I have been playing with the websearch on Family Tree Maker 2008. The websearch is best used for locating new clues or easily capturing things you have already located. I NEVER automatically upload a "hit" from the websearch. The image should always be viewed if available and the information analyzed to determine if the correct person has been located.
That said, I am still playing with just a few of my ancestral families to see the matches FTM 2008 gives me. One was potentially helpful.
I had forgotten (or maybe never even knew in the first place) that my Grandma Neill's brother had lived in Keokuk, Iowa, during the 1920s. FTM2008 pulled up the reference to Elmer Trautvetter in the 1925 census, which I had not thought to search for myself.
The 1925 Iowa State Census provides places of birth for the parents, their ages, and their place of marriage. Grandma's mother (Ida Sargent) is one of my brick walls and this was another location to potentially obtain a clue as to her origins. Interestingly enough, the listing shows her mother as "Ida Sargen." I'm still pretty certain her maiden name was Sargent; however, this provides me with a potential clue as to how the family pronounced her name and an additional spelling variant. Her age is off by almost ten years as well.
