06 August 2013

United States, Public Records Index

Just posted on familysearch.org is the United States, Public Records Index, "an index of names, birthdates, addresses, phone numbers, and possible relatives of people who reside in the United States between 1970 and 2010. These records were generated from telephone directories, driver licenses, property tax assessments, credit applications, voter registration lists and other records available to the public. The collection is now 8% complete."

With 70,822,924 entries it's way behind the International Genealogical Index (IGI) with 892,761,439 legacy entries and slightly behind the United States Social Security Death Index with 93,125,303 entries. That makes it a valuable resource for finding strays and those doing one name studies.

Judging by some of the first names in the collection, Camp, Farms, Realty Corp, Invt, Constructio, and Plaza Comns, the database was compiled automatically. Maybe those entries will be weeded out over time,  given a bit of human intervention.

2 comments:

Paul Jones said...

Why weed out the business names? They could be useful too.

JDR said...

While a business name can indeed be useful where it includes a family name many have a location instead.