Don't you hate it when you search in one of the regular search engines like Google and get 100,000 hits and half of them aren't even close to what you are looking for. By following the instructions on this page you can make your web searches more effective and productive. Be it for a Surname or anything else you want to find.
Instructions:
The secret to an effective search is to use more than one word and to do multiple searches. If the surname you are researching is somewhat unique you can search using the surname, a space, a plus sign + and then the word genealogy. If the surname is more common like Smith, you want to search on the surname and a given name. These should be surrounded by quotes. And don't forget to add the +genealogy without the quote marks. Using one of these should bring the number of hits down to a few hundred. Never look at more than the first 3 pages of hits. You should then start eliminating hits that have nothing to do with what you are searching by doing another search but add in a minus sign - with a word that is found on pages you don't want. For example if I was researching the surname Bova I would search with bova +genealogy. In my example, there is a genealogist Brenda Bova whose name shows up on pages dealing with non-bova lines. She also writes articles on genealogy. I don't want to see these pages since I have already checked out her pages that relate to the Bovas. So I take my original search of bova +genealogy and add -brenda to get the search string bova +genealogy -brenda.
Examples:
| bova +genealogy |
| "john smith" +genealogy |
| "smith john" +genealogy |
| bova +genealogy -brenda |
| smith +jones +genealogy -forum |
Tips:
Never use capital letters. Use the surnames of 2 people who were married to each other. If you are not interested in seeing queries on various forum pages, exclude them by adding a minus sign - with the word query or forum. Some web sites will list names as John Smith and others will do Smith John, so search on both. For contracted names like St. Lawrence do multiple searches with different variations like stlawence, st.lawrence, "st lawrence", "st. lawrence". Once you get the result list, don't click to go to a page but right click and select "open in new window".
More Information:For more information on doing genealogy searches, you may want to check out Genealogy In Time Magazine's page on Genealogy Search Tips and Techniques . Or MyHeritage web page on Google for Genealogy.
Google Tips:
Advance Search the Google Advance Search page has a lot of the featured talked about above.
Wildcards Within a quoted search string you can use * as a wildcard character to represent any word. So if you are looking for John Richard Smith and enter "john * smith" it will find John Richard Smith or John R. Smith or John Rick Smith. The * has to be a whole word. And a word must be present, so it won't return hits for John Smith.
Calculations Google does calculations. For example, to find out how many times the number 8 goes into the number 720, just type 720/8 in the search box and press the Enter key to get the results. You can use the standard + and - keys to add or subtract. Use the / key to divide and the * to multiply.
Measument conversions You can also use Google to convert measurements. For example, type "100 meters in feet" (without the quotes) and press the Enter key for the results.
Domain types If you want to limit your search to a certain domain type, place a colon after your search and then type the domain extension. For example, taxes:.org
File Types To find files of a certain type, use filetype:xxx where xxx could be PDF, DOC, XLS, PPT.
Languages To limit your search to a specific language sites, click on Preferences (to the right of the search bar) and click next to the languages you wish to read search results. Scroll down to the bottom of that page and click Save Preferences.
Zip Codes You can enter a zip code, a +, and then a local search result you wish to find. For example, type 90210+kitchen cabinets to produce a list of cabinetmakers in Beverly Hills. This works really well if you are looking for a restaurant.
Synonyms Use the tilde symbol (~) before any keyword to search not only on that keyword but also its synonmys.
Sites To search just within any single domain address, add site:www.xxxxxx.com
In the Title To search for the keyword only in the title of web pages, add intitle:xxxxxxx where xxxxxx is the keyword.
In the URL To search for the keyword only in the URL of web pages, add inurl:xxxxxx where xxxxxx is the keyword.
Hexadecimal conversoin To convert a decimal number to hexadecimal, you can enter xx to hexademical.
Money conversion To convert US dollars to yen, you can enter xxxx US Dollars to yen.
Dictionary You can enter define: xxxxxxx to get a definition for the word.
Safe searching You can enter safesearch: along with and search words to make sure you don't get back adult sexual sites.
Results per Page On the Google home page, you can click the 'Preferences' link to set you default display to 20, 50, or 100 results per page.