Be alert (and other geneagoogle tips)

I’m guessing you use Google in your genealogy research. But are there any new tricks to help you search for your family history? Here are some ideas.

A few days ago I posted on a couple of Facebook groups – it was about a talk being given in Newcastle, New South Wales, by the makers of a documentary looking at the lives of Irish ‘famine brides’ -orphans shipped to Australia - and convict women.

I couldn’t go. I’m on the wrong side of the Pacific. But I thought my fellow Aussie genealogists might be able to. So I was surprised to get a couple of comments saying ‘I didn’t know it was on, and I live in Newcastle’. Which is a real shame. But it got me thinking – how did I, living in the UK, know about an event taking place all those miles away, when people there had no idea it was happening?

The wrong kind of convict (S. Olkowicz. CC attrib 2.5 via Wikimedia)

The answer – Google Alerts. I had one set up for convict Australia. In fact I have one for convict Australia -cichlids, since I got fed up with being notified about fish for sale. (Stripey blighters from Central America, since you ask.) I’ve got several alerts set up, mostly to do with genealogy or history, and they’re just one way I keep up with the latest news, along with blogs, Twitter, Facebook and Google+.

Do you use Google Alerts? They’re easy to set up, but you’ll need a Google account, which most people already have. Here’s a quick how-to if you’d like to get your own alerts.

Log into your Google account. Go to or click http://www.google.com/alerts (I’m guessing you’re online if you’re reading this). You’ll see a box like this:

Type in what you’d like Google to search the web for and select show options to customise what information you want delivered, how often and where to:

 … And create your alert.

This will keep you updated on anything on the web with the words (for instance) ‘worldwide’ and ‘genealogy’ in it; if you just want news about the exact phrase "worldwide genealogy" use double quotes (like I did there) as you would with any Google exact phrase search.

I expect there are much more sophisticated things you can do with alerts, but this suits me fine. I haven’t tried any other Google search tricks with it.

But in case you need a reminder, here are the search symbols (there’s probably a better geeky term for them) which I find useful for my own geneagoogling:

To search for an exact phrase: use double quotes at the beginning and end

"worldwide genealogy"

For two or more words which must turn up in the results, but not necessarily in that order, use AND

genealogy AND worldwide

To search for two words or terms at the same time, use OR (this will find family history and family tree)

family history OR tree

To exclude a word which might fill your search with unwanted results, use a minus sign (I used this to find my ‘ghostly’ 3xgreat-grandmother)

"sarah marshall" -finding

To search one specific website, use site:

convicts site:http://worldwidegenealogy.blogspot.co.uk

To search within a range of numbers – now this could have been invented for us! – use two dots

births london 1850..1865

To find a phrase where you can’t remember some of the words, use the asterisk wildcard

who * you think * are

Have you got any search tips to share with us?

Happy geneagoogling!