Alan E. Mann, A.G.
alan@alanmann.com Accredited
Genealogist
www.alanmann.com/articles/name.htm 2
Aug 2002
BYU Family History & Genealogy Conference 2002
Name Indexes on the Internet
More information than you could ever read is available on
Internet. The problem is how to find it and weed out the part you really need.
There is no catalog, and no master index. There are three basic ways to locate
useful information on the Internet:
1.
Experience,
intuition or luck leads you to stumble across it.
2.
You ask someone
who knows where it is, and they tell you.
3.
You use search
engines to find it.
These are probably listed in same order as they are most
commonly used. I can’t teach the first method, but we can talk about two and
three. Method 2 often involves talking
to a friend, relative, co-worker, or learning from a lecture or article. You
are also using method 2 when you use a web page to help you find the
information—the author of the web page is the person whom you are asking, and
that author’s web page tells you (hopefully). There are many web pages that use
names to help you locate information.
While there are surname sites (web pages devoted to a family
or surname), the basic approach to finding data by surname is to use an index.
There are many indexes to names in genealogies on the Internet. I will briefly
cover many of the major ones that I have been able to locate.
FamilySearch
Internet
• by the Church or Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS web
site)
• Understand IGI name standardization
• Note that web site search is much improved
• A billion names (Ancestral File, IGI, Pedigree Resource
File, Vital Records, etc.)
• for more information, come to my Thursday evening class
• located at www.familysearch.org
Internet
Family Finder
•
by
FamilyTreeMaker (Brøderbund, Learning Tree, or Genealogy.com)
•
actually
a search engine, whose results are stored as an index
• indexes hundreds of thousands of web sites, including
Genealogy.com’s own site
•
located at www.genealogy.com/ifftop.html
RootsWeb
Surname List
•
by
Karen Isaacson and others
•
probably
not a “surname catalog”, but included here anyway
•
a
research coordination list; tells who else is researching the same names
•
located
at rsl.rootsweb.com/cgi‑bin/rslsql.cgi
USGenWeb
Archive search
•
by
USGenWeb (volunteers)
•
Over
100,000 files of extracted or
transcribed records
•
Search
by state at www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/ussearch.htm
• Search all states at once at searches.rootsweb.com/htdig/search.html
Ancestry
Library Search
•
by
Ancestry, Inc.
•
includes
thousands of books & databases (published or extracted, not submitted)
•
includes
indexes to most
•
includes
PERiodical Source Index (PERSI)
•
charges
for full access (free at FHL)
•
combined
search searches all the books, databases, SSDI, and World Tree (but not PERSI!)
located at www.ancestry.com/
GenealogyLibrary Search
•
by
FamilyTreeMaker (or Genealogy.com)
•
includes
thousands of books and databases (published or extracted)
•
promises
to add three new databases a day
•
requires
a monthly fee for access
•
located
at www.genealogylibrary.com/
Gendex
•
by
Gene Stark
•
indexes
web genealogies created using GED2HTML and a few other programs
•
index
included birth & death dates (if given) to help identify
•
located
at www.gendex.com/
FamilyFinder
Index
•
by
FamilyTreeMaker
•
indexes
CD‑ROM data (some on Internet, most require CD)
•
CD
number in URL when you click on “more information”
•
Use
volunteers (http://loricase.com/CDs/cdlist.html)
or FHL to get data from CD
•
index
often name only, sometimes birth or death date range or state or country
•
located
at www.familytreemaker.com/cdhome.html
Library
of Congress Surname catalog
•
by
Library of Congress
•
tells
what's been published, but content is not actually on web
•
located
at catalog.loc.gov/
Mailing
Lists
•
Mailing
lists are communities working together
•
Thousands
of lists are devoted to specific surnames
•
Most
listed by John Fuller & Christine Gaunt (Genealogy Resources on the
Internet)
•
General
surname lists are listed at members.aol.com/gfsjohnf/gen_mail_surnames‑gen.html
•
Surnames
beginning with the letter a are at members.aol.com/gfsjohnf/gen_mail_surnames‑a.html
•
Largest
is ROOTS-L, located at www.rootsweb.com/roots-l.html
Newgroup
Name Archive
•
offered
by Rootsweb
•
indexes
messages posted on public discussion areas
•
several
groups in several indexes; pick the ones that apply (soc.genealogy.surname is
for everyone)
•
archive
covers years of messages; search one
year at a time
Guild
of One Name Studies (GOONS)
•
by
the organization (volunteers)
•
Members
have agreed to do a study that involves extracting all occurrences of a surname
•
Alphabetical
list of all the surnames registered, with links to name & email of member
•
located
at www.one-name.org/
Other
• www.archvies.com (go to NAIL)
•
www.everton.com
•
www.gensource.com
Search many at once with a Meta-search
SuperSearch
(12-15 databases at once--note limits) www.familytreemagazine.com/search/
MultiGen
(multiple searches in separate windows…) located at
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/CACulman/MultiGen.htm
For names in various geographical
databases and other sites of more specific nature, please look at lists of
database sites at:
•
Many sources are available for
regional or specific state research, such as the Bureau of Land Management, 30
states, located at www.glorecords.blm.gov/).
•
I Dream of Genealogy (www.idreamof.com/database.html).
•
www.bc1.com/users/sgl/
•
www.familysearch.org/Browse, and
•
www.CyndisList.com/database.htm.
To find sites devoted to a
particular surname, you can also use a categorized list, such as:
•
Cyndi Howell’s List of Web Sites (www.Cyndislist.com/surnames.htm),
•
Genealogy SiteFinder (www.genealogy.com/genealogy/links/index.html),
or
•
Surname Springboard (www.geocities.com/Heartland/2154/springin.htm).
An interesting list of indexes with
links is the All-In-One Genealogists Index at www.geocities.com/Heartland/Acres/8310/gensearcher.html.
I have a sampling of some
specific, useful indexes listed at www.geocities.com/Heartland/6266/indexes.htm.
New sites are added regularly.
Another way to apply
surname strategy is to use general search engines, or search tools that are not
limited to genealogical sites. While these often return information that is not
useful to family history research, some of the web pages they locate do not
seem to be indexed by the genealogical search tools available. Search engines
work well for unusual names, however. Popular search engines include www.google.com, www.altavista.com, and www.excite.com. There are thousands more. For
information on using non-genealogical search engines for genealogical searches,
see www.geocities.com/familyhistory.geo/howto3.htm.
Find your way by
trying out the resources listed here. Spend a few hours experimenting and you
will enhance and enrich your future Internet use. You’ll shorten the time to
find anything, and you’ll amaze yourself with how much is available. Soon
people will be coming to you, the Internet expert.
For a demo of
thirteen popular web sites, see www.geocities.com/q6266/.
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©Copyright 1997-2002
by Alan E. Mann. All rights reserved. Written permission to reproduce all or part
of this syllabus material in any format,
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