Family History Search Rides On Your Favorite Search Engines

With the exponential growth of the Web in size and in scope, the development of the search engine can be regarded as one of the most important – if not the most important – tool in the Internet. Searching for one’s family history in the Net, for instance, is next to impossible without the aid of search engines.

These programs (variations depend on the company who owns them) are simple yet very powerful. They basically catalog every single word in every site in the entire Net and compile them into searchable databases. Once a surfer sends out a query, these engines match the query words (keywords and phrases) against those in their databases. In a matter of seconds, they will send out a list of possible documents that meet one’s request.

Sometimes, this ability to instantaneously provide relevant pages has its own built-in drawback. Because of the sheer number of sites and web pages in the Net, millions and millions of web pages are offered all at once, regardless of relevance.

For a beginner without knowledge on how to tame these search engines, it can be terribly frustrating. This is one good time, then, for our family history searchers to learn some tips.

‘Search engine math’ or the plus or minus signs

One of the best and simplest ways to cut down on irrelevant web pages is to use what many call the Search Engine Math. The trick is the use of the plus (+) or minus (-) signs in writing the queries.

Writing a plus (+) sign before the keyword orders the search engine to find pages that include ALL of the words entered.

As one site had noted, typing the surname SMITH brings in more than three million pages in AltaVista. When the site continued with the Smith example and given a first name as Jebediah, and the query was typewritten as:

+smith +jebediah

the narrowed result brought in only over 600 pages.

The use of the minus (-) sign have a reverse effect: the pages asked would contain only one word but not the following “marked” word or words.

This is helpful for surnames that have more than one meaning. Take the surname RICE. Written as is would flood the surfer with pages on cooking and food. The correct way is as follows:

rice -food -cook

The minus (-) sign also excludes information on celebrities (sports heroes, movie stars, other known personalities) who might have the same surname as the one you are looking for.

Phrase searching

Given the vast number of databases when searching for your family history, the search engine math can only do so much. Another technique can be used: phrase searching.

Phrase searching asks the search engines for documents with words in their exact order. These words are inside quotation marks. (Example: “coffee cup”)

Many search engines support phrase searching. Both Google and AltaVista made phrase searching their default setting. (No need to put queries in quotation marks.)

Wild Card Search

Searches using wild card is another very useful tool for family historians. It uses one character (usually an asterisk *) after a word to search for its plurals or spelling variations. This saves the researcher from searching every variation of a surname, for instance.

Not everyone supports wild card searches, however. Those who do – and the characters they use – are Yahoo (*), AOL (?), Inktomi (* or ?), Northern Light (* or %) and AltaVista (*).

Look in the help page of your favorite search engines to see how they handle wild card searches.

Other techniques

One is to include given names together with the surnames. This narrows down the choices. Use phrase search on this.

Another way is to include name of places. If your ancestor is from Utah, why look for him in Brazil? Use the math search technique. (+smith +utah)

Look for less common surnames. If your Smith ancestor had married into the Antonopoulous family, it might be easier to start searching for Antonopoulous than the more common Smith. Somewhere along, it will lead you back to Smith.

Searching for your family history is one exciting adventure if you are adept on how to use your search engines. The millions of genealogists (hobbyists and professionals) are now relying on their favorite search engines for the speed, the challenges and the satisfaction of seeing good search results.