My go-to genealogy resource is Ancestry.com. I find the search interface easy to use and I frequently find it helpful when I’m trying to answer a research question. I pretty much ignore the hints and I almost never consult public trees. I’m there for the vast number of documents in their collections.
But I had a couple of experiences while researching this week that reminded me not to overlook Family Search, even when I’ve found a pertinent document at Ancestry. Family Search (the LDS church’s genealogy website) sometimes has better scans or more accurate indexes of the same collections. And they may have expanded collections.
I blogged back in August 2018 in a post called No need to settle for bad scans about how I found a document on Family Search that was poorly scanned at Ancestry. It happened again this week when I was researching the family of my third great grandfather, Henry S. Garlock (1817-1909). The issue was that the main information in the 1885 Iowa census was legible, but the column headers were fuzzy. So I did a Google search looking for an explanation of the column headers. And that led me to a much more clear scan at Family Search.
Here they are side by side (click the photo to see them larger):
The next day, working on this same family, I was examining a document I’d downloaded from Ancestry that was for the 1905 Iowa census. It provided so little information I clicked on “About this collection” on Ancestry and all it said was, “This collection includes census records from Iowa in 1905. You can learn more about this collection at the FamilySearch website.” When I clicked on that link I discovered that the 1905 Iowa Census consisted of individual cards for each person and the page I’d downloaded from Ancestry was simply an index to those cards!
This is the census document I found on Ancestry:
And this is an example of one of the cards. So much more information!
It was nice to have this important reminder to check more than one repository for important information. I hope it helps you!
I frequently check the hints for leads I may not have considered and have several times found family scanned documents that are not in the public archives. I will agree that I do not accept a “hint” without supporting documentation.
Hi Steve, I do the same regarding hints, occasionally I have managed to find information via hints, but I never accept the hint unless I have done the research myself and have supporting evidence.
You’re right–hints are good for hints. But they never seem to correspond with my research at the moment, so I try to resist looking at them and getting off track. But that’s me.
You are so right. Ancestry’s probate images mostly came from FamilySearch, but they don’t include all of FamilySearch’s collection of digitzed microfilm from Pennsylvania’s county courthouses. If you find a volume and page reference on Ancestry, try looking it up in FamilySearch’s catalog system. For many counties, you will find the will, PLUS the probate packet of what were loose papers involved in the estate, including land partition maps, inventories, address lists for remote heirs, statements by heirs, etc. Also, remember that many estates (and probate packets) existed for people who didn’t leave wills.
Many states kept 19th-century vital records at the county level before the state-issued certificates began, and typically Ancestry doesn’t have those. FamilySearch has the digitized microfilm from many of those registers, some indexed and some “browsable.” It’s always worthwhile to look at what’s available for “your” county in the FamilySearch catalog.
Thanks, Marian. Another reason to check Family Search. And thanks for the tip that people who didn’t have wills might have had probate packets!
And if you use the FamilySearch catalog for the locality, you might find many more records that Ancestry does not have! You might have to browse, but often there is an index at the beginning of the set of records.
Lisa, that’s the way I almost always approach searching at Family Search (unless I have a microfilm number that I got at Amazon). I go the locality and look at the collections and often find so many great things! Thanks for your comment.
I have also found myself checking FamilySearch to supplement what I’ve found on Ancestry. Usually for better transcription.
Many of my ancestors were in Ontario Canada. There was a period of time that the vital stats were entered only a single line across two pages of a ledger. Over the years, I have often been disappointed to find that Ancestry only had the left page digitized. Lo and behold, FamilySearch had both sides of the ledger!
You must have been so thrilled to find both sides of the ledger at Family Search! I love those moment.
A good reminder. Like you I use Ancestry as my go to, and also use Family Search. However, I will also recommend Find My Past for anyone doing British research, especially English, I have found children of an ancestor there that hasn’t been on either of the other two databases, and for those doing Scottish Research Scotland’s People is a good resource for the Parish Records in particular.
Thanks for the tip on Find My Past, Missy!
An excellent tip. I really need to make more use of Family Search.
I struggled finding the Aaron family in Florida in the 1940 census. I finally found them under the name Smith. Those were the neighbors. The census taker had written Smith, crossed it out, and written Aaron. I discovered FamilySearch had indexed them correctly under Aaron. It is a good idea to use FamilySearch besides Ancestry.
Great example!
Very good point–and if possible, take a look at My Heritage when an expected record doesn’t show up at Ancestry or Family Search. They all index/transcribe a little differently. I was happy to find something at My Heritage that had been mistranscribed at other sites. TY for some excellent ideas all around.
Thanks!
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Just did a search in the 1905 Iowa Census and found my great grandmother. Attached her to the tree. Thank you for the informative posts.
That’s terrific. I’m so glad the post was helpful!