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!
