Emma Jolly
GREAT TIPS FOR The BEST RESULTS
LEARN HOW TO SEARCH LIKE A PRO
Whatever stage your family history research is at, it’s essential to be able to search as thoroughly and effectively as possible so that you make The most of your time and maximise your findings. Read on for tips to inform and inspire your genealogy investigations – and who knows what you’ll be discovering next.
Tips & tricks to master
Use long tail keywords allow you to be more precise in your research. They are usually phrases of three or four keywords which help you to focus in on your required area of family history. If you’re looking for a name, add keywords such as place names, record types (baptism register, probate, military), and The names of oTher family members. Try key genealogy phrases, such as ‘was born in’, ‘was married to’, and ‘was buried’.
Make a list of useful urls
Just as you might bookmark pages in a family history book with coloured stickers or folded corners, so you can keep a record of websites and dataset pages that are relevant for your genealogy research. Use The favourite tab on your browser, save screengrabs to a folder, or bookmark The URLs using an online/mobile note-taking app, such as:
• Evernote evernote.com
• Microsoft One Note edog.onenote.com
• Google Keep www.google.com/keep
• or Quip quip.com
Break down folders into subfolders: for example, within a Welsh history folder, you could have subfolders of Welsh places; Welsh names; Welsh probate and Welsh newspapers.
Try oTher search engines
Choose The best search operators for effective searching. While Google is The most popular search engine, There are oThers that are worth investigating if you are stuck in your family history research. Try:
• Yahoo! uk.search.yahoo.com
• Ask.comuk.ask.com
• Bing www.bing.com
• DuckDuckGo duckduckgo.com
Don’t just stick to The web search: on Google, Yahoo and Bing, search Their books option, as well as images and videos for genealogy resources. OTherwise, check websites that use more than one search engine at once: eg WebCrawler www.webcrawler.com and SurfWax lookahead.surfwax.com