LITTLE KNOWN & RARELY USED GOOGLE TIPS FOR GENEALOGY RT1608 – by Katherine R. Willson (Ann Arbor, MI)

DETAILED SYLLABUS AVAILABLE AFTER MONDAY AT

BOOKMARK & ALWAYS START AT

If using search with a “who-when- where” approach. If you don’t get the results you want, gradually eliminate words: Charles Fraser Berry 1913 Detroit Michigan Charles F. Berry 1913 Detroit Charles Berry 1913 Detroit CF Berry 1913 Detroit Berry 1913 Detroit

Word order is important! First word is given highest priority, then second, then third, etc. When entering words, put MOST IMPORTANT ones first. (note: ALL words count, so leave out unnecessary ones!) If you enter WHO, initial results are World Health Organization. If you enter A WHO, initial results are the book, Horton Hears a Who. If you enter THE WHO, initial results are the band.

Quotation marks (“ ”) around a single word or set of words (without any spaces) gives exact results. Without quotation marks, Google gives you websites containing one but perhaps not the other word(s). “Charles Fraser Berry” 1913 Detroit (no results for Charles F Berry) “Charles F Berry” 1913 Detroit (no for Charles Berry) “Charles Berry” 1913 Detroit (no results for Berry Charles, as obituaries are written) “Chas Berry” “Detroit” (no results for Charles Berry, only includes pages containing the word “Detroit”)

Use the minus sign ( - ) in front of a word or a set of words (no spaces) that you DO NOT want in your results, and Google will eliminate those words from your results. You can use MANY minuses in a single search field: “Gerald Gardener” -garden -soil -“master gardener” “Jonathon Cook” -chef -cooking -“head cook” “Geraldina Fox” –animal –zoo –”Fox in Socks”

Use an asterisk ( * ) as a wildcard to replace one or more words (not letters) in a phrase. “Charles Berry” “August * 1863” (multiple websites will list Charles’ birthday as August ) - more on Google’s wildcards more on FamilySearch.org’s wildcards - more on Ancestry.com’s wildcards

Use the uppercase word OR to reduce your number of searches (Google is NOT case-sensitive except with the word OR): “Charles Fraser Berry” OR “Charles F Berry” OR “Berry Charles” or “C.F. Berry” (Note that, regardless of the periods after the initials, Google will return results including “CF Berry” and “C F Berry”)

The tilde symbol ( ~ ) before a word (no spaces or quotation marks) asks Google for relevant synonyms: “Charles Berry” ~vital records (quotation marks not needed around phrase “vital records,” results include birth records & certificates; marriage records & certificates; death records & certificates; church records & certificates) Michigan ~land records (results include registry of deeds and property records) “Berry” ~family tree (results include the words genealogy, family history, family tree and genealogy records)

Use two periods (.. ) to narrow down a range of dates. Enter the earliest year, 2 periods and latest year (without spaces between the years and periods). NOTE: The ellipsis ( … ) had been used previously, but is now replaced by 2 periods. “Charles Fraser Berry” “Berry Charles” obituary

Review Google’s cached pages. Updated or deleted websites’ original pages are often captured by Google so you can see the original. In the search results, click the down-arrow at the end of the link until a drop-down menu appears, then click the word “Cached” to see Google’s original captured image:

Review Google’s alternate spelling suggestions which default to the most common spelling of any word, whether or not it’s spelled correctly. After typing words into the search field, Google may ask, “Did you mean…?” and offer alternate spellings (helpful for locating records in which ancestors’ surnames were misspelled): Also, intentionally misspell GENEAOLOGY for more results.

GOOGLE TRANSLATE Use the Google from the country you’re researching: To find the Google site for any country, type the name of the country and the word Google in the search field. (continued on next slide)

GOOGLE TRANSLATE (continued)

GOOGLE BOOKS – ADVANCED SEARCH

GOOGLE BOOKS It might be a free e-book you can download to your computer, or use interlibrary loan to request from a local library:

GOOGLE BOOKS Your local librarian can help you obtain this!

GOOGLE SCHOLAR

GOOGLE ALERTS (must have Gmail account)

GOOGLE MAPS – Map your Ancestors

GOOGLE PLUS & HANGOUTS (must have Gmail acct)

YouTube – Owned by Google

Questions? Please rate my presentation on your smartphone, tablet or computer. Katherine R. Willson Ann Arbor, MI