What makes a good database for GenSmarts:

Data bases that tend to include a high percentage (say at least 33% as a guideline) of people that meet the scope of the database. Obviously the bigger the collection, the better - death records from 1890-1892 for a small city in the western US would fit the "good" criteria, but wouldn't be as interesting to most GenSmarts users as source that'll get more hits on people's data.

What makes a "not so good" database for GenSmarts:

Data bases with wide scope and/or very low percentage coverage. The wide scope means that you'll simly get the same suggestion generated for a large portion of your file... low coverage means that most of the suggestions won't result in anything. This doesn't mean that things that fall into this category aren't worth pursuing, it just means that the current version of GenSmarts isn't the best way to pursue them. We are looking at how these types of things fit in, and hope to address them in the future.

Good examples:

The 1850 Illinois census... if you lived in Illinois in 1850 (the scope of these records), then there's a high probability you'll be there.

US Civil War Records... if you were a young male in 1860, then there's a "worth pursuing" probablity that you were a soldier in the war.

Not as good examples:

Google... hard to determine what the scope or probability would be.

IGI... the scope is very wide and odds of finding any single person/event relatively low

Find-a-Grave... wide open scope - could be everyone and anyone in your file that has died

On 2004-08-19 3:51pm KeoniHI added...

I was wondering about any Geniolagy ( still new here ) records for the Hawaiian People? I am sorry I don't have any particulare date range as I have only been here a little under 30 years my self![?] Also I have no idea on where to start to look either!

John Porter

On 2007-07-10 3:25am Marty Flick 94401 added...

Hello, I'm wondering if, in addition to citing sources for historical data, a website or mail address could be included? For those of us who got this far, but may not otherwise know how to actually get the info?

Thanks! -- Marty

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