We’ve Surpassed 8 Billion Records on SuperSearch!

How big is the number 8 billion? 8 billion seconds is 2,222,222 hours, 92,592 days, or 253 years. According to recent surveys, the world population will hit 8 billion people in 6 years time, Americans check their phones 8 billion times per day, and across the United States, drivers were stuck in traffic for 8 billion hours in 2015. It’s also the number of historical records that we now have on MyHeritage SuperSearch™!

Search our 8 billion records now

Historical records are invaluable for family history research. They are vital for making new family connections and uncovering information about ancestors. We’re thrilled to have surpassed 8 billion historical records. It is a very important milestone, and we look forward to reaching more milestones in the months and years to come as we continue to add millions of new records to SuperSearch every single day. We are constantly working hard to add more global content and to make researching your family history easier and more accessible than ever before.

In May we introduced our Collection Catalog, a new section on our website listing the historical record collections indexed and available on SuperSearch. The catalog is useful for beginners as well as professional users, as it details the number of records each collection contains, which collections are new, and the date in which each collection was added or last updated. It is a gateway to our vast historical treasure trove of 8 billion records.

How we count records

Each collection of historical records in SuperSearch includes a precise record count. In structured collections, such as census records, birth, and marriage records, each individual name is counted as one record. For example, a marriage document naming both the bride and groom is counted as two records. Nicknames or aliases are not counted as additional records. In family trees, each tree profile is counted as one record, even when it is available in more than one language. Each photo is counted as one record. In unstructured collections, such as newspapers or yearbooks, each page is counted as one record.

Our Record Technologies

Our sophisticated Record Matching technology compares family tree profiles on MyHeritage to all historical records on SuperSearch to find matches with high accuracy, and bring them directly to you. You’ll receive notifications whenever our system automatically finds records that match people in your family tree.

When viewing records on MyHeritage, our Record Detective™ technology will suggest additional records relevant to the person whose record you are currently viewing. This makes each record on MyHeritage open the door to many more records and family tree profiles relating to the same person. These records may come from totally different collection types, and they may originate from another part of the world you didn’t expect. The technology helps you by saving you time and revealing new information you may never have found on your own.

Our Global Name Translation™ technology automatically translates names found in historical records and family trees from one language into another, at very high accuracy, generating all plausible translations. In a manual search on MyHeritage SuperSearch, you will receive results in other languages, automatically translated into the language of the query.

SuperSearch™ Alerts are notifications that let you know when new results are available for your previous searches on SuperSearch, that did not exist when you conducted the searches. Instead of having to come back to repeat the same searches manually, to check if the content you are looking for was recently added, you don’t need to do a thing — we do all the work for you.

We have developed unique Newspaper Matching technology, applying semantic analysis to free text articles in historical newspapers. We then automatically find matches between the information gathered from the articles and family trees. This technology is one of a kind and is exclusive to MyHeritage.

Our Book Matching technology automatically researches individuals found in family trees in our vast collection of digitized historical books. Unique to MyHeritage, the innovative new technology uses semantic analysis to understand every sentence in every page in the digitized books, in order to find matches with very high accuracy.

Viewing results from some data collections are free (e.g., Billion Graves, Compilation of Published Sources, Social Security Death Index, etc.), but viewing most records requires a Data subscription. A Data subscription is also required to enjoy full access to Record Matches.

Spotlight on our recently added collections

In the past few weeks alone, we have added and updated the following collections on SuperSearch which helped us move past the 8 billion mark.

United Kingdom, Select Burial and Cremation Index, 1840-2014 – This new Collection is a compilation of over 8 million burial, cremation, grave, and memorial records from various cemeteries and crematories from throughout the United Kingdom. Records include the names of deceased, event dates (burial or cremation date), record types (burial or cremation), and event locations.

In this collection, we were able to find a Burial and Cremation Index for Emmeline Pankhurst including her date and place of burial. Emmeline was a British political activist and leader of the British suffragette movement. She was instrumental in winning the right for British women to vote.

1906 Canada Census of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba – The 1906 census started on June 24, 1906, and was the first regularly scheduled census of the Prairie Provinces. The same census was thereafter conducted every 10 years until 1956. The purpose of this special census was to measure the high population growth occurring in this part of the country during the first half of the 20th century. From 1867 to 1914, the Canadian West opened for mass settlement and became home to millions of immigrant settlers seeking greater economic opportunity and improved quality of life.

The census enumerated over 800,000 people, each record including information about name, gender, relationship to head of household, marital status, age, birthplace, and immigration year. The immigration boom during this time marks one of the most important periods of population growth for Canada. This time period also had a huge impact on the development of the Prairies and permanently shaped Canada’s society, economy, and culture.

England & Wales, Birth Index, 1837-2005 – We added additional records from the years 1837-1865 and 1921-1983, adding 110,798,189 new records. The collection now totals 208,384,589 searchable records.

In this collection, we located John Lennon’s birth index! Born on October 9, 1940, John Winston Lennon went on to star in the most influential band in the history of popular music.

 

England & Wales, Death Index, 1837-2005 – We added additional records from the years 1837-1865 and 1921-1983, adding 45,107,020 new records. The collection now includes 87,011,478 searchable records.

England & Wales, Marriage Index, 1837-2005 – We added additional records from the years 1837-1865 and 1921-1983.

Israel Genealogy Research Association – IGRA – We updated this collection, adding over 300,000 new records.

Historical records add character and personality to your family research and can help unravel mysteries in your family history.

We’re always adding new data to SuperSearch, with at least 3.3 million historical records and family tree profiles added each day. Even if you don’t find what you’re looking for on SuperSearch right now, chances are we’ll have it for you very soon.

New discoveries await you — Search our 8 billion historical records today!