Google Removes the + Search Operator

Google has just recently removed the + search operator and replaced it with quotation marks functionality.  Instead of placing the Google + operator before a single word that you want to appear in your search results as-is, you now must add quotation marks around the word.  Quotation marks have always worked to give exact results for a phrase, but they now also give exact results for a single word.

If you search using the + operator, you will get a message that says:

The + operator has been replaced.
To search for an exact word or phrase, use double quotation marks

When asked why the + functionality was removed, a Google employee replied:

 "We've made the ways you can tell Google exactly what you want more consistent by expanding the functionality of the quotation marks operator. In addition to using this operator to search for an exact phrase, you can now add quotation marks around a single word to tell Google to match that word precisely. So, if in the past you would have searched for magazine +latina, you should now search for magazine "latina".  "

I'm not sure I see this as an improvement - it will now take two keystrokes to replace one, and I have to remember not to do something that has become second nature to me during my searches.

How does this affect genealogy searches?  Well, now if  I want to search for any word, including surnames, and get exact results, I must use quotation marks.  For example to search for the surname Meyer without getting results that also show Mayer, Myers, and other spelling variations, I must now search for the surname in quotes.  "Meyer"  

It almost seems counter-intuitive to have to tell Google that you want to search for an exact word, after all, isn't that what you expect when you enter a keyword?  But if you remember that Google does synonym searches, it becomes easier to remember that you have to tell it when you want an exact search.  Sometimes getting spelling variations and synonyms in search results is a good thing as it broadens your results and helps you find things you might not otherwise find, but there are time when only exact spelling results are appropriate.

I just hope Google doesn't do away with any other operators such as the minus sign and the OR operator.  So far, they are still working.  Check out the Easy Google Genealogy Searcher for other ways to use Google.

Using Google's Recipe View for Family History

Google has a new feature to help find recipes online called Recipe View. 
I don't like to just find names and dates of my ancestors.  I like to write about my family history and the various cultures of my ancestors.

Cooking, to me, is a big part of culture, and because of this, I've always included family recipes in the stories of my ancestors.  Unfortunately, although I know what dishes my grandmothers and great-grandmothers cooked, none of these recipes were ever written down. 

Google Recipe View can now help me find recipes close to my family recipes.  If I know my Hungarian grandmother cooked goulash with paprika and poppy seeds but without ketchup (which a lot of online recipes seem to include - ugh!), Recipe View helps me find a recipe meeting my criteria.  It not only allows me to choose the ingredients in the recipe, but it allows me to choose ingredients I know are NOT in the recipe by clicking on the "Yes" or "No" ingredient check boxes in the left column.

Google Recipe View helps me choose a recipe among the search results by showing clearly marked ingredients and pictures without having to go into each website to check out the ingredients of the recipe.

To get to Recipe View, click on the Recipes link in the left-hand panel when searching for a recipe. You can search for specific recipes such as Goulash or Schnitzel or can search for more open-ended topics that feature a holiday or event, such as German Christmas recipes or St. Patrick's Day in Ireland recipes or Easter Bread or even Bastille Day recipes.

You filter search results based on your ideal ingredients, cooking time and calorie count using the recipe tools on the left hand side of the page.  For cultural recipes, I don't use the cooking time or calorie count check boxes.  I don't think my ancestors worried about these either.

Sometimes, I have found it helps to add the word authentic to the recipe name when searching to better find a historical recipe.  You can try searching for specific recipes such as Authentic French Crepes or Authentic German Sauerbraten or Authentic New England Clam Chowder

For genealogy webmasters and bloggers: Recipe View is based on data from rich snippets markup. If you publish recipes of your ancestors, you can add markup to your web pages so that your content can appear with this improved presentation in regular Google results as well as in Recipe View. This will help those genealogists like me searching for recipes that our ancestors used to make.

Ancestry Free Databases

Ancestry.com has recently expanded its list of free databases.  These always-free databases are available without a subscription or free trial.  A few days ago, there were slightly over 400 free databases listed in the Ancestry card catalog, and today there are now almost 3000 which include many international titles.  The additional databases that Ancestry has opened may only be available for a very short time.

UPDATE 11/1: The additional free databases have already been closed, but the rest of this article still applies for finding the 400 or so always-free databases.

To find the Ancestry free databases, go to Ancestry’s card catalog (which can be found as a drop-down choice on the "Search" bar), and enter the word free into the keyword box located in the left hand column.

As you scroll down the page, you can filter the free databases by collection, by date, by location, and by language in the left column.   I found that once I filtered by location, I got a list of all free and fee-based Ancestry databases, and had to enter the keyword free again.

On the green bar, there is also a sort available.  By sorting the list of free ancestry databases by date added or date updated, you can make sure are haven't missed any of the newly added or newly opened free databases when you next return to the card catalog.

Sometimes only the index is free and not the image, but info from the image has been transcribed and is available to view for free.  Sometimes, both the image and index are available for free.

You will be asked to register at Ancestry.com to view the free databases, but the account is free.  Here is a list of some of the more popular free Ancestry databases.

Finding Living People

Genealogists search for their ancestors - people long dead; but sometimes they have a need to find a living person to help with genealogy research.

Losing touch with a cousin or the need to find a distant relative to help with research are just a few of the reasons to search for a living person.

There are a number of people finder search engines that are very good at what they do.  Some of them search the web; some search public records; some of them can search the deep web databases that don't normally show up on a Google search.

Sometimes they point to pay-for-databases, but most of the information is free.  There is generally enough free info that it usually isn't necessary to pay for a living person search.

Here are my favorite US-based people search engines:

http://pipl.com/
Searches not only the web, but also the deep web or invisible web.  Since most personal profiles, public records and other people-related documents are stored in databases and not on static web pages, this search engine finds the higher-quality information about people that is simply "invisible" to a regular search engine.  

http://www.zabasearch.com/
Free people search engine that gives address and telephone number for free. ZabaSearch also supplies the birthdate which can help narrow down the correct person.

WhitePages.com
White pages results show age and related people to help narrow down the right person.

http://www.zoominfo.com/search
Find people through the company they work for.

http://www.searchforancestors.com/personfinder/
Step by step ideas for finding people - long lost mother, long lost father and other relatives.

US Search
When the free people search engines can't help, you can always try one of the pay people finders.  They say "Guaranteed - no results, no charge".


When I saw how much information was available to other people when I searched for my own name, I was tempted to opt out of these search engines.  It is public information and posted for all to see.  But then I realized if a long-lost or distant relative was searching for me, I didn't want to close the door by opting out.  Opting in or opting out of these people finder search engines is a hard decision to make but everyone must choose for themselves how much info about themselves they are willing to have available on the internet to help people find them.

Google's Similar Sites

There are a lot of genealogy sites on the web and you probably have your favorites.  How can you find additional sites like those favorites?  Last week, Google launched a search feature that helps you easily find new websites that are similar to the ones with which you’re already familiar.

Google has offered a "Similar" feature on results for a while now as a way to discover new, useful sites, but it was easy to overlook. Now they are showing these alternative sites more prominently. For queries where similar sites are likely to be helpful, Google has started to display a list of "Pages similar" at the bottom of the results page. For example, if you search for Rootsweb, this is the list of sites similar:

Pages similar to http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/:

• FamilySearch.org - Search for family ancestors. Billions of free family ... - familysearch.org 
• USGenWeb Project - Consisting of a group of volunteers working ... - usgenweb.org 
• Genealogy Today - genealogy and family tree history, ancestry ... - genealogytoday.com 
• genealogy, ancestry, family history - Discover Your Ancestry, ... - kindredkonnections.com

  And right below that is Additional Searches Related to Rootsweb.

While a broad search like Rootsweb might give very obvious similar sites, try checking out Similar Sites when searching for surnames and localities related to your family tree and see if this the newest Google search feature is useful to you.

Additional Google Search Options

Google just added additional search filters to its Search Options.  You can find the Search Options side bar by clicking Show options on the blue bar above your search results on the Google Search Results Page (the page of results you get after you have entered a query into the Google search box).

Search Options helps the user filter search results by different criteria without opening a new page. Generally, Google gives what it considers the most relevant results first, but Search Options allows you to change the filter to meet your own needs.  Previously using Search Options, you could search withing a date range, get related search results, and get a Google translation.



You now have the following additional choices to further filter your Google search results:

• Visited pages  or Not yet visited  lets you search specifically for webpages you already viewed or not viewed. You can imagine how helpful it will be to select sites that you have Not yet visited  when searching for genealogy websites so that you don't keep checking out the same sites over and over.  This feature relies on your Google Web History so make sure you are logged into your Google account when surfing genealogy sites. 

• Fewer shopping sites or More shopping sites  could be useful when genealogy surfing if your search results keep giving book results at Amazon or memorabilia at eBay. Don't want those results?  Now you can choose Fewer shopping sites. 

• Blogs  This option will restrict results to just blogs. Blogs have been added as a search filter in addition to the filters for Images, Videos, News, Updates. Books, and Forums.

If you haven't tried doing your Google searches using Show Options located on the upper blue bar on your Google search results page, try it the next time you do a genealogy search.  I found these filters to really help filter and narrow down my search results.

A Look at Ancestry's Improved Search

Ancestry.com has made a huge improvement to its search wildcard functionality.

Previously, you had to enter the first three characters of a name and then the wild cards * or a ?.   Now you can use a wildcard for the first, second or third letter in a name.

The changes to the use of wildcards are:

• You can put a wildcard in any character position including the first, second,  or third character, such as *son or ?atthew,  J?nes or Sm?th.
• Either the first or last character must be a non-wildcard character. For example, Han* and *son are okay, but not *anso* 
• Names must contain at least three non-wildcard characters. For example, Ha*n is okay, but not H*n 

Wildcards at Ancestry.com work only with exact matches, not soundex matches (searches that look for sound-a-like names).

Why are wild cards necessary when doing a genealogy search?  Even though you know a surname should be spelled, it doesn't mean that the clerk who wrote the original records spelled it correctly and this can make it difficult to find a record.  For example, even on my own birth certificate, my mother's maiden name is spelled incorrectly and I have given up trying to get it corrected.  Using a wildcard helps search for spelling variations. 

I have also found that some official records will record a nickname for a first name.  John* will find both John and Johnny. However, if a first name is recorded as an initial, the new wildcard search will not help since you still need 3 letters to search.  If this is a possibility, (for example, many first names in the Social Security Death Index are just first initials), it is best to search with the first name blank.

Hint:  Start a search at Ancestry.com without wildcards.  Only after your first search doesn't produce results, should you try a search with wild cards.  If a wild card search doesn't work, next try searching with only a last name in case the record is recorded with just an initial for a first name.

What is the difference between the two wildcards?

• The ? matches one and only one character.
• The *  matches zero or more characters.

• M?yer will find Mayer and Meyer but not Myer, but M*yer will find Myer, Meyer and Mayer.
• M*yer* will find Myer, Meyer, Mayer, Myers, Meyers, Mayers, Myerson, etc.

No longer will I have to make different search queries using the multiple Myer/Myers/Meyer/Meyers variations because of Ancestry's previous wildcard limitation in the first 3 letters. This is my gggrandfather's surname and I have seen his name spelled all of these different ways from document to document. 

This change will really help with Mc and Mac names also.  Now that we can put wild cards in the second position, it can be used to find both names in one search.   Search for M*Carthy to find McCarthy and MacCarthy.

The wild cards work on first names.

• Jo*n will find names recorded as John or Jon.  Unless you specify gender in your search, Jo*n will also find Joan.
• Jo*n* will find John or Jon or Jonathan as well as Johnny or Jonie.

Previously, we had to use a soundex search to look for name variations which often produced too many false results.  This new functionality will be a big time saver.

Look for Ancestry.com to continue to improve its search this year with additional tweaks.

Bing Your Family Tree?

Microsoft's new Bing search engine went live June 3rd. Bing is a completely rebuilt search engine to replace Microsoft Live Search. It is visually pleasing, but what really counts are the search results. Here are some of the first things I noticed:

• Bing has a very attractive interface. Each day features a new photo background with information about the scene revealed by scrolling across the surface. It is beautiful and makes me want to revisit each day to see the new photograph. On some days, you can click on the background for more images; on other days you can click through to video thumbnails.


• Bing has a very useful sidebar. When you enter a search term, the sidebar displays clickable refined versions of your query down the left side of the page. These refined queries seemed very relevant. This would be helpful for the times you get stuck in your searches.The sidebar also displays a list of your most recent search history. A click on the See All link takes you to a more complete search history. A search history is great to help find sites that you want to revisit.


• Bing pop ups an excerpt of the text on a search result if you hover over it (towards the right of the result). This is helpful and time-saving if you're not quite sure if you want to follow a result.


• Bing has a built-in dictionary. If you're looking for a definition or quick summary of a topic, you can use the question what is ? before the search term. For example, search for what is apoplexy and you will get the definition of apoplexy before all of the search results. OK, Google has that, too.


• Bing appears to be a solid and reliable search engine with a lot of useful functions. The results are very, very good, but different than Google. Which search engine gives the best results?

The only way to tell if you like Bing is to try it. Let me know what you think via the comments.

Google's New Search Options

This week Google announced a new set of features called Search Options - a collection of tools that let you slice and dice your Google search results to generate different views to find what you need faster and easier.

Starting this week, a "Show Options" link now appears on the blue bar above the Google search results. See arrow above. Click on Show Options to see the new Google features.

Search Options helps the user filter search results by different criteria without opening a new page. Generally, Google gives what it considers the most relevant results first, but Search Options allows you to change the filter to meet your own needs.

Google Search Options now allows you to organize your search results by time so that the newest results will appear first. I think the Search Options will be especially useful for genealogy queries that are performed frequently. Genealogists are constantly looking for new info posted on the web to further research. By putting the newest sites first in the list of search results you are less likely to miss them.



The Search Options panel gives you the ability to view your results in new ways. One view gives you more information about each result, including images as well as text, while others let you explore and iterate your search by time.

You could search for your name, then change the results order to Recent Results, then further filter your search to Recent Results in Forums only with just a few clicks.

You can check more than one option under the different text results.

Take a look at the Wonder Wheel option. Perhaps Google is trying to make the process of refining queries more visual by adding a Wonder Wheel of related search suggestions. I'm not sure how useful it is but if you think of any ideas for its use, leave a note in the comments here.

The new Google Search Options are going to be very helpful so that we don't miss any new results for our genealogy queries. Try some of your Google queries that you frequently search for and take a look at the different results you find as you put the newest sites first.

Google says to keep watching as they plan to add additional features to the Search Options.

Finding the Data from Geocities Sites

Geocities, home of many genealogy websites, is closing. Unfortunately, some webmasters may not move their sites before it does.

One reason is that webmasters may not be aware that Geocities is closing. It doesn't appear that Geocities is notifying their webmasters by email. Instead, the only notice Geocities is giving is a message about the closing when a webmaster logs into the Geocities file manager. Some webmasters haven't logged into the file manager for years!

Unless a Geocities webmaster reads about the closing on the news or in a blog, they might not know it is happening. If you know someone with a Geocities site, write to them to let them know Geocities is closing. Otherwise, they may find out about the closing too late to save their site.

There are many, many genealogy related sites on Geocities. When I searched Google for:

site:geocities.com ~genealogy

I got 1,090,000 genealogy related results on Geocities. That's a lot of genealogy on Geocities.


If you have not yet explored geocites sites, there is no time like the present to get started.

Use the command in the Google searchbox:

site:www.geocities.com ~genealogy

This will find genealogy related sites on Geocities. (See Google and the tilde for info about using the tilde in a Google search)

Add a surname and/or a town, county or state to the command to further narrow your search.

site:www.geocities.com ~genealogy smith pennsylvania

Bookmark all the Geocities sites that are important to your genealogy research. Use the exact name of the site when you create the bookmark. Extract the relevant information and use the geocities URL as a citation.

Why bookmark? Once Geocities closes, there are four ways to possibly retrieve a Geocities site for further research.

• Search for the name of the site in quotes. Most webmasters will not change the name of their site when they move the site. Remember when you bookmark a Geocities site to use the exact name of the site as listed on the webpage.


• Cache - use the command cache:http:www.geocities.com/genealogysite in the Google search box. The cache wont be there for long after Geocities closes, but it is worth a try.


• Internet Archive - Search for the URL or exact name of the site. You will find archived webpages from various dates, but the Internet Archive doesn't always save all the interior pages of a site.


• Search for the Geocities site URL in Google in case the webmaster has listed the former Geocities URL on his new site.
  
  

Remember to spread the word about the Geocities closing to Geocities webmasters so that genealogy info on Geocities can be preserved.

Zillow as a Genealogy Tool

Zillow.com is a pretty cool free real estate website. Type in any U.S. address and you will receive information about the house - even if the house is not up for sale. This info includes public information such as:

• the year the house was built,
• how many bedrooms and bathrooms,
• square footage,
• taxes,
• lot size,
• the approximate house value as of today,
• the name of the neighborhood,
• a Microsoft Virtual Earth aerial photo and, if available, a Google street view photo.

Once you find a house you are interested in, click on the address link or "more home info" to get more details. I find the information available at Zillow really helps me understand a little bit more what life have been like for my ancestors and makes the family story more interesting.

Here is how I have been using Zillow in my genealogy search:

Beginning with the 1880 U.S. census, the address for each enumerated family is listed. I've been entering each ancestral address into Zillow to see if these family homes still exist. Most of my searching was in the city of Philadelphia, but other city locations should have similar results.

Keep in mind that addresses (both street names and house numbers) did change over time. Be sure to check to see if the address has remained the same today before you search Zillow. Steve Morse's Street Name Changes lists some information on street changes for many cities. .

In many cases, my ancestor's houses still exist and I am able to get a real glimpse into their lives. There is a lot of information of the Zillow Overview page.

• The square footage and number of bedrooms. This has been the most interesting thing for me. It gave me perspective about things I had really never thought much about before and adds a new dimension to my family history story. Most of my families had a large number of children and a small amount of bedrooms. Where did they all sleep? How did they all fit around the dinner table?
  
  It's hard to imagine a family that consists of a mother, father, and 11 children living in a small house only 16 feet wide with just 2 bedrooms. Yet one of my families did so, and doing so was probably pretty common. I learned there were 11 children from the census. I learned the row house in Philadelphia where they lived was 16 feet wide with 2 bedrooms from Zillow.
  
  Another of my ancestral families lived with another family in one house (two adult sisters with their spouses, children and their mother). Each family consisting of mother, father, and 6 children, plus the mother. Seventeen people lived in a small Philadelphia row home that had 3 bedrooms. Again, I learned the number of people in the house from the census, and the number of bedrooms and square footage of the house from Zillow. It is hard for me to imagine how so many people could live in such a small space.

• The year the house was built. The oldest ancestral still-standing house I have found so far in Philly was built in 1850, but I found many other old family homes as well. Sadly for me, I found many times there was a new house built at an address decades after my ancestors lived there. The old family home was no longer there.

• The current estimated value of the house today. I don't think that this has any relationship to the value of the house years ago, even inflation adjusted. Some of the old houses I looked at were now in revitalized areas of the city, and some were in areas that had become rundown. Some are now listed as condos. Each change would considerably change the value of the house. Still, it is interesting to compare the value of the house listed on the old census to the value of the house today.

• The neighborhood. I don't know about other cities, but in Philadelphia, the name of the neighborhood is very important, yet for the most part, not listed on the census. Even if the family house no longer exists, I can learn the neighborhood name from Zillow.

• Birds eye view and Street View Photo. The birds eye view is a satellite photo from Microsoft Virtual Earth, and the Street View is from Google. If Street View is available, you can click back and forth between the 2 views. As the name suggests, Street View is an interactive photograph taken in front of the house from the street. It's as though I had asked a friend to take a photo of the house for me.

Check out the all links on the top left column to learn more about the house - Overview - Photos - Home Info - Home Q&A - Bird's Eye View & Map.

If the family house no longer exists, it is still possible to glean info from Zillow.

• I can still take a birds-eye look at the neighborhood via Microsoft Virtual Earth. In many cases, the old neighborhood remains (although my ancestor's house is gone), but I can get a feel from the other houses what my ancestor's house may have looked like. I can also click on a neighboring house to obtain that home's public info to see if that house was in existence when my ancestor lived there and extrapolate what my ancestor's house may have been like.

• In some cases, all the old homes in the neighborhood were razed to make way for newer housing so, in that case, sadly there wasn't much to learn from Zillow. However, I did learn the neighborhood name, and could add to my family story that the house was razed for new housing.

Ancestry Newspaper Collection

Ancestry.com has doubled the size of its Historical Newspaper Collection, adding a billion names and over 20 million images. And they're offering free access until June 19.

Searching the Ancestry Newspaper Collection or any newspaper collection is a little bit different than searching other genealogy databases and here are a few tips for better success:

• If you don't see your hometown newspaper in the list of available newspapers, don't despair. Just like today, articles from one newspaper are reprinted in other newspapers near and far. I found a 100 year old article about a NJ cousin in newspapers as far away as Alaska. If you are not successful in the state where you think the article should be, check other states.

• Sometimes newspapers refer to people by Mr. and Mrs. instead of their first names, and many times refer a woman by her husband's name; i.e. Mrs. John Smith. Try searching by just a surname. And search for a woman by both her name and her husband's name.

• Use quotes whenever possible in the keyword field to minimize false results.

• Try changing criteria if you are unsuccessful in a search. I was searching for articles about a railroad explosion that took place in Locust Gap, PA. When I entered Locust Gap in location field as "exact", it didn't find the article. When I unticked the "exact" field, it found the articles. Go figure.

Find Living People

Searching for living people may not seem to be genealogy related, but there are times when it can be part of a family history search.

Sometimes long-lost family members can help fill out branches on the family tree and shed light on ancestors. Sometimes finding an unknown biological parent can be the starting point for a genealogy search. Sometimes you just want to reconnect with family and friends with whom you have lost touch.

If you know the person's name, here are some places to do an online search for a living person.

Google

Google has built-in U.S. phonebook. Just type phonebook: into the Google searchbox followed by name and state to get the Google whitepages. There is a space between phonebook: and the name.

phonebook: john doe ny

Use any combination of these terms for the Google phonebook:

• First name (or first initial), last name, city (state is optional)
• First name (or first initial), last name, state
• First name (or first initial), last name, area code
• First name (or first initial), last name, zip code
• Phone number, including area code
• Last name, city, state
• Last name, zip code

White Pages

• WhitePages.com or 411.com - U.S. and Canada white page database. If you can't find someone in the WhitePages, note the Find Neighbors tab - if you know where someone used to live, you can contact neighbors to see if they know a forwarding address.
  
• Zaba Search - U. S. people search engine. Gives birth date, address, city, state & phone number.
  
• ZoomInfo - Click on the People Search tab. Find people by their their job or employer.

Social Networks

• Facebook - Search for people in this online directory that connects people through social networks. Contact person through the website.


• MySpace - Search for people and contract through website.


• LinkedIn - Search for people in this business-oriented social networking site. Contact through website.

Birthdate Finder

• Birthday Finder If you know a person's name and birth date, you can use this database to look for town and state. Then use WhitePages.com to get detailed address and phone number.

Commercial People Finders
If you can't find people using the free databases, you may have more luck with the commercial databases.

• US Search. - U.S. results include name, aliases, age, date of birth, address history, unlisted phone numbers, relatives, and more. This is not a basic white pages search - their database contains billions of public records online that go back over 20 years. The search is free.

Want more ideas to find a living person? To look for long-lost friends, mother, father, cousins or other family, try the free Person Finder, a step by step guide to finding people.

Genealogy Search Trend on Google

Randy at GeneaMusing's has done a series on the decline in traffic at many of the top 50 genealogy sites based on their Alexa ranking. These include Genealogy Link Sites, Genealogy Social Network sites, and Commercial Genealogy sites.

I thought I would take a look at the Google trend of searches over the past few years for the keyword genealogy.


Google Trends analyzes Google web searches to compute how many searches have been done for a term relative to the total number of searches done on Google over a period of years. The declining blue line shows that relative to other searches, genealogy has declined as a search word supporting Randy's findings of declining web traffic at top genealogy sites.


Google doesn't supply numbers for the search traffic and the chart is for the relative number of searches, not absolute numbers. But I was really surprised to see the downward trend.

The bottom line on the chart measures the number of Google News References to genealogy. Some of the spikes mention the introduction of large databases.

ProGenealogists Announces the 50 Most Popular Genealogy Websites

Kory L. Meyerink, an adjunct professor of family history at Brigham Young University, felt an objective list of genealogy sites based on web traffic was needed. Why base a top 50 genealogy list on web traffic? Because the most useful genealogy sites will have the most traffic.

The methodology of combining results from different sites that measure web traffic is a pretty clever way to determine results. Since the different web-traffic sites use different methods of measurement, combining results should smooth out any outliers. To get the top 50 genealogy sites, he merged the rankings from:

• Alexa.com - Alexa measures website traffic from those users who have the Alexa toolbar installed. If Alexa's user base is a fair sample of the Internet user population, then Alexa results for genealogy sites should be pretty accurate.
• Quantcast.com, - Quantcast combines directly measured audience data with panel-based estimates. In other words, it surveys a sample of people and extrapolates just like polls do.
• Compete.com - Compete.com uses multiple sources, including ISPs, the Compete Toolbar and opt-in panels - a combination of what Alexa and Quantcast do.
• Google PageRank - Google measures the number of overall links to a web page as an indicator of an individual page's value. This value is called Google Page Rank or PR, and is visible on Google's Toolbar when you visit a website. The higher the Google PR generally, the higher the website appears in Google's search engine rankings.

While Alexa, Quantcast and Compete measure website traffic, Google PR measures incoming links to the site. Kory also used link directories (subjective by nature) such as Kip Sperry’s Link List, Genealogy Sleuth List, and Yahoo and Google Directories to compile the list.

Here is the press release. Explore and enjoy.

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – 2 April 2008.
ProGenealogists, Inc. released today the results of a study that identifies, for the first time, the 50 most popular genealogy websites.

The popularity of genealogy on the Internet has long been established, but for the first time, it’s possible to say which of the thousands of genealogy sites are the most popular in this growing field. The list uses a “places rated” approach to average the website traffic rankings from four major web analytics companies.

The top two websites actually tied for first place and are well-known to web genealogists: Ancestry.com and its sister site, RootsWeb.com. Third place, however, is the somewhat lesser known MyHeritage.com whose popularity is attributed to its many users in Europe and Israel. Next is Genealogy.com, with FamilySearch.org, provided by the LDS Church, rounding out the top five.

“The importance of this list for genealogists cannot be underestimated,” said Natalie Cottrill, ProGenealogists’s President and CEO. “If a site is popular, as measured by
actual traffic, it must be providing useful information, and genealogists are always seeking more sites to help with their research. Everyone will find sites on this list they have never heard of, or visited. We are very pleased to make this information available for free to the entire genealogical community”

The rankings are the result of research conducted over the past three months by ProGenealogists’s Vice-President of Marketing, Kory L. Meyerink, who is also an adjunct professor of family history at Brigham Young University. “Only full-fledged genealogy websites could be considered for this ranking, due to the way the web analytics companies conduct their research,” Meyerink commented. “Individual pages on a government website, cannot be ranked independent of that government site’s own traffic. The same is the case for genealogical pages that are part of a larger, non-genealogical website.” Sites of only passing interest to genealogists, such as the meaning surnames or promoting coats-of-arms, were also excluded.

Bryce Barnett, Operations Manager for ProGenealogists, remarked, “The findings of this study are fascinating. Nine of the 50 sites are subscription sites, illustrating that
genealogists understand the value of paying for information. Indeed, half of the sites are primarily data-oriented sites. Another quarter are sites that provide links to genealogical data.”

ProGenealogists has posted the list at http://www.progenealogists.com/top50genealogy2008.htm, notified the 50 websites, and provided an award icon they can display on their website. A detailed article, exploring the methodology and numbers behind this ground-breaking study is planned for a pending issue of Digital Genealogist, the popular Internet magazine.

ProGenealogists, a privately held Utah corporation, is one of the nation’s premier genealogical research firms, with offices in Salt Lake City, and Sandy, Utah. Founded in 1998, it brings together many of the nation’s best genealogists in an environment fostering high quality, scholarly genealogical research. ProGenealogists’s own website has been nationally recognized for the design, layout and quality of its content by USAToday, “Yahoo Internet Life” Magazine, Family Tree Magazine, and “The Internet Scout Report” sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Google Toolbar Site Search

In addition to the Google Toolbar Word Find Highlighter to immediately pinpoint all occurrences of word or surname on long web pages, the Google Site Search is another great use for the Google Toolbar when genealogy searching. You can use it to:

• Search a site that doesn't have its own search engine. You will find that many smaller genealogy sites, and surprisingly some larger sites, do not have a site search.



• Search a site whose site's search doesn't work very well. One example of a site search that doesn't work very well is the Ancestry.com free library. See Searching the Ancestry.com Library Using the Google Toolbar.

Download the free Google Toolbar. When the Google Toolbar is installed on your computer, it automatically appears along with the Internet Explorer toolbar.

Once the Google Toolbar is installed on your computer, go to Settings, then Options on the Toolbar to choose the options you want displayed on your toolbar. I highly recommend "Search Site" under the "Options" tab and "Highlight" and "WordFind" under the Buttons tab.

I also like the Google Toolbar pop-up blocker. Can't imagine surfing the web without it.

Search the Books in your Home Library Using Google

With the My Library feature in the Google Book Search , you can create an online customized personal library of the genealogy books you own and then quickly search the pages of your home library collection using Google.

To set this up, use the Google Book Search to find the books you own, then click the Add to my library link. Or import your books by typing in a list of ISBN numbers to save them all at once.

Now you can easily search your own home library using Google and not miss any references in your books. This is so much easier and so much more thorough than taking every book you own off the shelf and checking the index (and hoping what you are looking for has been indexed).

You can organize your My Library collection by adding your own labels, ratings, and book reviews.

If you have a genealogy research buddy, you can easily share your library by passing along your My Library URL.

I started doing creating my own MyLibrary and found that some of my books have not yet been scanned by Google, so I cannot search all my books yet, but I was surprised at how many obscure books I was able to find in the Google book search.

Pennsylvania Archives

Footnote.com has the complete Pennsylvania Archives online for free access. The free access is on a permanent basis.

The Pennsylvania Archives were originally published as a 10 series of historical records in 135 volumes, more than 100,000 pages, covering the initial colonial settlement through the Civil War. The series contains essential records including military, tax, marriage, and land records, as well as documents from American history covering the Revolutionary War and the Whiskey Rebellion. It is great to have these archives online.

The Pennsylvania Archives show four important historical times:

• Early Pennsylvania settlements, from 1664 to 1780.
• The Revolutionary War (1775–1789).
• The Whiskey Rebellion (1794).
• More Pennsylvania history, through 1880.

If you have Pennsylvania ancestors, especially early Pennsylvania ancestors, it is worthwhile to check these out.

It is difficult to browse the archives since they are only listed as Series 1, Series 2, Volume I, and Volume II, etc. But you can search just within the Pennsylvania Archives.

Footnote.com has some other databases that are always free. You can read about them at Footnote Always Free Databases.

Family Tree Maker 2008 Beta WebSearch

NOTE: Family Tree Maker 2008 has been released and is no longer in beta or available for download.

**The Genealogy software program Family Tree Maker 2008 is available at The Ancestry Store and is constantly being updated and improved. **


A new version of the Family Tree Maker 2008 Public Beta was released on July 25th at Family Tree Maker 2008 BETA. If you have a fast Internet connection, you may want to download the newest beta, give it a test run, and then send your opinions to the email address listed at Family Tree Maker 2008 BETA. This is the genealogy community's chance to let the Family TreeMaker people know your thoughts and suggestions upfront. (Hint: if you have previously downloaded the beta, delete the old beta before downloading the new version) .

FTM has had a complete program rebuild from the ground up. If you have been using FTM for a long while as I have (about 12 years), you will see that the FTM 2008 interface looks completely different. I believe that with version 2008 they are building a strong foundation for the next generation of FTM. Because it is a new program, and not just an add-on upgrade to the old version, some things are done differently than before, so you might consider downloading the beta to check it out.

I've been using the Beta quite a bit and have given my My First Thoughts about FTM 2008 and extensive details about my Additional FTM 2008 Thoughts after using the program for a week.

I like the new FTM 2008. It has many new features, and I find it is easier to use than the previous versions. Now when I go back to FTM16, it seems a bit old-fashioned and clunky-looking in comparison. I especially like the new screens of FTM 2008 which make it easier to see everything in one glance. The index is always in view. The family view now combines the family tree and family group. I like the combined views because it is a time saver not to be constantly clicking back and forth from one screen to another. And it makes it makes it much easier to see everything that I have for a person in my tree with one glance.

One feature of the new FTM 2008 I have been playing with this week is the WebSearch. FTM2008 WebSearch is not focused just on Ancestry.com records. The new webclipper enables the user to incorporate information from any web source into your tree. This FTM2008 WebSearch searches Ancestry.com, RootsWeb.com, Genealogy.com as well as Google, Yahoo, MSN and any website you would like to add to your Personal Favorite Sites. I added FamilySearch.org and a few other websites that I access all the time. Adding my favorite websites to the program reminds me to check each of these websites for each person in my tree.


FTM 2008 WebSearch is much more than just an Internet search. The WebSearch actually integrates results into your file - you can merge any data found on any Internet site into your tree with no retyping and, in addition, archive a copy of the web page. I'm not talking about merging other trees into my tree but rather merging actual data into my tree. As more and more important datasets become available on the Internet, the more useful this becomes.

Family Tree Maker’s Web Clipping feature is pretty nifty. You gather data and images from the web and merge to your tree. Highlight the text from the web, a menu appears in FTM, select the fact type and the selected text is copied to the Search result detail pane, ready to merge. If you highlight the place name, it is automatically put into the place field in the program. If you highlight the date, it is automatically put into the date field. No retyping and no typos.

You can do the same with images and pictures on the web. As you move the mouse pointer over an image on the web page, a frame appears around the image. Click the image and it is copied to the Search result detail pane, ready to merge.

Here is an example of an image of my grandfather's naturalization Declaration of Intent that is online at a NJ county library site. Using the webclipper, I was able to click on the image and copy it to FTM 2008. The top arrow is pointing to the webclipper feature. The bottom arrow shows the fact that was automatically added when I highlighted the date that was in text on the previous page and selected the Naturalization Fact.







If you find a matching record at Ancestry.com site, you can merge the facts into your tree by clicking the Merge button. Along with the facts, FTM 2008 links source information to each fact. If the record has an associated image, such as a census image, it is linked to the source and merged into the Media Collection. Data and sourcing is merged into your tree with no retyping of data.

I like FTM2008 but everyone has different needs and wants in a genealogy program . People have different sized family tree files and different computer configurations. People may use different features than I do. For example, I didn't try the merge feature of FTM 2008 since that is something I never use, but if it is important to you, consider downloading the beta to see if it works for you the way you want.

I think it is great that the FTM 2008 beta has been made available for the public to try before they buy. Because this program is different from previous versions, give yourself time to give the program a good workout to see how things function.


Family Tree Maker 2008

Searching the Footnote.com Web Site

Fold3 (formerly Footnote.com) is a relatively new commercial genealogy site where you can download original documents from NARA. I have talked about how I found at Footnote, to my complete surprise, the case files that show my grandfather had been investigated by Bureau of Investigation during the anti-German hysteria of World War I.

Footnote has a really slick graphical interface, but the site is a bit hampered by its basic search box.

The search at Footnote is much like the Google search box where all the terms are entered into one search box. It doesn't have a separate box for name, state and other fields as we are used to seeing at other sites. The problem is that is you are searching for someone whose last name is Thomas, you will also get results for someone whose first name is Thomas, or for someone who lives in Thomas County, Georgia.

I understand a better search is being written and should be available soon. So, what to do while waiting for the Footnote Search Gurus to complete a better search box? We can use some search techniques which can give somewhat better results.

The basic search on Footnote looks for records that include all the terms you put in the search box. To improve your search results at Footnote, try these techniques.

• Name Search - add an AND between names. This indicate that both words that must be in the result, but not in a particular order, otherwise the Footnote search assumes you mean OR. The AND must be in caps.
  
  

  john powers - 1,530,643 results (either john or powers must appear on the page)
  john AND powers - 4,818 results for (john and powers must both appear on page
  
  

• Name Search with Location - add an AND between names and location
  
  

  john powers pennsylvania - 1,969,630 results (either john or powers or pennsylvania must appear on the page)
  john AND powers AND pennsylvania - 1,589 results (john and powers and pennsylvania must both appear on page

• County Search - put the county name in quotes. Do not use quotes around first and last name as they are often in different fields in the index.
  
  

  "Thomas County"
  
  

• Single Letter Wild Card - Use one or more question marks ? in place of one letter to search for surname variations.
  
  
  • Sorens?n = Sorenson, Sorensen
  • John??n = Johnson, Johngen, Johnosn
• Multiple Letter Wild Card - Use an asterisk * in place of one or more letters to search for surname variations.
  
  
  • Johns*n = Johnson, Johnsen, Johnston, Johnsston
  
  
• Search Within a Specific Title - Limit your search to a specific database:
• The Original Documents page or on the search results page you will find a blue search box that includes a pull-down menu for selecting the title you would like to search within.
• The Browse screen, browse to the title (or subsection of a title) you're interested in and then use the brown "Search within" box at the bottom of the page to search. You can also use the advanced search controls described above when searching within a title or part of a title.

When you search, you will see your search terms highlighted in yellow in the search results. I was a little perplexed to see some results WITHOUT any highlighting, but when I took a closer look at the record, I saw that the result had a soundex spelling for the surname I entered. Officially, Footnote says that it does not do a soundex search, but to me it looks like it does. However, I see no way to turn off the soundex search if you should choose to. Even if you are not a subscriber, you might want to take a look at Footnote. Search results show a thumbnail size of the image for free and in many cases, this is quite readable. The free search results also provide image information such as name and year. Footnote also has free databases such as the Pennsylvania Archives. If you find something you want to investigate further, Start Your Free Trial with Footnote.com .