Genealogy Search Engines: Ancestry.com - Post 1: Old Search, Exact Matches

I posted my Search evaluation criteria, the questions I want to answer and the targeted search I want to pursue in this series of posts in Evaluating the Search Engines - Evaluation Criteria.

I'm going to start with http://www.ancestry.com/ because it is the largest database provider and seems to have the most critical user comments about its' Search capabilities.

Does http://www.ancestry.com/ satisfy the four defined Search criteria?

* Exact search vs. Fuzzy search: YES - and the user can mix Exact match items and Fuzzy match items.

* Use of a specific database vs. many or all available databases: YES - the Search includes all databases or one database can be selected. The exception is that in Old Search, you select the tab for Historical Records, Family Trees, Stories & Publications, and Photos & Maps. You have to select one of the Tabs, and you get results from only that set of Databases. In New Search, the user gets results from all databases, not just Historical Data databases.

* Use of Wild cards in names: YES - with the limitation of the use of the wild card symbol (an asterisk *) - a given name or last name must have at least three letters ahead of the wild card symbol.

* Use of dates and locations as search criteria: YES - the general Search box has fields to enter specific data.

http://www.ancestry.com/ also offers two User Interfaces for searching - the Old Search and the New Search. In order to evaluate and demonstrate the Search capabilities, I will do the evaluation in four posts, one each for:

* Old Ancestry Search, Exact Matches
* Old Ancestry Search, Fuzzy Matches
* New Ancestry Search, Exact Matches
* New Ancestry Search, Fuzzy Matches

Here is the http://www.ancestry.com/ Search for the Isaac Seaver family in the 1860 US Census, using the Old Ancestry Search interface and the Exact Matches criteria:

The Home screen looks like this, with the given name, last name, birthplace and year of birth entered in the search boxes:

Note that the user can select Advanced Search in the lower right corner or the Search box (under the orange Search button). The Advanced Search box looks like this with the same information filled in:






The Search box has spaces to input:

* Given Name
* Surname
* Birth Year and a +/- range
* Birth country, state, county and city
* Marriage Year and a +/- range
* Marriage country, state, county and city
* Death Year and a +/- range
* Death country, state, county and city
* Residences - Country, state, county and city
* Keywords
* Relatives - Father, Mother, Spouse - given names and last names
* Categories to Search - all or specific

The user can specify Exact match for all of the search criteria.
There is a link for Search tips in the upper right hand corner of the Search box.

For this study, I have input only the given name, surname, birth year and birthplace (country and state) of Isaac Seaver (born 1823 in Massachusetts).

When I click the Search button on the Home page (not the Advanced Search page) (Click 1), I get these results:

The 1860 US census is on the list of Census and Voter Lists, so I click on the 1860 Census link (Click 2):




It is apparent to me that the Search criteria of 1823 for the birth year was not strictly observed for some reason - I got four matches with birth years of 1803, 1809, 1810 and 1824. Is the 1824 entry the one I want? I can run my mouse over the "View Record" link and see a summary of the family, as shown below:

I think that's the right family - so I click on the "View Record" link (Click 3) and the Record Summary appears:

The Record Summary for Isaac Seaver in the 1860 US Census includes the source description, and a database description, at the bottom of the web page (scrolling down):

I can click on the "View Original Image" link (Click 4) and see the image of the page from the 1860 US Census that contains the Isaac Seaver family.

Looking at my four questions, the answers are:

* Does the Search find the record I'm seeking? YES
* How many clicks does it take to find the record? Four (4)
* Does the record provide a source citation? YES
* Was the process easy to use? YES

Would my answer be different if I had used the Advanced Search box? Yes - using the same Search criteria it would have found only one match for the requested Exact Match items - the 1900 US census. If I had added +/- 1 year (or greater), it would have found the 1860 census with one more click.

I really like having the current Search box appear on the bottom of the same page as the Search results. Ancestry.com does this for the pages up until you click View Record (Click 3).

Subsequent posts will evaluate the Old Search - Fuzzy Matches, New Search - Exact Matches and New Search - Fuzzy Searches for the same Search criteria. I will also discuss searching for more difficult names and for persons who are "hiding" in the census because of Enumerator and/or Indexing errors.

Evaluating the Genealogy Search Engines - Evaluation Criteria

One of the problems that many genealogists, including my society colleagues and many commenters on blogs and message boards, cite about genealogy database providers is that the Search engines are poor and don't find the results expected by the users.

I posted What do you want in a search engine? and Testing different search engines - my perspective recently as an introduction to this series of posts. I laid out four Search criteria to evaluate in Testing different search engines - my perspective for these comparisons. The four Search criteria were:

* Exact search vs. Fuzzy search ("Fuzzy" meaning variations in names, dates and locations that might result in a match even if the record was enumerated or indexed poorly, e.g., Soundex).
* Use of a specific database vs. many or all available databases
* Use of Wild cards in names
* Use of dates and locations as search criteria

In the present series of posts, I'm also trying to compare the ease and accuracy of finding a record for a specific person. I think this is a typical search by a relative beginner and an experienced genealogy researcher. The questions I'm going to try to answer include:

* Does the Search find the record I'm seeking?
* How many clicks does it take to find the sought record?
* Does the sought record provide a source citation?
* Was the process easy to use? (This is difficult to assess by me - I am an experienced searcher, and have my own favorite search processes and biases about how to best search databases.)

My target process is to find an 1860 Census record for the family of Isaac Seaver (1823-1901), born in Massachusetts. He is my great-great-grandfather. I chose 1860 because I should be able to find the 1860 census record in the databases of four genealogy providers - Ancestry, Footnote, FamilySearch and HeritageQuestOnline (which requires a participating library card login).

My purpose here is to demonstrate how easy or hard it is to use these Search engines -not to complain about the Search process or the lack of results. If I find what I think are problems with the Search process, I will point them out.

While I am using Census records for this evaluation, the Search process is similar for most of the Historical Records (e.g., vital records, census, military, immigration, etc.) that are available in online databases. It may not be representative of newspapers, books, stories, maps, directories and family trees.

I welcome comments about the process, the criteria and the results. My hope is to complete this initial series using the 1860 US census in one week - doing essentially one post each day. I'll wrap up each series with a summary post at the end.

Tombstone Tuesday - Elizabeth (Dill) Smith in Medfield MA

Elizabeth Horton (Dill) Smith (1794?-1969) was one of my 3rd-great-grandmothers. She married Alpheus B. Smith in 1826 in Medfield MA. I have written a short biography about her, and the mystery about her parentage.

Elizabeth (Dill) Smith's gravestone stands proud in Medfield, Norfolk county, Massachusetts. A friend took this picture of her stone for me back in the early 1990's (thank you, Linda T!):

The inscription on the stone reads:

Erected in Memory

Of

Elizabeth H. Dill

Wife of

Alpheus B. Smith

Died Nov. 15, 1869.

Aged

77 years.

When I wrote my biography of Elizabeth two years ago, I did not check this photograph of her gravestone. The age of 77 years implies a birth year of 1792, and not 1794 as implied by the age at death in the Massachusetts Vital Records (in two separate entries).

The two death records also state that Elizabeth's death was on 28 November 1869, not 15 November as shown on the gravestone. So now I have another original source (the gravestone) with secondary information (the death date and age at death, based on someone's memory - probably her daughter's but perhaps her son-in-law's) and direct evidence of a death date and age at death. It figures! The more information I have, the more confused I am. It reminds me of one of my favorite sayings - "I know you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure that what you heard was exactly what I meant!"

2009 APG Professional Management Conference Speakers

Debbie Parker Wayne sent this information about the 2009 Professional Management conference at Little Rock on 2 September 2009 before the FGS Conference:

Registration is now open for the 2009 FGS Conference in Little Rock, Arkansas, including APG's Professional Management Conference (PMC) to be held Wednesday, September 2, 2009. For PMC program details and schedule, go to http://www.apgen.org/conferences/index.html

To register, go to http://www.fgsconference.org

For event information on Facebook, go to http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=34858375779

2009 APG Professional Management Conference Program

Writing Professionally—A Two Hour Workshop
Thomas W. Jones, PhD., CG, CGL, FASG

Solving Mysteries for Money: the Forensic Genealogist and Private Investigator
Mary Ann Boyle, Ph.D., CG

The Bachelor: Reconstructing a Solitary Life Using Obscure & Far-Flung Records
Mary Penner

Talking to the World
Sherry Irvine, CG

Elements of a Good Client Agreement
Richard Camaur, JD, CG

The Genealogy Consumer: Who Pays for Professional Research?
Natasha Crain

Publish! And Supplement Your Income
Desmond Walls Allen

Bull’s-eye! Planning and Delivering a Winning Marketing Campaign
Heather Henderson

Get Paid For Your Passion: Becoming a Professional Genealogist
Elissa Scalise Powell, CG

Those all sound pretty interesting! One thing I've noticed is how well the APGers title their presentations - lots of bold words, colons and exclamation points! [Note to self - do your presentations, and blog posts, have titles like that? hmmm. I should have named this post Listen! The Experts Speak!!! instead of the boring headline I chose]. Seriously, I am looking forward to attending this conference.

Answers to MyHeritage questions

I posted MyHeritage Goes Commercial in January after the three subscription plans were announced. Lester made a comment in thatp ost and asked osme questions about MyHeritage that I could not answer, so I asked Lester if I could forward his questions to MyHeritage. He agreed, and I did, and we got an email response last week. Daniel Horowitz of MyHeritage asked me to post the answers on my blog, so here are Lester's questions and Daniel's answers:

1) I'm having trouble generating a chart on MyHeritage. The PDF that is generated comes out blank. This started after I was using MyHeritage for some time. In the beginning I was able to generate PDF tree charts and now all I get is the blank PDFs.

Response: Unfortunately, there is a bug in the chart generating system which we are working to fix. This is the reason you are unable to generate charts from your family site. You can, however, create the exact same charts in Family Tree Builder, MyHeritage's down loadable genealogy software. As you mention trying to do this in question three, I've explained how to move your tree from your site into Family Tree Builder below.

2) I paid to update my MyHeritage to Premium. I was debited the amount on my credit card, but I don't know anything else about my payment. How long does my subscription run? What does it offer? Who do I contact for information. Will an attempt be made to charge my account after the yearly subscription period for another year?

Response: You can check to make sure the upgrade was properly applied by visiting your family site and clicking on Settings > Site Account. This page shows the subscription plan your family site is currently on, the amount of time left on your subscription as well as how much of your storage quota has been used. You can also renew your subscription on this page. Family site subscriptions are not automatically renewed. At the time your subscription expires or you've exceeded your site quota, we'll remind you. For your peace of mind, we never destroy your information or block access to your account when a subscription is expired or quota exceeded.

3) I started a free Family Tree Builder account with a family tree because that was the only way I could generate a family tree chart. But I have done all my updating in MyHeritage (where I can't generate charts) so how do I get my information from my MyHeritage account to my Family Tree Builder account. I can generate a Gedcom from FTB but not from MyHeritage. Am I missing something? Is it really impossible to generate a Gedcom FROM MyHeritage?

Response: There is an Export Gedcom function located on the Family Tree Manage Trees page of your family site. You can use this function to create a gedcom file of your tree and then import it into Family Tree Builder in order to create your charts. Keep in mind that photos will not be included with the gedcom export. They will have to be manually replaced. We are working on an option that will allow you to export your family tree together with the photos as we know that this is a very important feature for MyHeritage members...

I thank Daniel Horowitz of MyHeritage for quickly responding to Lester's questions. I really appreciate it when companies provide excellent customer service.

"Sadness, reality attach themselves to unclaimed persons list"

Megan Smolenyak provided a link on Twitter to an article titled "Sadness, reality attach themselves to unclaimed persons list" published on the Inland Empire and Inland Valley Breaking News page of the San Bernardino (CA) Sun online newspaper by Joe Smilor on 15 February 2009. The article started:

"They are the unclaimed. Reduced now to ashes and a metal tag, the 2,158 men and woman listed in the San Bernardino County coroner division's database were once connected to a family that may not even realize they died."

This article tells about the efforts of the San Bernardino County (CA) Coroner's office to find relatives of unclaimed bodies. The article gives great credit to the Unclaimed Persons Facebook group that Megan started last year. The group has been successful in finding relatives of about 50% of the 70 cases investigated to date. You can sign up to help at www.UnclaimedPersons.org.

Megan is quoted in the article:

"'We're making a difference to somebody. Each person deserves to be remembered,' said Megan Smolenyak, a professional genealogist who operates rootstelevision.com and coordinates the volunteers' efforts. 'But we're hoping people learn about this problem and pick up the phone to call the brother or sister they haven't talked to in 20 years.'"

Read the entire article. There are some interesting statements about the Coroner's process, what happens to the unclaimed remains, and
This is a wonderful article that highlights the role that the Unclaimed Persons group of genealogists has played in helping find relatives of the unclaimed. I'm honored to be part of the group. I just wish that I spent more time doing the work!

Second Bloggers Summit at 2009 SCGS Jamboree

Paula Hinkel posted the Speaker Schedule at the 2009 Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree on several mailing lists.

Of particular interest is the Second Bloggers Summit to be held on Saturday, 27 June 2009 from 9:30 a.m. to 12 noon in session SA-09. The bloggers on the panel are:

* George G. Morgan, Moderator
* DearMYRTLE
* Juliana Smith
* Leland Meitzler
* Dick Eastman
* Stephen Danko, Ph.D.
* Lisa Louise Cooke
* Schelly Talalay Dardashti
* Craig Manson
* The Ancestry Insider

That's quite an august group of ten! Five of them were on the panel last year (George, Leland, Dick, Steve and Schelly).

It will be interesting to see what they have to say about our little corner of the genealogy world. It will also be interesting to see how many genea-bloggers will be in the audience live-blogging the event before it's over!

I hope that they will take questions from the audience this year. And I hope that we can take a picture of the largest group of genea-bloggers ever in one place to date. The big question will be "do we have to PhotoShop The Ancestry Insider's face?"

Here is the post from Paula about the speakers at 2009 Jamboree:

The Southern California Genealogy Jamboree lecture schedule is now online and available for download at www.genealogyjamboree.blogspot.com. Jamboree will be held June 26-28, 2009, at the Burbank Marriott Hotel and Convention Center, Burbank, California.

On Friday morning, we will continue the tradition of offering several free sessions. This year, Tom Kemp will conduct a special Genealogy Librarians' Boot Camp. Last year's Beginning Genealogy session has been expanded into two sessions of three hours each. And the very successful Kids' Family History Camp will help to bring the youngest generation into the study of family history.
You'll hear more about all of these activities, as well as several other special events, in the coming weeks.

This year's Jamboree will feature over 100 sessions conducted by more than 50 genealogical experts. We have expanded into the Marriott main hotel for all three days, which will increase our seating capacity substantially.

Jamboree is shaping up to be another exceptional event. The schedule and speakers are subject to change. We expect to have a very special announcement regarding the Friday Night Banquet speaker very soon.

The Jamboree website will be up in the next few days, and I'll let you know when you are able to register online. The registration form can be downloaded from the Jamboree blog page now if you prefer to register by mail.

The list of sessions and speakers is here. The registration form is here.

The Genea-Musings iGene Awards for 2008

It's time for the iGene Awards, The Best of The Best! It's Academy awards time... time for the Academy of Genealogy and Family History, aka AGFH, to honor their best blog posts of 2008.

I tried to summarize what I thought were the best Genea-Musings posts from 2008 in Best of Genea-Musings for 2008 - and ended up with 44 nominees out of 975 posts for the year.

The Categories for Nominations include:

*Best Picture - Best old family photo that appeared on your blog in 2008. Tell us which you liked best and why.

And the iGene goes to: Is This Isaac and Lucretia (Smith) Seaver?

I picked this photo because it is the oldest one in my collection, dating from around 1860. It is the only photograph I have of this couple, my great-great-grandparents.

* Best Screen Play - Which family story that you shared in 2008 would make the best movie? Who would you cast as your family members?

And the iGene goes to: Getting Ed and his brother together

I don't know my movie stars that well... Let's see, there would have to be an ancient Spencer Tracy cast as Ed, Tom Cruise cast as Billy the step-brother, and Tom Hanks cast as the intrepid researcher, Randy. Hmm, where's the love interest? Ah, Ed and Billy's wives can be in the screenplay too.

* Best Documentary - Which was the best informational article you wrote about a place, thing, or event involving your family's history in 2008?

And the iGene goes to: Wholly Genes/The Master Genealogist Conference and Cruise posts

By far the most helpful set of articles was my daily summaries from the Wholly Genes Conference and Cruise.

* Best Biography - Which was the best biographical article you wrote in 2008?


And the iGene goes to: How did mom get so smart?

I didn't do many biographies in 2008 - but Mom's was the best!

* Best Comedy - Which was the best funny story, poem, joke, photo, or video that you shared on your blog in 2008?

And the iGene goes to: The Imminent Demise of Genea-Musings

'Nuff said!

Best of the Genea-Blogs - February 8-14, 2009

Several hundred genealogy and family history bloggers write thousands of posts every week about their research, their families, and their interests. I appreciate each one of them and their efforts.

My criteria for "Best of ..." are pretty simple - I pick posts that advance knowledge about genealogy and family history, address current genealogy issues, provide personal family history, are funny or are poignant. I don't list posts destined for the genealogy carnivals, or other meme submissions (but I do include summaries of them), or my own posts.

Here are my picks for great reads from the genealogy blogs for this past week:

* Sunday Spooks by Colleen on The R.I.P.PERS blog. Colleen has a series of these short stories going on her latest blog, and this one gives us a hint as to why we can't find anything in a library.

* The Amazon Kindle could dramatically improve U.S. Education by Paul Allen on the Paul Allen blog. Paul describes the latest "personal reading device" and ponders how it could affect education. It could also affect Genealogy Research too - imagine having 200 genealogy books, magazines and periodicals on a Kindle for your reading pleasure - always with you at your fingertips.

* Starting a Genealogy and Family Hope Chest; Step 2: Let's Talk!; Step 3: Categorize!; Step 4: Share Those Photos!; Step 5: Original Documents! all by Lorine McGinnis Schulze on the Olive Tree Genealogy Blog. Lorine has thought through how she wants to deal with all of the genealogy "stuff" and is creating her plan. It's an excellent multi-step plan - one we can all use!

* Standards of an archive quality digital record repository by the handsome yellow-faced blogger on The Ancestry Insider blog. The AI defines his standards (in response to the complaints about NARA and imagers on the APG mailing list) for what an archival repository should have in place to ensure archivists and researchers that everything has been accounted for, imaged and indexed. It's a great list!

* Tech Tuesday: A Student Wish List for Online Learning by Denise Levenick on The Family Curator blog. Denise has a wonderful list of wishes from the student's point of view for online learning opportunities.

* Follow-Up: Some Hard Genealogy, and Surname Distribution Analyzed, by Craig Manson on the Geneablogie blog. Craig delves deeper into his Gines family, answers some readers' questions, and some of his own. He uses the World Names Profiler to help him sort out and analyze the surname distribution too.

* Yes, it took an act of Congress! by Cindy on the Everything's Relative: Researching Your Family History blog. Cindy recounts her struggle to obtain war medals for her grandfather's World War II service. Cindy's persistence paid off - you need to see what she received.

* Ilona's immigration: the one hundred year anniversary by Lisa on the 100 Years in America blog. This beautiful story, with excellent pictures, tells the story of Lisa's grandmother's voyage to the USA. And what happened afterwards.

* Ancestry.com Reveals the Sweetest Valentines in America’s Family Trees by Suzanne Campbell on the Ancestry.com Blog. Suzanne does the Valentine's Day honors by finding really sweet names in the databases on Ancestry.com.

* African American Genealogy – Finding Your Roots by Carolyn L. Barkley on the GenealogyAndFamilyHistory.com blog. This is an excellent summary of the unique research required for African-American genealogy.

* "Around the Kitchen Table" -3rd Edition, Canadian Genealogy Carnival by Kathryn Lake Hogan on the LOOKING4ANCESTORS blog. The topic for the Canadian Genealogy Carnival was "Around the Kitchen Table," and six bloggers contributed their stories.

* Graveyard Stew by Diane Wright on the Wright's Graveyard Stew blog. Diane has created a "list of lists" about cemeteries by topic - this is a keeper!

* Dougall Part 2 by Brenda Dougall Merriman on the Brenda Dougall Merriman blog. Brenda recounts a mistake she made early in her research about her Scots Dougall ancestor, and tells how she figured out the correct answer. It's a good lesson for all researchers.

I encourage you to go to the blogs listed above and read their articles, and add their blog to your Favorites, Bloglines, reader, feed or email if you like what you read. Please make a comment to them also - all bloggers appreciate feedback on what they write.

Did I miss a great genealogy blog post? Tell me!

Read past Best of the Genea-Blogs posts here.

Joel Weintraub at SDGS on "Preparing for the 1940 Census"

I said it before, and I'll say it again - if Dr. Joel Weintraub is speaking at a genealogy society near you - go see him! He is knowledgeable, informative, entertaining, and the presentations are the "best ever" in my book!

Joel presented "Preparing for the 1940 Census" today at the San Diego Genealogical Society meeting today. The talk description and Joel's curriculum vitae are here. The professor and the genealogist in Joel really shone through today - the PowerPoint presentation had static slides, many funny graphics, short video segments, short audio segments that went with the graphics, and many great suggestions for dealing with the 1940 census when it comes out on 2 April 2012. In addition, he filled three tables with ephemera that he has collected specifically about the census, including many from the 1940 time period.

Joel has some of the information he presented on his website at http://members.cox.net/census1940/.

The major point that Joel made in his talk today was that genealogy researchers will have to learn to search the 1940 US census using Enumeration Districts, at least from "Opening Day," until name indexes are available. That is why there is such an emphasis on his web site to providing aids to determine the Enumeration District of a place based on the address found in some other resource (e.g., city directories) and the 1930 Enumeration District numbers for that address. He and his team of volunteers are working through the NARA A3378 Series of ED Maps for 1940 and the NARA T1224 Series that defines 1940 ED boundaries. A web site that describes the probable process is here. The process will be different for large cities (over 50,000 population), small cities (25,000 to 50,000 population) and rural areas.

It sounds complicated, and it is, but we'll get used to it right about the time that the every name searches created by volunteers become available!

I won't summarize Joel's two hours of presentation (he set a countdown clock for the break time of 15:00:00 minutes, and almost everybody was back in their seats when it struck 00:00:00) in this post, but I will provide some of the things I took away from his talk:

* The directions for 1940 census enumerators are at http://usa.ipums.org/usa/voliii/inst1940.shtml.

* The 72-year rule was originally defined by transfer of the 1870 census from the Census Bureau to the National Archives in 1942, but it wasn't codified until 1978. It was not based on life expectancy.

* The 1940 census form has 40 lines - and two people on each page were asked additional questions about parents birthplaces, veterans information, Social Security information, number of children and marriage status (women only). This was the first census to use sampling techniques.

* The Census Bureau conducted a trial in two Indiana counties in 1939.

* There was a tremendous uproar in the U.S. Senate about the question asking about wages and money earned, led by Senator Tobey. Many people balked at answering the question despite a mail-in "anonymous" form.

* Ancestry.com will put many 1940 city and county directories online before the release of the 1940 census so people can find the addresses of their family members (and then can use the address to find the ED).

* NARA will probably not hire a third-party to index the census records. They will release the images without indexes. The thought is that a volunteer indexing activity will arise - like FamilySearch Indexing - to provide an every-name index.

* 1940 US Census Enumerators were paid 4 cents per name.

This presentation was extremely well attended - there were over 135 people in attendance, and they were all informed and entertained by a very knowledgeable Joel Weintraub over more than two hours!

If your local genealogy society needs a speaker, you should recommend Joel to your program chairperson. You, and your members, won't be disappointed!