Genealogy Online Search Tips

Here are a few tips that can help you on your way to finding about your ancestors when searching online. These tips are primarily for searching using Google, but the methods should work equally well with other major search engines. Use these tips to Search this Site or do a Global Genealogy Name Search.

Group the Name - place quotation marks around the complete name you want to search for, so that the whole phrase is searched. Try it with and without middle names.
Change Name Order - If you group the name as suggested above, also search for the name in reverse order, as in many name databases the surname is listed first and the other names follow.
Group Name and Locations - Search for the name with the place of birth or where they lived.
Filter Out Unwanted Results - this is something that many people are not aware of. You can remove a word or phrase from being included in the search results by preceding it with a minus (-) sign. This is particularly useful when you get too many unrelated results when searching for common names.
Use Alternate Spellings - As with any genealogy searching, you need to be aware of possible alternate spelling of names (both forenames and surnames). They may have been changed over time either deliberately or unintentionally, or just recorded differently by mistake at some point. See this list of nicknames for possible alternative first names.
Search Images - Don't forget to search the image database for pictures of your ancestors.