New genealogy research techniques

New Genealogy Research Techniques

Dick Eastman

June 14, 2014

Today’s Slides may be found at:

http://eogn.com/handouts/research

Genealogy Research Through the Years














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


Three genealogy web sites offer advanced automated record searches and matching:

1. Ancestry.com


Ancestry’s Shaky Leaf



1. Ancestry.com

1. Mocavo.com

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.

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.

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…

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

Second Page

Where can you find Mocavo?

http://www.mocavo.com



1. Ancestry.com

1. Mocavo.com

2. MyHeritage.com

MyHeritage

MyHeritage

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

MyHeritage is available:

In more than 40 languages (far more than any other genealogy web site).

In countries all over the world.

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


You always own the data!

You may add, delete, or modify your contributed data at any time.


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.


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

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.

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

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

SuperSearch contains

Super algorithms

Super Name Matching

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.”

SuperSearch looks like this:

Advanced SuperSearch looks like this:

“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?”


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

International Search Engine

Can search the world or

Can search by continents or

Can search by country

Or combinations of these areas.

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

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.

Collections Include:

One of the largest online collections of newspapers

High School yearbooks Other members’ family trees Census records Military records Many vital records


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



For more information:

http://MyHeritage.com


Today’s Slides may be found at:

http://eogn.com/handouts/research