Comparison of familysearch/ancestry/findmypast indexes

pinkypinky

I've renewed my FMP subscription this morning and have been playing around with data on both it and familysearch to compare. I don't have a current Ancestry sub but the last time I checked, for marriages, it showed you the names of the other 7 people on the page but not definitely who was married to whom.

I've searched the same names on both other sites with marriages where I know both parties' full names. FMP gives you the name of the spouse in the index but also confusingly gives a "second spouse". In one particular search, I know for certain the person did not marry a second time so I would guess the second name is that of the other opposite gender person on the same page in the registration book.

For further evidence, I searched out another couple and this time, I got a man as the first spouse, and 4 other people listed, one of whom is the person's wife.

So this is potentially quite confusing if you are searching with incomplete information.

shanew

The Marriage search on Ancestry Index gives all names on the same page - male and female. The FMP version seems to have a gender filter, but gives the same information - i.e. people of the opposite gender on the same page. The terms FMP use are definitely misleading - the captions should read something like possible bride#1, possible bride #2 etc

The online Index I trust most is the one on FamilySearch - even though the searches in districts with names that overlap with counties can cause problems - e.g Wicklow, Cork, Limerick etc

L1011

FMPs gender filter seemed very poor from the one hour of intensive hammering I gave it on a free trial (which I then cancelled). Particularly with gender neutral names. Could easily lead people down the wrong path, particularly as it implies that someone is *the* spouse.