Google

Google Searching

Remember the basics:

Case doesn’t matter when searching Google – you don’t have to capitalize unless you want to.

Google's default is an "AND" search meaning it will look for all the terms in the search box

Google uses STEMMING which means search results for jump will also include jumped, jumping, jumps, died, dies

EXACT PHRASES

Use quotes for exact phrases “Thomas Allen Moore” If you don't Google will return pages that have those three words on them but are not necessarily connected.

A WILDCARD IS OFTEN USEFUL FOR NAME SEARCHING

"Richard Covington" looks for that phrase while "Richard * Covington" will pick up Richard Burnett Covington or Richard B. Covington

WEED OUT RESULTS YOU DON’T WANT

Use the minus sign “Joshua Landers –Connecticut tells Google you want to find men named Joshua Landers but screen out the ones in Connecticut because they are not who you are after

ASK GOOGLE TO FIND SIMILAR WORDS

By using the tilde ~ (up in the top left corner of your keyboard” the tilde retrieves words that are synonyms. Kenworthy ~genealogy will pull genealogy, genealogist, ancestry, lineage, family history, descent, pedigree, etc.

GIVE GOOGLE OPTIONS

By using the or connector - Quaker Sanders ~genealogy “North Carolina” or Georgia

It is also very helpful for spelling variations: Herrol or Herrold or Harrold and Stokes "North Carolina

or "Joshua Carman" and Kentucky or Baptist or "Coxes Creek"

TELL GOOGLE THE TIME PERIOD YOU WANT

By doing this "John Carey" “Bucks County” Pennsylvania 1700…1820

GOOGLE IMAGES

For many searches also toggle to the Google IMAGES view (on the Google search screen) to visually see documents or pictures that were retrieved. Click on search tools and choose under color “black and white” to bring documents and old photos to the top of the group.

Also search with terms like Brant Ontario ~history to see great early pictures of the place your family lived

Google Picture Search

You find a picture of someone of interest in your research

example: the Compton Family Research at http://www.oregonpioneers.com/1853.htm shows a picture of the Compton family

Click on the picture

Right Click and choose properties – copy the Address (URL)

Go to the Google images search – click the camera in the searchbox

paste that url and see what comes up.

Build good searches by mixing and matching terms

Domain Searching in Google

The domain is the identifier of any website. It is the address you see when you are on the home page. By using the domain name Google does an intensive search of that particular site helping you find material you might otherwise miss.

The domain can be found right after the first slashes in the website address and stops before the next slash

Example – if you are at the Library of Virginia looking at their digital index collection the address will read http://www.lva.virginia.gov/siteIndex.asp

the domain is http://www.lva.virginia.gov . Most domains usually end with .com or .org or .net

Use a Domain Search if:

The site is very large and you are afraid you are missing important resources

The site is not intuitive and you can’t tell what they have

You know the site once had specific information but they have moved it and you can’t find it.

To do this type:

site:http:// followed by the domain followed by your search terms.

make certain that there is no space between the colon and http or it won’t work right.

example:

site:http: www.lva.virginia.gov military

site:http: www.lva.virginia.gov “Prince William County”

The search retrieves 2 types of items

1. Everything at the Library of Virginia that fits your search

2. after those it shows Items that fit your search out on the web where the Library of Virginia has been cited

You may also try a people search site: http: www.lva.virginia.gov “John Carey”

but be aware that many of the major sites have databases that must be searched individually. If John Carey is in the Land Patent database he will not come up because you must search the patent database to find him. It is still worth a try because sometimes an ancestor will be in some kind of resource that does come up with this search.

COUNTY RECORDS

Domain Searching can also help you determine if a county courthouse site has any genealogical material online

Good search terms for county websites might be

indexes / indices

search records

Maps (many are now putting on original plat maps)

Marriages

“Land records” / Deeds / Patents

“court records”