Entering a query into Million Short is the same as entering a query into a Google search engine or the Genealogy Search Engine. You simply enter ancestral queries as described in our various search articles devoted to genealogy, such as A Guide to Performing Online Genealogy Searches (see the complete list under Genealogy Articles).
The difference with Million Short is that it provides a drop-down list to the right of the search box. This gives you the option of removing the top 1 million, top 100k, top 10k, top 1000, or even just the top 100 websites.
Our benchmark tests indicate Million Short provides decent results for genealogy. The search engine worked well in general when looking for ancestral records.
Where Million Short really starts to shine, however, is when looking for relatives and other living people. It is very strong (better than Google) when you know you are looking for someone who is not on Facebook or LinkedIn, which is often the case when searching for an older relative.
A search for living relatives on Google (or any of the other mainstream search engine) tends to bring back too many search results from Facebook, LinkedIn and other popular social media websites. Million Short, however, with the removal of the top million websites will bring forward results from more obscure websites. This is much more likely to result in a successful search for a living person who has a small footprint on the internet.
Here is the link to the Million Short search engine.
Below is a short video that helps describe how Million Short works.
Now genealogists have three distinct ways to search for their ancestors:
- Google for general searches.
- The Genealogy Search Engine for dedicated ancestral records.
- Million Short for living relatives.
All three search engines provide different aspect to searching for ancestors and living relatives. All of them complement each other. We suggest you use all three. Happy searching!
Related Resources
If you want to strengthen your online genealogy search skills, here are some articles to help get you started:
A Guide to Performing Online Genealogy Searches
Hot Tips on How to Use Google for Genealogy Searches
Ten Innovations in Online Genealogy Searches
