February 1, 2017
A genealogist called me at home looking for advice on finding an 1824 Connecticut marriage record. She walked me through where she had already searched and asked me where she should look next.
She wanted to know the last name of the “Catharine” who had married Asa French in Trumbull, Connecticut, in April 1824.
I reviewed with her the sources where she had looked and asked if she had tried GenealogyBank.
She had never heard of it.
Now, mind you, this is an experienced genealogist – but she was not familiar with our massive online newspaper collection.
It turns out the exact info she needed was in GenBank – I found it in two minutes while talking with her on the phone, sipping lemonade, relaxing at the computer on a cold and stormy New England evening.
This primary source – the Connecticut Herald – reported their marriage and named both Asa French and Catharine Hawley.
The search was simple: I just typed in “Asa French” and limited the search to the year 1824.
Genealogy Tip:
Searching on GenealogyBank is simple and straightforward.
It uses the “WYTIWYG” (What You Type Is What You Get) approach.
So, don’t overthink your search – like Twitter, brevity is key to success.
“Asa French.”
That’s French – like the toast, the fries and the kiss.
If you just searched on his surname “French,” you would be pulling in a lot of search results – over 23 million search hits!
But – by adding his first name “Asa” and limiting the date range of the search to 1824, it narrows down the possible search results to only 13. Looking at that list, you can quickly spot their marriage notice in the second search result.
It is as simple as that.
GenealogyBank’s mountain of data – over 2.1 billion records – gets results.
Use it!
Tell your friends!
Discover the details of your ancestors’ lives – document them and pass that information down.
