*  "Annual Report Town of Harrisville, New Hampshire..."
*  Find A Grave.com
*  2 Genforum.Genealogy.com entries
*  "Supplement to the General Register of the Society of Colonial Wars..."
*  3 "Journal of the House of Representatives of Commonwealth of Massachusetts..." entries
*   "Evening Journal Almanac (Volume 1895)"
*  "Cauldron, Northeastern University, 1937"
*  "Our Rival, The Rascal..."

I won't bore you with the other 808 matches!  I won't waste my time doing it either.

I was intrigued by the last match on the list, so I clicked on the title for that match and faced:

The dreaded advertisement for Mocavo Gold.  I Xed out of that and a new window tab opened and I was at the search form for that specific database with blank search fields.  I filled out the search fields with Frederick Seaver:

I clicked the green "Search" button and saw:

That is what I saw in the list of matches for the first search performed:

The index told me (further down the screen above) that the match for "Frederick Seaver " was on page 180 of this document.

I entered page numbers into the page number field and found it on page 150:

It was at the bottom of the page (not shown) and it was for "Frank L. Seaver" not for "Frederick Seaver."  It appears that the search for names in newspapers and books is an OCR search that considers proximity for the requested names/words and not contiguity for a name.  No worry - it was what I was looking for!

As we saw in the previous post, the Free search results in a popup ad for Mocavo Gold every time you access a new database, and you have to enter the information into the search fields again.

When I am finished with this specific database, I can go back to the open Window tab for the overall search results.

As I said before - this is a bit unwieldy and redundant, but it works and finds results by name.  As advertised.

In the next post, I'll look at the same search process for Frederick Seaver.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/10/doing-free-specific-name-search-on.html

Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver

Happy to Have More AncestryDNA Hints

I last wrote about my AncestryDNA matches in Happy to Finally Have Some AncestryDNA Hints on 13 February 2013.  I'm happy to report that I have many more Autosomal DNA matches now that show up as 5th to 8th cousins.

Back in February, I had four matches with Hints (the green leaves) on my AncestryDNA Results list.  

Now I have 34 matches with Hints, which probably reflects a significant increase in AncestryDNA testers, or Ancestry Member Tree creators.  Here is what the first several screens on my AncestryDNA "Hints" matches look like (three screens shown)

So I have one match with a near-certain 4th cousin (96% confidence) and 33 matches with 5th to 8th cousins (moderate to very low confidence).

Picking one of the matches down the list a bit, I clicked on the green "Review Match" button and saw the "Shared Surnames" list and pedigree chart for that particular matching person (who is Benjamin Wing (1698-1776):

The "Shared Surname" list shows a number of colonial Massachusetts and Rhode Island family surnames, so I clicked on the green "Show details" link to see the information for the Shared Ancestor Hint:

This shows that I am a 7th Cousin of the "Matching Person" - we both have Benjamin Wing and Content Tucker as our 6th great-grandparents.  

I've reviewed almost all of the matches with Hints now, and there are matching persons who are all 6th to 8th cousins, with the exception of the first match, which is a 3rd cousin.  

I keep hoping that closer cousins than 6th to 8th cousins will take the AncestryDNA autosomal DNA test and we can make contact.  I have corresponded with the 3rd cousin already, but have not corresponded with any of the others.  Almost all of them are descended from the colonial New England part of my ancestry.  

One of the matches is to Thomas Dill (1682-1718), which adds more evidence that my Elizabeth Dill (1791-1869) is a descendant of that Thomas Dill.  I really need a match with a descendant of Thomas Dill (1755-1830) or his wife Hannah Horton (1761-1797) to really have convincing evidence.

Two of the matches are to Matthias Trimmer (1722-1793) of New Jersey, which provides evidence that my line back to Matthias Trimmer is correct.  I have had doubts about some of the connecting ancestors due to lack of records.  However, it is not convincing to me yet - I could be descended from Matthias Trimmer but not have found the connecting families.

These Hints based on finding common autosomal DNA segments and tree matches in two family trees is a great way to highlight close and distant cousins (up to 8th cousins).  However, they don't show possible tree matches to persons who are not in my tree or the other person's tree.  I have hundreds of matches of that nature, and need to sort through them to find likely matches based on surnames and locality.  Even that won't find help for me in most cases, since my tree information is often more extensive than the matching persons.  

One thing that many AncestryDNA testers desire is to be able to see the matching segments on the 46 chromosomes - that would help us determine which segments of the DNA match other persons - a researcher can then catalogue the segments on each chromosome and build a genetic genealogy pedigree chart.  FamilyTreeDNA and 23andMe show these types of matching chromosome segment charts, but AncestryDNA does not.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/10/happy-to-have-more-ancestrydna-hints.html

Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver

Tombstone Tuesday - Frederick W. and Betty V. Seaver in Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery

I want to honor my father's 102nd birthday today in a Tombstone Tuesday post today:

This is the gravestone for my parents, Frederick Walton Seaver (1811-1983) and Betty Virginia (Carringer) Seaver (1919-2002) at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery on Point Loma in San Diego, California.

How to get to Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery?  Here's a map:

A map of Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery was found at http://gravelocator.cem.va.gov/NGLMap?ID=6643021:

The north-south road to Cabrillo National Monument bisects the cemetery.  My parents gravestone is on the west side of the road, in Section V (notable on the gravestone).  You enter the main entrance, and turn left on the road running north-south.  They are the first stone behind the first tree by the side of the road:

This photo was taken looking North along the secondary north-south road toward the main cemetery entrance.  They are the first in-ground gravestone just this side of the tree.

At Fort Rosecrans, in-ground gravestones are used for cremated remains in order to inter more veterans and their family members.  There are over 110,000 interments at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/10/tombstone-tuesday-frederick-w-and-betty.html

Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver

Major Genealogy News - MyHeritage and FamilySearch Partnership

MyHeritage and FamilySearch have just announced a partnership (see New Partnership with FamilySearch Adds Billions of Recordsto MyHeritage!) that will add many records to MyHeritage search results and FamilySearch will receive the Super Search and Record Matching technologies and be used on the FamilySearch sites.

There is a question and answer dialogue on the MyHeritage blog post.  The two most important paragraphs for MyHeritage users are:

"Q: What will FamilySearch provide MyHeritage?

A: FamilySearch will share with MyHeritage a massive number of international records and family tree profiles which are key to researching family history. These include all profiles of deceased individuals from the FamilySearch Family Tree (about 1 billion profiles), and a large selection of global historical records (about 1.2 billion additional records).

Q: Which collections will be added to MyHeritage, and from which countries?A: The historical records come from hundreds of document collections from dozens of countries worldwide. These include vital records such as birth, baptism, marriage, and death records. The records originate from all over Europe and Latin America as well as the United States and Canada, Asia and other regions."

This is, I think, a major win-win for both parties.  There is no FamilySearch feature that does what the MyHeritage Record Match system does (it finds matches for persons in your tree and shows them to you), so they will vastly improve their record matching capabilities.  MyHeritage gets access to billions of indexed family history records for their subscribers, and can push those to their patrons in their Record Match feature.  Many of those indexed records are in countries outside of North America.

One thing that is unclear to me is how "free" the FamilySearch records will be for MyHeritage subscribers with a free registration.  If a subscriber has a MyHeritage "Data Subscription," they should be able to see all of the FamilySearch records and attach them to persons in the MyHeritage trees.  

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/10/major-genealogy-news-myheritage-and.html

Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seave

Doing a Global Surname Search on Mocavo.com for Free

Mocavo.com made a major announcement last week concerning their record collections and free access to them.  You can read it at Mocavo Introduces Free Forever - Join Us in the Revolution, by Cliff Shaw.

I wrote Finding Mocavo.com Record Collections for Free Searching last Friday in order to help readers find the content on Mocavo.com.  

Today, I want to use Mocavo.com to search for FREE records starting from the Home Page on www.Mocavo.com using a global surname search.  Here is the Home Page screen:

The form shown on the Home Page is to register for a Free account (or a Gold account if you wish).

There is al ink for "See All Search Fields" but I could not get to it with a free unregistered account.
I clicked on the "Search" link in the top menu and went to the Search page and entered the surname "seaver" in the Last Name field:

I could check or uncheck the boxes for "Nicknames & Alternates" for the first name or "Similar spellings" for the last name:

The search engine returned over 93,000 matches in the Mocavo database, listed 10 at a time:

I don't know what the priority is for displaying the search results.  It will take me a long time to search through 93,000 matches.  However, there are "Categories" on the left side of the screen above and I could choose one of them to filter out the other record types.  I'll do that in the next post.

I decided to click on the first match on the screen above - it's for a Henry Seaver entry in the Social Security Death Index.  I clicked on the name on the match list and saw:

The first time I clicked on a record in the match list, I get the popup advertising above.  If I X out of it, I get to the previous screen, and clicking "Search" again, I get another popup and when I X out of that, I can see the match list for the database.

A better alternative is to click on "Search that database here for free."  When I click on that, I see the database search fields without anything filled in:

The search form for the database offers more variety than the global search form.

I added the name "henry" and "seaver" to the search fields above and clicked on the "SSDI Search" button:

That gave me a list of all of the Henry Seaver persons in the SSDI.  I could click on the "Modify This Search" link above the matches to modify my search.

I clicked on the first match on the screen above and saw:

The transcribed record for Henry Seaver appeared on the screen.

The system works, and it is FREE (without a free or paid registration), but there are some extraneous clicks and data entry required:

*  To get out of the popup screens
*  To search a specific database after I've clicked on a record to see, I have to re-enter data into the search fields, then lcick again

I wonder about the completeness of the Social Security Death Index database available to Mocavo.  I received 546 matches for an exact last name of "seaver."  When I use the search engine on Ancestry.com, I have 1,428 matches with exact matches checked.  On GenealogyBank, I have 1,427 matches.

In the next post, I will search for a specific person in a specific Category in the free searches.

The URL for this post is:

Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver