Saturday, February 4, 2012

Mocavo vs. Google: Round #3

New Castle Public Library's Marriage/Obituary Database
Welcome to Round #3, the final round, of the free genealogy search engine challenge, where we've seen newcomer Francisco Mocavo take a beating from long-time favorite Elmer Google. In this round, each contender will be asked to locate the 1942 marriage announcement record for Lt. Carroll Smithson and Elizabeth Czar in the New Castle Public Library's Marriage/Obituary Database.

The fighters step into the ring, touch gloves and await the ring of the bell. Francisco is moving a bit slower than in the previous rounds, and Elmer looks calm and confident. This time, Elmer Google throws the first punch, just missing Francisco, with some close matches on the search for "Carroll Smithson marriage 1942." Francisco swings back, and misses with listings for Carroll County outranking any with the first name "Carroll."

Elmer quickly throws a second punch, this time landing with a four position result on the search "Smithson Czar 1942 marriage." Francisco Mocavo unsuccessfully counters with a list of results mostly from online books from the Archive.org project.

Both fighters realize the end of the round is approaching and there's just one last chance to aim for a knockout... Elmer takes a swing with "Smithson, Lt. Carroll and Czar, Elizabeth marriage," landing a direct hit and a number one position in the search results. Francisco is visibly shaken, and seems to have run out of energy. The same search yields 25 matches, but since the search engine only allows you to see the first page of results without registering, the referee cannot tell if the search engine was even able to find a close match.

And there goes the final bell ring, signalling the end of Round #3. The crowd is going wild, and Ricky Ancestry, who loves to show off, steps into the ring... entering Carroll + Smithson + marriage event + 1942 yields our intended record in the number one position. Yes, that's right, Ancestry indexes free records as well, all clearly labelled with "Web:" in the title.

The referee returns to the center of the ring with the judges' scorecards and declares Elmer Google as the winner of Round #3. That makes the overall challenge winner Google in a 3-0 victory over Mocavo.

Stay tuned for our post-match analysis.

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