Ancestry.com Hides Record Image Breadcrumb Trails

Rant ON:  What happened?  Did Ancestry eliminate the "Breadcrumb Trail" that I relied upon and used in source citations?  Did you notice this?  Does it matter to you?  Actually, they only HID the record image "Breadcrumb Trail."

One of the neat things I thought Ancestry.com did, starting in about 2012 and up to the latest "New" Ancestry.com changes in June 2015, was to provide a "Breadcrumb Trail" for digitized images of records so that a researcher could find the specific record while browsing a record database by following information in a source citation.

1)  In 2012, I made this record image for the marriage of Sophia Buck and Lambert Brigham in 1816 in Sterling, Massachusetts:

Note the information in the red box above.  It includes the Database title - in this case "Massachusetts, Town Vital Collections, 1620-1988" in the first line, and the "Breadcrumb Trail" in the second line - "Sterling - Births, Marriages and Deaths."  The image number is also provided below the green line on the right-hand side.

This specific record database has millions of indexed records from thousands of town record books in Massachusetts that were digitized from the Holbrook microfiche collection.  It is absolutely necessary to know which town record book the record came from - the town, and the record book number.

For this record, I crafted a source citation for the marriage of Sophia Buck and Lambert Brigham as:

Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988, digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 20 September 2012), "Sterling Births, Marriages and Deaths," Marriages, page 261 (penned), image 231 of 1007, Sophia Buck and Lambert Brigham entry; citing original data in: Town and City Clerks of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Vital and Town Records. Provo, UT: Holbrook Research Institute (Jay and Delene Holbrook).

Note the "Breadcrumb Trail" in the source citation (highlighted in Bold).  That is how someone who saw this source citation would find the exact record image by Browsing the record database.

Ancestry.com changed the "look" of the record image page and the Breadcrumb Trail in early 2015, but it retained the feature at the top of the image and moved the image number information to the bottom of the image.

2)  Now, after the June 2015 "improvement" to the "New" Ancestry.com website, the same record image looks like this:

Note that there is no "Breadcrumb Trail" above the record that tells the user which town and record volume the image is from.  The record image number ("231 of 1097") is an overlay at the bottom of the image.  There are also icons on the right-hand side of the image for "Full Screen," "Record Information," "Tools" and "Zoom In and Out."

When the second icon for "Record Information" is clicked, the information box appears on the right-hand side of the screen.  There are three tabs - for "Details, "Related Content" and "Source."  The "Source" information tab looks like this:

And there is the "Breadcrumb Trail" information - the Town and record book title, and the Ancestry Source Citation.

So now, in order to find the "Breadcrumb Trail" information for an Evidence Explained quality source citation, I have to click two more times (once on the "Record Information" icon and then on the "Source" tab)  from the record image to find the information that was provided on the record image page before.

There are many record databases in the Ancestry record collection that have these new "feature" changes.  This record database is not unique.

This is a significant change, and is not, in my humble opinion, an improvement to the Ancestry.com record image experience.  It makes my task more difficult.

3)  Frankly, Ancestry.com should include the "Breadcrumb Trail" for record databases like this in their own Source Citations.  The Ancestry.com source citation for this specific record is:

Ancestry.com does not provide source citation details for these records - they only provide the master source information, and the original data.  The source citation detail for this specific record should identify the date accessed, the town, the record book, the page number, the image number, and the persons in the specific record.

How many users will even see the icons on the right-hand side of the image?  How many users will take the time to craft an Evidence Explained quality source citation?

4)  Rant OFF.  I feel better now, but I'm still frustrated by "improvements" that make my life's work more difficult.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/08/ancestrycom-hides-record-image.html

Copyright (c) 2015, 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.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

Family Discovery Day in Chula Vista/Bonita on Saturday 8 August 2015

A FREE Community Family History Fair will be held on Saturday, August 8, 2015 from, 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Chula Vista Stake Center, 1390 East H Street, Chula Vista, California 91913.

Come join us for this FREE Family History Fair and discover who is in your family tree.  Whether you are an experienced genealogist or just wanting to get started, there are classes for you.  These seminars are appropriate for adults and youth ages 12 and up, no child care will be provided, so please make outside arrangements for younger children.  Light refreshments will be provided.  Invite your family and friends!

The Keynote Address will be given by Carlos Yturralde, the President of the Hispanic Heritage Project.

Here is the class schedule:

More information:

*  There will be an Open Genealogy Help Lab.

*  Several RootsTech classes will be broadcast in both English and Spanish.

*  There will be live instruction in English and Spanish on a number of topics.

*  There will be free Wireless wi-fi access - bring your own laptop or notebook computer.

For additional information, please contact Mark Donnelly at chulavistafamilyhsitory@gmail.com.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/08/family-discovery-day-in-chula.html

Copyright (c) 2015, 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.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

Treasure Chest Thursday - Post 274: Marriage Record of Isaac Buck (1757-1846) and Patty Phillips (1757-after 1820) in Lancaster, Mass.

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  1780 marriage record of Isaac Buck (1757-1846) and Marthy "Patty" Phillips (1757-after 1820) in Lancaster, Massachusetts:

The snippet of the subject marriage is on the left-hand page (titled "Marriages Consummated by the Revd Reuben Holcomb"):

The transcription of the subject marriage is:

[1780] May 18  Isaac Buck & Patty Phillips both of Lancaster

The source citation for this marriage record is:

Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988, digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 18 March 2013), "Lancaster Births, Marriages, and Deaths," Page 204 (Image 107 of 189), Isaac Buck and Patty Phillips marriage entry; citing original data from Massachusetts town and city clerk records in Jay and Delene Holbrook, Massachusetts Vital and Town Records (Provo, Utah : Holbrook Research Institute), Microfiche collection.

Isaac Buck and Patty Phillips are my 4th great-grandparents, and lived in the same household after Isaac's mother, Mary Richards, married Martha's father, John Phillips, in 1774 in Southborough, Massachusetts.  The Phillips family resided in Lancaster, Massachusetts, and the Isaac Buck family resided in Sterling, Massachusetts after their marriage.  

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/08/treasure-chest-thursday-post-274.html

Copyright (c) 2015, 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.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

Which Person in My Tree Has the Most MyHeritage Record Matches?

I was pondering the list of 68,134 Record Matches on my MyHeritage family tree recently, and wondered which of the 39,991 person profiles has the most Record Matches.

1)  On the Record Match page, I was able to choose the "By People" tab, rather than the "By Collections" tab, and then picked the "Number of matches" from the dropdown list on the top right of the list:

Number one on my list was Elizabeth Parkhurst (1628-????), who married Emmanuel Hilliard, and resided in New England.  She has 294 matches.  Wow.  I figured there would be "a couple of online family tree profiles, and a bunch of records."

Not exactly...

2)  The first match was for a profile in the Geni World Family Tree:

The second and third matches were to profiles in the WikiTree online tree.

The fourth through the 294th matches were to different profiles in the FamilySearch Family Tree!  Here is the end of the list - matches 293 and 294:

There were no birth/baptism records, no marriage records, and no death records on this list of matches.  No real "Record Matches" at all.

3)  I was surprised by the number of FamilySearch Family Tree matches.  That is, of course, not a problem with MyHeritage - but it is the major problem on the FamilySearch Family Tree, and needs to be fixed in order to make the FamilySearch Family Tree accurate and useful.

This is common for many of the person profiles in my MyHeritage tree. But Elizabeth Parkhurst has the most.

4)  The MyHeritage Record Matches is by far the easiest way to "enrich" person profiles in your old database with new content and sources.  I love it!

One thing I would really appreciate on MyHeritage is to be able to eliminate a specific Record Collection from the Record Match list so that I could find the actual record matches for a person.  A check box that says "Family Trees" in the "Filtering Options" list would accomplish that desire, at least for the trees.  There is already check boxes for "Structured" and "Text" Record Types:

5)  I've been working through some of the Record Matches in the 122 Record Collections on MyHeritage with matches in my MyHeritage tree using the "By Collection" option.  This is a very efficient way to add names, dates, places, events and sources to my MyHeritage tree and to my RootsMagic database (I have to do that by typing the information in - there is no automatic addition or synchronization yet).  Yesterday I added 113 records and source citations to my MyHeritage tree from about ten different record collections.  I also added several hundred sources to my RootsMagic database.  That took about 3 hours to do, but it was worth it.  It was a good genealogy day!

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/08/which-person-in-my-tree-has-most.html

Copyright (c) 2015, 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.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

Ron Arons is Featured Speaker at SDGS Program Meeting on Saturday, 8 August

The next San Diego Genealogical Society program meeting is Saturday, 8 August 2015, at 10 a.m. at St. Andrews Lutheran Church (8350 Lake Murray Blvd, just south of Jackson Drive in San Diego).

Ron Arons is the program speaker, on:

*  Understanding Our Families, Understanding Ourselves

*  What's In a Name?  Trouble!

Ron's Curriculum Vitae:

Born in New York, Ron Arons was reared a goodie-two-shoes. Aside from five moving violations (including a “California” roll through a stop sign, doing 40 MPH in a 30 MPH zone, and driving with his brights on), Arons has never been afoul of the law. 

Ron worked for many years as a marketer at many high-tech companies, including Texas Instruments, Ashton-Tate, and Sybase, before deciding to work full time on his first book, The Jews of Sing Sing. Ron became interested in understanding his roots after he lost both his parents to cancer 16-18 years ago. In the process of researching his criminal ancestor’s past, Ron has traced his roots to England, Poland, Romania, Ukraine, Belarus, and Lithuania. 

In 2005 Ron won a Hackman Research Residency Award from the New York State Archives to continue his research of New York Jewish criminals. In January 2008, Ron appeared on the PBS television series, The Jewish Americans, as the acknowledged expert on Jewish criminals of New York’s Lower East Side. 

Arons tours the country giving educational and entertaining presentations on Jewish criminals and Jewish genealogy. Ron earned a B.S. in Engineering from Princeton University and an MBA from the University of Chicago. 

Understanding Our Families, Understanding Ourselves 

For more than 40 years, people in the mental health and social services have used “family systems theory” to analyze family dynamics through multiple generations. Unfortunately, most genealogists don’t know much about family therapy. Conversely, those in the mental health and social services fields know very little about genealogical research. Yet genealogy and family therapy go hand in hand. In this talk I will introduce basic concepts of family systems theory. I will also show how families can be represented a different way, using ‘genograms’ (social workers, family therapists, and psychologists use these ‘family diagrams’ every day to understand family dynamics in the family). 

What’s in a Name? Trouble! 

Ron will use the Genealogical Proof Standard to show how identities can be merged and separated. In this example, five individuals, all with the same name, all born in the same general timeframe, and all living in the same place where one of the individuals lived or claimed to live, all found trouble, either in business or with women. Is this possible? If so, how? It defies probability and statistics. A fun set of stories about multiple unrelated men who just happened to share the same name and fate (trouble). A great demonstration of the Genealogical Proof Standard in action. 

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/08/ron-arons-is-featured-speaker-at-sdgs.html

Copyright (c) 2015, 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.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

TMG Cruise All-Star Faculty -- Post 372 of (Not So) Wordless Wednesday

I'm posting old (and sometimes new) family photographs from my collection on Wednesdays, but they won't be wordless posts like others do - I simply am incapable of having a wordless post.

Here is one of the most precious (to me) images from my Seaver/Carringer family collection:

This is a photograph of most of the speakers and teachers on the 2008 The Master Genealogist cruise from New York City to Puerto Rico in late October/early November 2008.  TMG hosted a cocktail party on the last night of the cruise (1 November 2008).

Bob Velke, the owner of TMG and sponsor of this cruise, assembled an all-star lineup of speakers, including (not in any order);

*  Cyndi Howells (now Ingle)
*  Barbara Vines Little
*  Elizabeth Shown Mills
*  Megan Smolenyak (not in the photo)
*  Craig Scott
*  David Lambert
*  Tony Burroughs
*  John Titford
*  John Grenham
*  Dick Eastman (not in the photo)
*  Bob Velke (TMG)
*  John Cardinal (TMG)

This was on the Master Genealogist Cruise from New York City to San Juan, Puerto Rico, with stops in St. Kitts, Antigua, St. Thomas (Virgin Islands) and San Juan.  We did tours in all of the places.  You can read more detail about each day in my blog posts  for the week -   see  http://www.geneamusings.com/2008_10_26_archive.html.

The URL for this post is:  

Copyright (c) 2015, 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.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

Many Features Added to the New Ancestry.com Site

Ancestry.com announced their "new" Ancestry.com website back on 1 June 2015 - see Announcing the New Ancestry Website.  Some of the planned features had not been incorporated into the "new" website at the time.  Since then, the Ancestry Blog has announced additional features recently added, including (with my comments in brackets):

1)  The New Ancestry: July 15th Feature Update

*  View and add notes – Notes are now available as a slide-out on the right side of the screen, so you can quickly review and add notes. It is turned on in the tools menu on the top right.  [yes, I like it]

*  View and add comments – Comments are now available as a slide-out on the right side of the screen, so you can quickly review and add comments. It is turned on in the tools menu on the top right. [yes, I like it]

*  Media Gallery / Viewer – We have added a number of features to the new Media Gallery/viewer:

** Save photos to your family trees from the new media viewer
**  Edit the description and details on a photo or story
**  Create and upload a new story in the media Gallery
** View and listen to audio and video files

*  Story formatting in the Gallery – We have fixed the layout and formatting to make it more readable.

*  Web links – We have implemented web link functionality on the new Ancestry site. Web links are found on the Facts View at the bottom of the Sources column.

*  Age on Facts View events – The age at a specific event has been available on the LifeStory page in the new Ancestry. We have now also added it to the Facts View to make it easier to review facts.  [yes, I like it]

*  Adjusted profile page photo to better fit – Some pictures were not fit correctly. This has been adjusted to show the whole picture on the profile page.

*  Quick edit – The quick edit option is now available on the person card in the tree viewer under the Tools menu. It is also available under the Edit menu in the person profile.

*  Guidance on LifeStory and Facts view – We have added some in-line help screens that appear when you first come to either page.

*  Source and media counts on Facts view – Sources and media associated with events on the Facts view are now represented with a number count in addition to the fact/source link lines. Counts are also links and will direct to the appropriate section in the edit modal when clicked.  [yes, I like it]

*  Media Comments – Comments from the classic site will be available in the media viewer with the ability to also comment on them in the new Ancestry site. [yes, I like it]

2)  The New Ancestry:  July 22nd Feature Update

*  Person Media Gallery – Show & Sort. SHOW allows you to show only the media types you want to see – Photos, Stories, etc. SORT allows you to view the data in the order you choose – New to Old, Alphabetical, etc.  [yes, I like it]

*  Family Card in Hints – Allows you to see the family of the person you are evaluating Ancestry Hints for – this mirrors the Family Card in the Facts View. [yes, I like it]

*  Research tools – A shortcut that provides you nifty tools such as View in tree, View Notes, View Comments, and Merge with Duplicate. You can access these tools with just one click from the Tools button. 

3)  The New Ancestry: July 31st Feature Update

None listed as new.

4)  The latter article identifies features that they are working on:

*  We are investing a lot of resources updating our backend infrastructure so the new Ancestry will work much better than the old site.

*  Printing in Facts View –We have had a busy week bringing Print feature to the new Ancestry. You will notice that the coming soon print image is formatted to fit the page while still reflecting the layout and benefits of the Facts View as well as removing the dark backgrounds to reduce unnecessary use of ink for printing. We are also working on printing for LifeStory and MyCanvas publishing options.  [good, I'm looking forward to this]

*  FamilySearch integration – LDS Account holders will be able to share information between their Ancestry tree on the new Ancestry site and their Family Tree on FamilySearch.  [doesn't affect me.  Why aren't I, as a non-LDS member, able to do this?  It's a universal FamilySearch Family Tree]

*  Profile picture cropping – Edit/crop a profile photo to fit in the circular photo space

5)  The top reported issues from customer feedback include:

*  Relationship Calculator – We have addressed the a number of the reported issues, this should be available now on the Person Page. [Note that the sentence doesn't make sense.  I can't find it on the Person page] [looking forward to seeing this]

*  Inaccurate narrations in LifeStory and Facts view – We are looking at the language in the narrations and how to better generate narratives.

*  Photos added to events to appear as thumbnails in Facts view – Thank you for your feedback on this. We are evaluating whether to include this functionality in the new Ancestry site. [great idea!]

*  LifeStory map pins appearing in wrong locations – This has been an issue due to how the locations are evaluated. We implemented a fix last week that will prevent mapping pins for any location that doesn’t have a standardized place. We are also looking at improving the standardized place engine to ensure correct pin placement. [looks pretty good to me]

Ancestry says:

We appreciate your feedback and encourage you to keep submitting it. What do you love about the new website? Did you find a bug? Something doesn’t quite work like you think it should? Please submit it via this form.

6)  I complained in What Facts Show Up in an Ancestry.com LifeStory? (2 July 2015) that some of my Facts and media did not appear in a LifeStory.  

a)  I found these Facts in profiles of several of my ancestors that did not show up in the LifeStory:

*  Census Fact
*  Occupation Fact
*  Education Fact
*  Military Service Fact
*  Baptism or Christening Fact
*  Land Deed Fact
*  Cause of Death
*  Burial Fact
*  Obituary Fact
*  Probate Fact
*  I'm sure there are many more!

For me, I would like to have these other Facts, with the accompanying uploaded media item, included in the LifeStory.  How is the LifeStory complete without the events that are included in the Facts list?
b)  While the Residence Fact is included in the LifeStory, the attached or uploaded images for these Facts are not included.  I think they should be.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/08/many-features-added-to-new-ancestrycom.html

Copyright (c) 2015, 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.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

Tuesday's Tip: Use the Family History Guide to Learn Family History Techniques

This week's Tuesday's Tip is:  Use the Family History Guide (http://www.thefhguide.com/) to learn more about doing genealogy and family history.  This is oriented toward beginning family historians.

The Family History Guide (http://www.thefhguide.com/) was announced several weeks ago.  The home page looks like this:

There are two links on the Home Page - one for "Get Started" and one for "Projects."

1)  The "Get Started" page provides information about the Family History Guide:

It says:

"Welcome to The Family History Guide™- your family history learning and resource site. The Projects, Goals, and Choices on this site help you find your ancestors and bring their stories to life, one step at a time. Enjoy your family history journey! "

On the menu bar, and on the right-hand side of the page, are links to:

*  About the Family History Guide
*  FAQs
*  Computer Basics
*  Family History Basics
*  About the Projects
*  Project Resources
*  Project 1

On the left-hand side of the screen above arel inks to:

*  The Family History Guide Quick Tour (a video)
*  Classes and Training
*  Upcoming Events
*  About Us

2)  The "Computer Basics" page provides lessons on using your computer:

The "Computer Skills" videos are for:

*  Getting to Know Your Computer

*  Learn Computer Basics, Part 1

*  Basic Computer Skills

*  Mouse Skills

*  Glossary of Computer Terms

3)  The "Family History Basics" page provides information about Family History terms and concepts, FamilySearch, and FamilySearch partners (Ancestry, Findmypast, MyHeritage and American Ancestors): 

For each of the partners, there are articles about "Learn more..." and "Getting started on..."

4)  The "Projects" link on the home page, or the "About the Projects" link on the menu bar, provides information about the 7 Projects:

The 7 Projects in the Family History Guide are:

*  Family Tree
*  Memories
*  Descendancy / Ordinances
*  Discover
*  Indexing
*  Help
*  Technology

Each project has Goals, Choices, Instructions, and Resources.

5)  Here is the screen for Project 4: Discover:

The Goals are listed, and there are links to a page for each goal.  If you run your mouse over the "4. Discover" in the menu bar, you can select a specific region (United States, Canada, etc.):

The United States page looks like this (two screens):

The right-hand side of the page lists goals for different record types.  The left-hand side of the page lists each state (link to FamilySearch), with links to A (Ancestry), P (Findmypast), H (MyHeritage) resources.

6)  There is a lot to review on this website - I've only scratched the surface here.  While it is oriented toward an LDS member just starting their family history journey, it is useful for non-LDS members - just ignore the LDS specific information.

If it interests you, please take the time to read the pages, watch the linked videos, try to work through a project or two.

Note that the Guide uses four subscription websites - Ancestry, Findmypast, MyHeritage and AmericanAncestors.  LDS members have free access to these sites.  A non-LDS member would have to subscribe to them in order to use them.  They could use FamilySearch resources, which are free.

For an experienced researcher, the "Discover" projects may be very helpful to expand their research skills and knowledge.

I think that this site is an excellent learning tool for a beginning family historian.  The flow of the Projects is interesting - it starts with adding family information to the FamilySearch Family Tree, then Memories (photos, stories, videos, etc.), then adding Descendants, and only then getting into Discovering more information.  I can visualize a genealogical society Beginner's course using this as curriculum, but it does require a computer and enough computer skills to succeed online.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/08/tuesdays-tip-use-family-history-guide.html

Copyright (c) 2015, 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.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

What Ancestry Hints Do I Get For Susanna Page (1614-1691) on an Ancestry Member Tree?

I wrote Lesson Learned Again: Don't Trust Online Family Trees last week, and have received several helpful and interesting comments.  

Russ Worthington suggested something in a comment and I tried it today.  He said:

"I'd like to do an experiment on this topic, or you can. See what happens, if you post a small GEDCOM on an Ancestry Member Tree and, withOUT searching, what are the Online Tree Shaky Leaf Hints provide you.

"I find that relying on Shaky Leaf hints, in many cases, return a better result list then if I manually enter a search as you did. I know that the Record Hints are very good, not perfect, but very good (on my main tree between 90 and 95%) good results.

"Not questioning your results at all. I totally get that, which is why I don't spend a lot of time on online trees.

"W[ish] we had a way to search on a specific USER's online tree, or have the ability to compare trees like we to with Ancestry DNA." 

I didn't add a small GEDCOM.  I went into one of my Ancestry Member Trees, and added Susanna Page (1614-1691) and her husband Thomas Gleason (1609-1686), plus her parents, Thomas and Susanna Page.  Here is the tree with these four persons:

Soon after adding these four persons, the green leafs appeared.  Susanna Page has 12 Ancestry Hints (three screens):

I'm going to try to judge these 12 Ancestry Hints as to accuracy based on what I know about Susanna's life, on a Bad, Fair, Good, Very Good, Excellent scale.

1)  Ancestry Member Trees -- it gave me 10 AMTs to compare to, and 7 of them had Thomas as a father, but only 2 had Susanna as a mother.  There were no other parents named.  GOOD.

2)  Family Data Collection - Births -- it gave me a birth in Susannah Page in 1622 in Lavenham, daughter of John Page and Phoebe Payne.  BAD (wrong parents, wrong birth year, wrong birth place).

3)  U.S. Canada Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s -- lists Thomas Gleason only, not Susanna.  BAD (doesn't match search term)

4)  Family Data Collection - Individual Records -- Identifies her parents as Robert Page and Lucy Ward.  BAD (wrong parents)

5)  American Genealogical Biographical Index -- Identifies Susanna Page birth date as 1610 in Massachusetts.  BAD

6)  Family Data Collection - Deaths -- Provides correct death date and place for Susanna Page.  EXCELLENT

7)  England, Select Births and Christenings, 1538-1975 -- Provides father's name (Thomas Page), baptism date (4 Dec 1614) and place (Ingham, Suffolk, England) for Susanna Page.  EXCELLENT

8)  London, England, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 -- Provides father's name (Thomas Page),. baptism date (19 Nov 1626) and baptism place (St. Bride's, Fleet Street, London).  BAD.

9)  Global, Find A Grave Index for Burials at Sea and Other Select Burial Locations, 1300s-Current -- Provides birth date (`1622, Lavenham, Suffolk), death date (24 Jan 1681), death place (Boston, Mass.), Spouse (Thomas Gleason III), Father's name (John Page), mother's name (Phoebe Page), Child (Susanna).  BAD (only item accurate is spouse's name!).

10)  Millennium File -- Lists spouse (Thomas Gleason), birth date (1628), and death date/place (24 Jan 1691, Boston, Mass.).  GOOD (3 out of 4)

11)  U.S., New England Marriages Prior to 1700 --  lists spouse (Thomas Gleason), death date (1691) and marriage date (1631).  FAIR (got spouse and death year).

12)  U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900 -- Lists spouse (Thomas Gleason) and Marriage (of MA).  FAIR (it the spouse's name right).

There are no Original records on this list of 12 Ancestry Hints.  The one record that is totally correct is a Derivative Source based on a transcription of the Ingham parish registers, which would be an Original source.

I don't accept Hints #1 to #6, or #10 to #12 in my Ancestry Member Trees.  They are mainly indexes and lists from other derivative records.  Because I cannot easily access the original parish records on microfilm, I do accept the parish register transcriptions if the entry is in the IGI extracted records.  I do use Find A Grave, but only for the burial record.  Those are my choices.

The total for the answer to Russ's suggestion - one of the 12 Hints for Susanna Page was Excellent.  Several others had parts correct or were limited in information.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/08/what-ancestry-hints-do-i-get-for.html

Copyright (c) 2015, 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.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

New or Updated Record Collections at FamilySearch.org - July 26 to August 2, 2015

I'm trying to keep up with the new and updated record collections at FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list).  

As of 2 August 2015, there were 2,020 record collections on FamilySearch (an increase of 1 from last week):

The new or updated collections are:


*  Wisconsin, Marriages, 1836-1930; 734,522 indexed records, without images, added or updated 31 Jul 2015

*  United States Census, 1810; 827,547 indexed records, with images, added or updated 30 Jul 2015

*  Mexico, Hidalgo, Catholic Church Records, 1546-1971; 3,250,977 indexed records, with images, added or updated 29 Jul 2015

*  Mexico, Distrito Federal, Catholic Church Records, 1514-1970; 2,372,479 indexed records, with images, added or updated 29 Jul 2015

*  Mexico, Durango, Catholic Church Records, 1604-1985; 130,218 indexed records, with images, added or updated 29 Jul 2015

*  Mexico, Guanajuato, Catholic Church Records, 1519-1984; 1,488,203 indexed records, with images, added or updated 29 Jul 2015

*  Mexico, Sonora, Catholic Church Records, 1657-1994; 176,257 indexed records, with images, added or updated 29 Jul 2015

*  Mexico, Zacatecas, Catholic Church Records, 1605-1980; 85,499 indexed records, with images, added or updated 29 Jul 2015

*  Philippines, Civil Registration (National), 1945-1984; Browse Images only, no index, added or updated 28 Jul 2015

*  United States, Index to Alien Case Files, 1940-2003; 456,334 indexed records, with images, added or updated 28 Jul 2015

*  Italy, Bari, Civil Registration (State Archive), 1809-1908; 604,492 indexed records, with images, added or updated 28 Jul 2015

*  Italy, Caltanissetta, Civil Registration (State Archive), 1820-1935; 291,719 indexed records, with images, added or updated 28 Jul 2015

*  Italy, Genova, Civil Registration (State Archive), 1796-1812, 1838-1859, 1866-1899; 153,718 indexed records, with images, added or updated 28 Jul 2015

*  Italy, Mantova, Civil Registration (State Archive), 1496-1906; 170,486 indexed records, with images, added or updated 28 Jul 2015

*  Italy, Pescara, Civil Registration (State Archive), 1865-1929; 179,661 indexed records, with images, added or updated 28 Jul 2015

*  Italy, Pesaro e Urbino, Urbino, Civil Registration (State Archive), 1866-1942; 113,558 indexed records, with images, added or updated 28 Jul 2015

*  Mexico, Oaxaca, Catholic Church Records, 1559-1988; 1,279,525 indexed records, with images, added or updated 28 Jul 2015

*  Mexico, México, Catholic Church Records, 1567-1970; 1,032,545 indexed records, with images, added or updated 28 Jul 2015

*  Mexico, Jalisco, Catholic Church Records, 1590-1979; 1,239,961 indexed records, with images, added or updated 28 Jul 2015

*  Mexico, Michoacán, Catholic Church Records, 1555-1996; 345,068 indexed records, with images, added or updated 28 Jul 2015

*  Mexico, Puebla, Catholic Church Records, 1545-1977; 1,884,313 indexed records, with images, added or updated 28 Jul 2015

*  Mexico, Chihuahua, Catholic Church Records, 1632-1958; 27,361 indexed records, with images, added or updated 28 Jul 2015

*  Mexico, Sinaloa, Catholic Church Records, 1671-1968; 50,792 indexed records, with images, added or updated 27 Jul 2015

*  Mexico, San Luis Potosí, Catholic Church Records, 1586-1977; 396,924 indexed records, with images, added or updated 27 Jul 2015

*  Mexico, Tamaulipas, Catholic Church Records, 1703-1964; 109,933 indexed records, with images, added or updated 27 Jul 2015

*  Mexico, Colima, Catholic Church Records, 1707-1969; 61,464 indexed records, with images, added or updated 27 Jul 2015

*  Mexico, Nayarit, Catholic Church Records, 1596-1967; 9,863  indexed records, with images, added or updated 27 Jul 2015

*  Mexico, Coahuila, Catholic Church Records, 1627-1978; 317,740 indexed records, with images, added or updated 27 Jul 2015

*  Mexico, Guerrero, Catholic Church Records, 1576-1979; 16,290 indexed records, with images, added or updated 27 Jul 2015

*  Mexico, Tlaxcala, Catholic Church Records, 1576-1994; 63,259 indexed records, with images, added or updated 27 Jul 2015

*  Mexico, Aguascalientes, Catholic Church Records, 1620-1962; 135,095 indexed records, with images, added or updated 27 Jul 2015

*  Mexico, Tabasco, Catholic Church Records, 1803-1970; 32,572 indexed records, with images, added or updated 27 Jul 2015

*  Mexico, Baja California and Baja California Sur, Catholic Church Records, 1750-1984; 43,067 indexed records, with images, added or updated 7 Jul 2015

*  Mexico, Veracruz, Catholic Church Records, 1590-1978; 44,289 indexed records, with images, added or updated 27 Jul 2015

*  Mexico, Yucatán, Catholic Church Records, 1543-1977; 13,476 indexed records, with images, added or updated 27 Jul 2015

*  Mexico, Morelos, Catholic Church Records, 1598-1994; 75,920 indexed records, with images, added or updated 27 Jul 2015

*  Mexico, Querétaro, Catholic Church Records, 1590-1970; 93,907 indexed records, with images, added or updated 27 Jul 2015

*  Mexico, Nuevo León, Catholic Church Records, 1667-1981; 33,747 indexed records, with images, added or updated 27 Jul 2015

*  Mexico, Campeche, Catholic Church Records, 1638-1944; 19,651 indexed records, with images, added or updated 27 Jul 2015

*  Massachusetts Marriages, 1841-1915; 1,538,139 indexed records, with images, added or updated 27 Jul 2015

*  Peru, La Libertad, Civil Registration, 1903-1998; 342,315 indexed records, with images, added or updated 27 Jul 2015

*  England and Wales Census, 1871; 25,330,945 indexed records, with images, added or updated 27 Jul 2015

Unfortunately, it is difficult to tell which collections are brand new and which ones are updated.  The asterisk they use is for "Recently added or updated."  I am particularly interested in new collections, for the obvious reasons.

In order to select a specific collection, go to https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list and use the "Filter by collection name" feature in the upper left-hand corner.

Each one of the collections listed above has a Research Wiki page (use the "Learn more" link).  It would be very useful if the Wiki page for each collection listed the dates for when the collection was added as a new collection and the dates for major updates also.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/08/new-or-updated-record-collections-at.html

Copyright (c) 2015, 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.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.