With over 20 billion pages, Google is the largest and most popular online search engines in the world. Tracking down local history and genealogical information, however, requires users to have a basic understanding of search techniques and how the engine filters its results. Based on David Lynch's book "Google Your Family Tree" and information provided in other online genealogy courses, this presentation features how one can make best use of the Internet’s most powerful free online service.

1. Your Family Tree May P. Chan Prairie History Room Regina Public Library © October 2009

9. Google Search Tips

10. Keyword Basics Certain common words (“the” & “of”) or single characters (“a”) are ignored: E.g. the Statue of Liberty Stop Words Finds results containing the following words in any order or proximity: E.g. Nicholas Davin Regina Multiple Words Find results containing this word: E.g. Census Single Word

11. Genealogy Keyword Queries E.g. Louis Riel was buried E.g. “Louis Riel was buried” E.g. “Louis Riel” was buried “St. Boniface” OR “St. Vital” Was buried E.g. Louis Riel died E.g. “Louis Riel died on” Died Died on E.g. Louis Riel married E.g. “Louis * Riel” married Married E.g. Louis Riel was born E.g. “Louis Riel” was born Winnipeg OR St. Boniface Was born Was born in

12. Basic Operators Find results containing the exact phrase: E.g. “Louis Riel” Quotations “ ” A character that takes the place of any other character or string E.g. “Louis * Riel” Wildcards * Find results containing either keyword E.g. Eugene OR Patrick Lynch E.g. “Eugene Lynch” Waterbury|Bridgeport OR | (pipe symbol) Find results all of the following words: E.g. Eugene AND Lynch AND Waterbury AND

13. More Basic Operators Find result containing keyword but not any of its variants/synonyms for the keyword E.g. “Louis Riel” +brother + (plus sign) Find results containing keyword/phrase but exclude the results containing another E.g. “Louis Riel” Saskatchewan –Manitoba - (minus sign) Find results containing keyword/phrase and any numbers within a specified range E.g. “Louis Riel” born 1840..1845 .. (num range) Find results containing this word or its synonyms (similar meaning words) E.g. “Louis Riel” ~genealogy ~ (tilde sign)

14. Advanced Operators Finds web pages that link to a specified site or page E.g. link:saskarchives.com Link: Limit results to a specific website E.g. Assiniboia East site:www.automatedgenealogy.com Site: Find various means for the word specified (useful for surnames) E.g. define:Ruthenian E.g. define:Chan Define:

15. More Advanced Operators Finds web pages related to the same topic as covered by specified page E.g. related:saskgenealogy.com Related: Narrows results to a specific filetype extension E.g. Métis rebellion filetype:pdf E.g. “Louis Riel” ext:jpg File type: OR Ext: Obtains summary information about the page specified E.g. info:automatedgenealogy.com Info:

16. Calculator Functions Multiplies two or more numbers E.g. 38*19*5 Multiplication * Directs Google calculator as to which calculations should be performed first E.g. (2008-1911) *5 + (8/2) Parenthesis ( ) Divides two or more numbers E.g. 1506/6 Division / Subtracts two or more numbers E.g. 2009-78-16 Subtraction - Adds two or more numbers E.g. 1904+23+38 Addition +

17. Unit & Currency Conversions Used to convert currency E.g. 1 cad to usd (Canadian to American) E.g. 15 eur to cad (Euro to Canadian) E.g. 27 gbp to usd (British pound to American) E.g. 1000 cad to mxn (Canadian to peso) Currency To Used to specify a unit type for conversion E.g. 27 kilometers in miles E.g. 27000 days in years E.g. 279 months in minutes E.g. 15 bushels in pecks E.g. 7 ounces to cups Unit In

18. More Google Tips & Tricks Check flight status E.g. AC 1115 Status of Flights Type in a keyword and postal code or name of community E.g. Funeral homes Dublin Ohio Local Businesses Get the capitals of a country, state or region E.g. Capital of Kazakhstan Capitals Get the local weather of any location E.g. Weather Dublin Ireland Weather Get the local time of any location E.g. Time in Toronto Ontario Time

19. Google Tools

20. Advanced Google Search

21. Google Language Tools

22. Google Books

23. Google Maps

24. Advanced Google News Search

25. Google News Archive Search … found in Advanced News Search

26. Google Advanced Blog Search

27. Google Reader (for RSS/XML feeds)

28. Google Alerts (search results)

29. Google Docs

30. iGoogle