New methods of searching for genealogy information on the Internet

1. New Genealogy Research Techniques
Dick Eastman
June 14, 2014

2. Today’s Slides may be found at:
http://eogn.com/handouts/research

3. Genealogy Research Through the Years

4. Genealogy Research Through the Years

5. Genealogy Research Through the Years

6. Genealogy Research Through the Years

7. Genealogy Research Through the Years

8. Genealogy Research Through the Years

9. Genealogy Research Through the Years

10. Genealogy Research Through the Years

11. Genealogy Research Through the Years

12. Genealogy Research Through the Years

13. Genealogy Research Through the Years

14. Genealogy Research Through the Years

15. Genealogy Research Through the Years

16. Genealogy Research Through the Years

17. Record Preservation & Improvements

18. Record Preservation & Improvements

19. Record Preservation & Improvements

20. Record Preservation & Improvements
 Many web sites now display digital images of
old records
 However, converting the information to
computer-readable text is still a challenge
 OCR (optical character recognition)
 Manually indexing, often by off-shore
transcribers or by crowd sourcing

21. Record Preservation & Improvements
 Three genealogy web sites offer advanced
automated record searches and matching:
1. Ancestry.com

22. Record Preservation & Improvements
 Ancestry’s Shaky Leaf

23. Record Preservation & Improvements
 Three genealogy web sites offer advanced
automated record searches and matching:
1. Ancestry.com
1. Mocavo.com

25. What Is Mocavo?
 It is a search engine… and more.
 Unlike other search engines, Mocavo.com limits its
searches solely to genealogy sites.
 Searches on Mocavo.com are not limited to names.
 You can search for towns, states, occupations, relatives,
or any other text information you think might be
included with an ancestor's name.
 Whatever you specify, the search will be limited to
pages on genealogy web sites.

26. What Is Mocavo?
Unlike other search engines, Mocavo limits its
searches to approximately one million
genealogy-related web sites and has "extra
logic" that is good at finding surnames and
locations embedded in free-form text, along
with a number of other enhancements.

27. Mocavo searches:
 genealogy message boards
 state and local historical societies’ web sites
 the Library of Congress
 National Archives
 Ellis Island
 Find A Grave
 the Internet Archive
 Allen County Public Library’s Internet Archive
records
 and…

28. Mocavo searches:
 Social Security Administration’s Social
Security Death Index
 World Family Tree developed by the popular
Geni family tree service
 various U.S. state archives
 tens of thousands of genealogy sites built by
individuals & societies

32. Second Page

33. Where can you find Mocavo?
http://www.mocavo.
com

34. Record Preservation & Improvements
 Three genealogy web sites offer advanced
automated record searches and matching:
1. Ancestry.com
1. Mocavo.com
2. MyHeritage.com

35. MyHeritage

36. MyHeritage

37. MyHeritage is a:
 Large collection of vital records from all over
the world
 A large collection of digitized newspapers
from many different countries
 Contains billions of records from all over the
world
 A web site to store your family tree
 A place to compare your family tree against
those submitted by others
 A photo storage and matching web site
• And much, much more

38. MyHeritage is available:
 In more than 40 languages (far more than any
other genealogy web site).
 In countries all over the world.

39. Build Your Own Family Tree Web site
 Upload a GEDCOM file
 Use the MyHeritage Mobile App for iPhone and
Android
 Use Family Tree Builder, a free genealogy
program for Windows
 Enter the data on the web site, one at a time

40. Build Your Own Family Tree Web site
 You always own the data!
 You may add, delete, or modify your
contributed data at any time.

41. Build Your Own Family Tree Web site
 Use Smart Matches, Record Matches, and
SuperSearch to compare your entries against
vital records, census records, newspapers,
entries contributed by other MyHeritage users,
and more.
 Searches may be performed on U.S. records
as well as records from many other countries,
especially from both Eastern and Western
Europe.

42. Build Your Own Family Tree Web site

43. The Best Things in Life are FREE!
 MyHeritage has three levels of users:
 A FREE basic website for registered users, with
up to 250 persons permitted in the tree
 A Premium website permits 2,500 persons in
the tree
 A Premium Plus website permits an unlimited
number of persons in the tree

44. The Best Things in Life are FREE!
 A Data Plan to view a few databases also may
incur additional fees. These are because
MyHeritage PURCHASED these databases from
other companies. Much of the content is
EXCLUSIVE to MyHeritage.
 You never enter a for-pay service without
being warned ahead of time and being asked if
you wish to proceed.

45. MyHeritage contains:
 No info on living persons
 Family trees, historical photos, census records,
birth/death/marriage records, military records,
immigration records, newspapers, yearbooks,
historical maps…
 Built by genealogists for genealogists

46. Search for names
 1,500 databases
 Records from 75 million users
 1.2 billion profiles
 200 million images
 Search for Exact, Soundex and Megadex
options
 Save the search results to your MyHeritage
site and click through the matches at your
leisure

47. SuperSearch contains
 Super algorithms
 Super Name Matching

48. Smart Matches
 Once the tree is online on MyHeritage, the
their "Smart Matches" system finds potential
matches of the user's tree persons with
persons in the trees of other MyHeritage
users.
 These Smart Matches come in the online
email at MyHeritage and at the user's home
email address. This is truly "finding relatives
without searching.”

49. SuperSearch looks like this:

50. Advanced SuperSearch looks like this:

51. “But Wait, There’s More!”
 The Name Dictionary is Amazing!
 For instance, let’s say you are looking for a
person named Alexander who may have
lived in any of several countries. Family
members called him “Alex.”
 Should you search for “Alex” or “Alexander?”

52. “But Wait, There’s More!”

53. Different Records Automatically Use
Different Search Methods
 Newspaper searches are non-structured.
That is, all words are searched.
 In contrast, census records are always very
structured in columns. Only names will be
searched when you specify a name.
• Photos are searched by metadata

54. International Search Engine
 Can search the world or
 Can search by continents or
 Can search by country
 Or combinations of these areas.

55. All Records Found may be Saved
Directly to Your Family Tree
 It will be visible to you and…
 (optionally) visible to others
 Including complete source citations

56. Your Data May be Saved…
 A member's tree on the MyHeritage website
can be downloaded in GEDCOM format to
import to a user's desktop software.
 A member's tree on the MyHeritage website
can be synchronized with the Family Tree
Builder Version 4.0 software for Windows
 A member's tree on the MyHeritage website
can be synchronized with the handheld
iPhone/iPad and Android apps.

57. Collections Include:
 One of the largest online collections of
newspapers
 High School yearbooks
 Other members’ family trees
 Census records
 Military records
 Many vital records

58. “But Wait, There’s More!”
 Family Tree Builder
 A full-featured genealogy program for
Windows
• A Macintosh version is under development
 Fun to use
 Supports SmartMatching Technology
 Private family sites

59. “But Wait, There’s More!”

60. “But Wait, There’s More!”

61. For more information:
http://MyHeritage.com

62. Genealogy Research Through the Years

63. Today’s Slides may be found at:
http://eogn.com/handouts/research