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Computers & Genealogy - Article #12
This month I was confronted with a quandary new to me. Until now, my searches on the Internet have been both pleasing and informative and I have been able to recommend, without reservation, almost every resource I have discovered. This month I had to decide what to do when I run across a resource with significant flaws (in my opinion, at least); should I cover the resource, explaining both its positive and negative aspects or should I cover only those which I think are outstanding??
I decided, for the time being, to cover some of those that I think are flawed, when I think that you may a) find them interesting anyway or b) when I think there's a good chance that you'll run across them in your own searches. That way you'll know what to expect when you do find them. If you, my dear readers, feel one way or the other about this approach, I urge you to e-mail me about it. I am ultimately responsible for making the decision, but I like to know what my readers are thinking and sincerely desire to give my readers what they want.
Last month we covered the Ancestry database library. This month, we'll move on to cover some others, the first of which is the Everton Publishing Site, which you can find at:
This site is published, on the web, by the same folks who bring you Everton's Genealogical Helper. Personally, I have found the magazine to be both informative and helpful; unfortunately, I was unable to give their web site the same high marks.
The site opens to a main page which shows you subscription and other information about Everton's Genealogical Helper. In addition, the site purports to offer the casual visitor a "Family Surname Search", "Social Security Death Index Search", "PhotoFind Search" and a catalog of CD-ROM's database. Sadly, this site disappoints on almost every one of these features, for none of them are really free.
I tried all four of these search utilities. The "Family Surname Search" utility, for example, revealed the names of persons whose names matched my criteria, but to get any information other than the name, you have to join as a trial member for $9.95 per week. For that week, you have access to only 4 of the resources available at the site. If you wish to become a permanent member, the fee is $49.50 per year.
The rest of the utilities were similarly disappointing; the Social Security Death Index gave only the names of possible matches; to get more information, you need to subscribe.
The "PhotoFind Search" showed intriguing potential. Apparently, Mr. Everton has been collecting photos, which he has purchased at garage sales, flea markets, etc., during 32 years of travels around the country and abroad. He has indexed them by surname, full name, county and state. You can search for photo's using any or all of these criteria. You can also purchase reproductions of any photos you find that are of interest to you.
Some of their other features are even worse. As an example, to submit a query to the Helper magazine, you must pay $0.35 per word. And if you want to submit ancestor information to the "Root Cellar" section (which is then placed in the magazine and on the online database) costs $5.50 per person. I thought this last item particularly ironic, since once you have paid $5.50 to add the name of your ancestor, it becomes an addition to the database and thus another incentive for others to subscribe - at $49.50 per year.
In short, this site does not provide anything that you can't find elsewhere; readers of this column have already been directed to places which supply all of this and much more absolutely free of charge. Everton might have had an excellent strategy if they, like other commercial sites, gave the visitor unrestricted access to at least some of the resources available on their site, relying on that goodwill to draw in interested new subscribers. The Ancestry site in last month's column, for example, makes dozens of its databases available to visitors absolutely free of charge. Everton, on the other hand, by giving the user only highly-restricted peeks at the resources it has to offer, seems to be more interested in getting money from its visitors than in providing information and services.
I might also add that the Ancestry Database Library that we reviewed last month contains many, many more resources than the Everton site and costs only $59.95 per year - only $10.00 per year more than Everton's.
As you might expect, one of the most serious impediments to creating an accurate genealogy occurs with adoptees. Adoptees may never have been told the names of their birth parents and may know little or nothing about the locality of their birth, parentage, or other information. Indeed, historically, many adoptions have occurred through the Catholic church, which made a policy of withholding such information from the adoptees and, often, from the natural parents.
BirthQuest is an interactive database of information for searching adoptees, birth parents, adoptive parents and siblings. Adoptees, birth parents, adoptive parents and siblings from all over the world can sign on to this database for the purpose of searching for connections to birth relatives.
BirthQuest started out as as the volunteer effort of one man, but met with an overwhelming level of interest from adoptees and birth relatives. At this time, the BirthQuest site is visited by 6,000 to 8000 people per day who are looking for their birth relatives. There are many, many thousands of registered adoptees, birth parents, adoptive parents and siblings already registered on the BirthQuest site and hundreds more register every day. Adoptions from 1900 to the present have been registered on the BirthQuest site.
You can find the BirthQuest site at:
When you access the site, you will be given the opportunity to search for adoptees, birth parents, adoptive parents and siblings at no cost. The site is simply and strictly for the use of adoptees, birth parents, adoptive parents and siblings and should NOT be used by others as it constitutes an invasion of the privacy of these individuals.
To register, you fill out an online form. As I mentioned earlier, BirthQuest was started by one man for the purpose of facilitating the reconnection of birth relatives. The response was so overwhelming that it has become a full-time and expensive undertaking. Because of this, the site recently began requiring a $20.00 fee for registration (though it can be searched at no cost). The site facilitates an average of over 200 actual reunions per year and is visited by 6,000 to 8,000 people per day, so I would think this fee a very modest one for the services that BirthQuest provides.
When your registration is placed online, anyone that feels that your registration matches their criteria, will most probably contact you via email or call you to say that you may be a lost family member. Every member of BirthQuest must search the database for themselves. This is the purpose of BirthQuest, to register and search amongst yourselves.
The GenDex database is an index of thousands and thousands of other databases and web sites. You can search all of these databases and sites from the GenDex site. The site contains information on almost 7,500,000 individuals all over the world. You can find the GenDex site at:
Searching the GenDex site is simplicity itself. Upon pressing the "Access the Index" button, you will be presented with the option of searching the surname index, the site index or a form allowing you to add your site to the collection of sites in the GenDex database.
Choosing to search the surname index will bring up a form that allows you to enter surname and search for it in the database. You can also enter the surname in the "Surname Soundex" field, which will search for that surname and any Soundex equivalents it can find. Then press the "Submit" button.
Soon, a list of the surnames you requested will appear. You will notice that each name in the list is a link; pressing that link will take you to the site containing that name, no matter where, on the web, it is. From there you can further search the family containing that individual or you can return to the GenDex site to search for further individuals.
The GenServ database is even larger than the GenDex database, continuing over 9,370,000 names from thousands and thousands of submitters worldwide. GenServ is truly a sharing effort. To become a member, you must send them a GEDCOM file to be included in the GenServ database. Submitting a GEDCOM file entitles you to two months' membership free. To obtain the name & address of a submitter, you must be a supporting member of GenServ, which costs a very modest $12.00 per year.
Upon becoming a member, you are issued a user ID, which means that they give you your own password into the members-only potion of the GenServ database. When you enter the database, you are asked for this password. Once having entered it, you are allowed unrestricted access to the entire database.
The database is well-thought out and organized and contains an enormous amount of information. As with the GenDex site, the search can be very simple, though the GenServ database allows you to be very specific in your search criteria, allowing you to specify the first and last name, the birthdate and deathdate (including "before" and "after" dates, so that you can specify "before 10 Oct 1887", for example) and you can search for entries made after any date (which means that when you come back to search again, you can choose to search only those names that have been added since your last search).
You can also specify what information you want displayed by the database in response to your query. You can have the database display any or all of the following: Name, Person #, Spouse's Name, Soundex Code, Birthdate, Death Date, Database Name, Sex, Parents Names (if included), the Number of Generations, the Number of Children, Birthplace, Deathplace, and Date of Last Update.
The GenServ database also includes a number of other useful resources such as Genealogy Links, Gen-Software (both free and cost-based), General Info, Volunteers, Magazine Info, Getting Started, Pedigree Databases and more.
You'll find the GenSev site at:
Well, that's about it for this month. Next month, I will attempt to cover such databases as: "GeneaNet Genealogical Database Network", a database indexing surnames from before 1850, along with corresponding contact information - online or offline. In addition, we'll cover such resources as the Military Records and Archives databases (I found over 20 of them, covering every American war and conflict), as well as some of the hundreds of other databases which contain information about specific localities, surnames and other topics of interest.
Until then, take care. Be sure and visit these sites and let me know about your experiences there. In the meantime, Good Hunting to all!!!
This month, we'll continue our perusal of genealogical databases available on the Internet. Before we start, however, please let me respectfully apologize to you, my faithful readers, for my failure to get last month's column in before the deadline for publication. I had been out of town for the better part of a month, on my first genealogical road-trip, uncovering information and artifacts relating to my ancestry, and was busy enough catching up, on my return, that I couldn't quite squeeze the article in. For that, I offer my sincere apologies.
But, as with the other search utilities, your search is confined to about 20% of the database - unless you become a member.
BirthQuest
The GenDex Database
GenServ
© 1998 by Byron C. Bray. This, and all "Computers and Genealogy" articles, are copyright Byron C. Bray and may be copied for personal use but may NOT be otherwise reprinted or reproduced in any form without the prior written permission of the author.