When searching for matches, I usually restrict dates to +/- 2 years. I ALWAYS exclude allowing for century typos. I believe the individual records for birth are separated from death in all cases, so the program should be able to distinguish between people born in 1870 from those who died in 1870. On many searches, I seem to be getting a lot suggested matches of people born a century or more after my relative died.
Once this is working, I would love to see some way to restrict the LOCATION searched. When I search on a relative who was born, lived, and died in Texas, I may get two matches from Lancashire, one from Wales, one from Maine, and one from Alabama (and none from Texas).