GOOGLE SEARCHES

©2022 Donald R. Snow -- Page last updated 2022-02-22
Return to the  Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group Home Page  or  Don's Class Listings Page .
ABSTRACT:  Internet search engines are helpful for many things in family history, e.g. finding data, information, locations maps,and much more. This class will discuss Google and its uses, but other search engines have some similar features. The notes for this class and related articles, all with active internet links, are on my website  http://uvtagg.org/classes/dons/dons-classes.html .

    WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION TO CLASS

  1. Instructor is Donald R. Snow ( snowd@math.byu.edu ) of Provo and St. George, Utah.
  2. These notes, with active internet links and other related articles, are posted on Don's website  http://uvtagg.org/classes/dons/dons-classes.html .
  3. Tips:  (1)  Easy to put an icon on your desktop for the URL for these notes, or any website, by dragging the icon from in front of the address in your browser to your desktop.  (2)  To open a link from here in another tab, so you can keep your place in these notes, hold down the Control key while clicking the link.
  4. This class will discuss the search engine Google and some of its features that are not well-known. 

    5. GOOGLE

  5. Google for the U.S. is https://www.google.com/ -- there are versions for almost 200 countries -- see  http://www.genealogyintime.com/articles/country-guide-to-google-search-engines-page3.html -- some give different results
  6. Google has a Light Mode and a Dark Mode; change by going to Settings (gear icon) > Appearance > Select the mode you want; Dark Mode is best for my eyesight 

    7. GOOGLE SEARCH SYNTAX

  7. Caps and punctuation are ignored
  8. "word or phrase" (with quotes) finds exactly that vs pages with the search terms on them anywhere
  9. Wildcard:  "*" (asterisk) is any words or phrases between or after the search terms, e.g. anders*n picks up anderson, andersen,  and anderssen 
  10. Stem searches:  brings back whatever starts that way,  e.g. histor brings back history, histories, historic, historian, etc.
  11. Minus sign:  "-term" (no quotes, no space) eliminates hits with that term; helpful to narrow down results when you get too many hits
  12. Number ranges (years, quantity, distance, cost, etc), e.g. "1500..1600" (no quotes) shows hits only in the 1500s; for prices include $ 
  13. Google searches now include synonyms, so "~" (tilde) is not used now
  14. Proximity searches:  "[search term] AROUND(n) [search term]" (no quotes and AROUND is in caps);   n  is the max number of words between the terms -- powerful search tool, but doesn't always work correctly; examples
    1. '"donald r" AROUND(2) snow' (without the outside quotes)
    2. '"Snow" AROUND(100) woburn' (without the outside quotes)
    3. "snow AROUND(10) beman" (without t he quotes)
    4. "aug AROUND(5) 1879"
  15. Boolean searches:  space is same as AND; OR gives one or the other or both 
  16. IN converts measures, money, time, velocity, etc., e.g. "1 British pound IN US money", "20 ounces IN kilograms", and "$2.50 in 1851 IN dollars today" (no quotes)
  17. For correct spelling  type something close, e.g. "irland" and it asks Did you mean Ireland?"; also right click on a misspelled word to get correct spelling or go to Dictionary
  18. "site:https://uvtagg.org snow" (no quotes) searches  only that website
  19. "filetype:pdf " (no quotes); can search for pdfs, geds, jpgs, docs, etc.    
  20. "link:[website]" (no quotes): finds all websites that link to that website
  21. Microphone at right end of Google search box allows dictation of search terms, but you have to have your mic set correctly 
  22. Clicking "I'm Feeling Lucky" takes you directly to the top listed website
  23. Good articles -- Google Advanced Search for Genealogy, Parts 1 and 2 -- http://www.genealogyintime.com/GenealogyResources/Articles/how_to_use_google_advanced_search_for_genealogy_part_1_page_1.html  and  http://www.genealogyintime.com/GenealogyResources/Articles/how_to_use_google_advanced_search_for_genealogy_part_2_page_1.html
  24. Google Search Operators -- https://ahrefs.com/blog/google-advanced-search-operators/

    25. WORKING WITH RESULT LISTS

  25. For any search engine,to get to a hit, hold down the CTRL key when clicking it, so it opens in a new tab and you save your place in the results list without having to go back and scoll down
  26. For any website CTRL-F opens a search box that you can type in your search terms to highlight them on the page 
  27. On the Chrome browser there is a free extension you can install that allows highlighting any terms you want -- MultiHighlight; type in any terms wyou want and it highlights each word in a different color so you can see where they occur.

    28. CONCLUSIONS

  28. Google has many other free features such as language translation of words or entire websites, a simple "PowerPoint" program, Googl's MyMaps, and much more.
  29. Try typing your own name into Google in quotation marks and see what comes up.
    30. Return to the  Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group Home Page  or  Don's Class Listings Page .