FamilySearch Family Tree - Fan Chart View
Suggestion: You have the option to View by Birth County in the Family Tree, Fan Chart View, which is useful... How about the option to View by Death Country? This could be a valuable tool that could lead to death records and then soon to birth records, and soon a full rounded out record on a person and his family. I have played with this idea many times and found hints would pop up that lead me to more information and then onto Temple Ordinance Work. Please consider adding by Death Country option to the Fan Chart View. I believe many doors will open as a result. It has for me.
Example: The FamilySearch search engine is searching (or not) for John Doe who is deceased – no death place is listed, not even a continent. The search engine can't find anything because there is nothing in the field. However, if Joe Doe is born in the United States, his spouse and family born and died in the United States, the likelyhood that John Doe died in the United States is high. I will place United States in the death place field and then state “United States is a guesstimate based on family member location; to assist the hinting function”. Usually within seconds (sometimes a day or so) hints will pop up – hints that provide me with death information and/or marriage information; and sometimes, hints that involve spouse and/or children. I have found not only all of his information, but more on his spouse and children, to include learning the maiden name of the spouse. And yes, I have seen the limbs of my tree grow, because now I have John Doe's parent names.
Case in Point: William John Truesdell (M7P6-5MJ) – I had birth date and place, but no death date or place. After entering United States as a guesstimated death place, 10 hints popped in, one of which was the Veteran Administration Master Index that confirmed his birth date – AND, provided his death date.
With the death date now in hand, I hopped over to Findagrave.com and found a memorial page with his birth and death information; to include, burial location.
The Findagrave.com memorial page also lead me to more information on his wife Sadie.
All this and then some because I added at a minimum, a continent for a death location.
What hints came my way: Vet Admin Master Index; New York, New York City, Marriage Record; New York, New York, Municipal Death record for his son William John Truesdell [Jr]; WWI Draft Card; WWII Draft Card; 1905 New York State Census; 1900 and 1920 U.S. Fed. Censuses. Because I added death date, two hints removed themselves, however, now a hint for Findagrave.com popped in.
AND, by the way, this marriage Index provided me with the names of William's wife Sadie (M7P6-59Q) Moylan's parents as: Gerald Moylan and Sarah Stanley (GZN5-JVX) – information I did not have a moment ago. :-) And since writing this, much more information and another line has come my way. Now I have much more to do than I had when I started.
Please consider adding by 'Death Country' to the Fan Chart View in the 'Family Tree' section of FamilySearch.
