Using Google search for genealogy

As all researches will know, Google is the preferred search engine for accessing data for the billions of pages on the web . Google receives several hundred million queries each day and performs a massive proportion of all searches in the United Kingdom (estimates around 70 percent). Let me explain how that will benefit a person searching his ancestry.

The reason Google searches are so successful in the first place is mainly down to the way thGe oogle bot rates the web pages. With great accuracy and particularly the ability of understanding relevant content, the results tend to be very relevant on most searches.

So back to the question:
Can Google bring benefits to a genealogists?

The answer is a definite yes!
Google search results actually provide a very useful facility through its caching. Google keeps the last version of a web page on its own Google servers as a backup until the next visit. If you perform a search result in Google and the result goes to a broken link , or no longer reflects the information and search term you searched for, Google comes into its own. The cached pages can be a great help in finding genealogical information that has otherwise vanished from the Web.

So how do you access the cached version of a page. Quite simple really, as every result has a link to the cached version within the result. Another great use of the Google search and cached version is the highlighter. When you search an ancestry term or individual surname, you can choose to highlight on the page each use of the word.

When it comes to using Google for genealogical searches you may want to be aware of the OR operator. This allows you to genralise on the genealogical term used when you are not sure about your information. If you have are trying to locate a Bill Creswell (As i well am) who may have also gone by the first name William, you can search Google using “Bill OR William AND Creswell” to cover both possibilities.

Now here is a gem that’s often overlooked by genealogical searches through Google. The Google date field. The date area allows you to search only for the pages Google has found to be updated in the past three months, six months, or year. In an organised way, your genealogical searches over time, this feature can be very handy for repeating your searches on a periodic basis but limiting the search to only those ancestry websites that have been updated.

Genealogical searches with Google search engine may well uncover some treasures and real gems for you. Your findings may provide you with new leads and connections that no other subscription site could possibily find.

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