TIPS FOR USING SEARCH ENGINES EFFECTIVELY
Below are some tips for search engines that I hope will make your searches more productive, help you avoid some of the common search engine pitfalls, and turn frustrations into genealogy finds.
Note: this article does not apply to the search engine Google which has its own rules. Go to Google to learn all the Google tricks for genealogy searching.
1) Too Much may Not be a Good Thing
When too much information in included in a search, the chances for a hit may be reduced in cases where names have been abbreviated, misspelled, or have a part missing.
If at first you don't get a hit:
- Try using just the surname. Sometimes a person may be listed by his nickname, his middle name, or an abbreviated first name and this will keep you from getting a match. If you search for Joseph Smith, it will not match Jo. Smith or J. Hiram Smith if that is how he is listed in the database or webpage.
- If you are using a search with location, try the search without the location. The database or webpage may have missing or incorrect geographic information, or the location may not be where you think it is.
2) Spelling Is Important.
I know this sounds obvious, but keep in mind that most search engines will only give hits on EXACT matches.
If you don't get a hit using both the first and last name:
- Try using just the surname. Sometimes a person's first name may be misspelled, abbreviated or missing in the database you are searching.
- Check to make sure you have typed the name correctly into the search box.
- Try spelling variations even if you believe that your surname was always spelled the same way. A lot of times clerks and census takers used some very creative spelling and also, difficult to read or faded handwriting may have been transcribed incorrectly.
- If the search engine allows for a soundex search (searches for names that sound alike, but not spelled alike), be sure to try it. Remember, to a search engine Smith and Smyth is NOT a match unless you use a soundex search.
If you don't get a hit using a location:
- Double check your typing and spelling. Use the spell check in your word processor and then cut and paste the word to the search engine to make sure you have the correct spelling to use for a search engine.
- Try the search with the location field blank.
3) Watch those Abbreviations.
Search engines are not smart. They only know what you tell them. It cannot be stated too many times that search engines will only give hits on EXACT matches.
- Avoid using abbreviations for location names. For example, a search engine does not know that Pennsylvania and PA are the same. If you type in PA, it will search for those pages with PA only, and your search will miss all the webpages that use the word Pennsylvania. (This does not apply to search engines that use a pull-down menu of abbreviated locations)
- Avoid using abbreviations for descriptive keywords. I am the Webmaster of a US Civil War site, and I see people get no matches on their site searches because they use abbreviated words such a regt for regiment or co for company. The search engine does not know that regt and regiment are the same and their search are ineffective.
4) Put your Name in Quotes.
In some search engines, if you type John Smith in some search engines you may receive search results with every occurrence of John and every occurrence of Smith but not necessarily John Smith together. For example if John Guggenheim and Hiram Smith are on the same page, that will count as a hit for the search phrase John Smith because both John and Smith were found (but not necessarily together). If you run into this problem, try putting "John Smith" in quotes and the search engine will search for that exact phrase.
5) Use Lower Case Letters.
When entering words in a search engine, always enter them in lower case. Do not use any capital letters. This is one time you can forget the grammar rules you learned in school. Search engines are programmed to accept capitalized words or words with upper case letters in them and look for exact matches to them. That means that if you typed the surname SMITH, the search engine would not match to any Web pages where the surname was typed as Smith. It will only match webpages where Smith is written as Smith. If you type your search word in all lower case, the search engine will look for Smith, SMITH, and any variations of upper and lower case and any mixed case.
6) It's Better to be Single
Always type any word you are searching for in its singular form. If you were looking for information about churches in Philadelphia, you should enter the words Philadelphia church rather than Philadelphia churches. By using the singular form, search engines will return webpage matches to you that have both words. In addition, some search engines use word stemming in their searching. Word stemming allows you to enter a simplified form of a word and then the search engine searches for all forms of the word. An example would be the word "find" in which a search engine would look for find, finder, and finding.
7) But my Name is also a Common Noun
What if you are searching for a surname that is also a noun, such as Church, Street, Park or Fox? You probably have found that most of your searches bring up unwanted webpages about churches and streets that have nothing to do with the surname. Try this method in a WWW search engine: church+family or church+surname or church+born. It seems to work best with no space, but also gives valid results with a space such as church +family. In this case the word surname will have to appear on the webpage greatly increasing the chances that the result will be genealogy related. You can also try fox -animal which will eliminate all web pages on which the word animal appears.
When you surname is also a common noun, try the Quick Search surname specific search engine. It is designed to just search for surnames.
8) Don't Forget the Spaces.
Don't enter one long run-on word such as josephhiramsmithpennsylvania. Make sure there is a space between each search word. Enter joseph hiram smith pennsylvania. Or "joseph hiram smith" pennsylvania. An exception is the "math" signs; i.e. post+born.
9) Each Search Engine is Unique.
Each search engine indexes different webpages, or uses a different database and each has different rules for searching. Be sure to try each engine for your names, and if you run into problems, check the help for that search engine. Click here to try the most commonly used WWW search engines and Quick Search for the top genealogy search engines. Click here for a directory of genealogy search engines.
I hope these tips will help you avoid some of the common pitfalls of on-line searching and will give you many successful internet searches.
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© Ancestor Search 2003
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