Genealogy Searches on the Web

A lot of folks trust Google to search the web. Not a bad idea, actually - even for genealogy research. But you should ask yourself this question before you begin: What am I trying to find? Maybe you just want to locate an obituary for Grandma. Or maybe you want to see if your family appears in the 1930 US Census. In each case, you should be able to locate something like that online (you may have to work pretty hard for the obituary, but it can be done). The key is not to expect Google to post the answers on the first page of results. You will probably need to use many different keywords and check out the different parts of their site (Google News, Google Books, etc.). If you've figured out that there are two or three prominent figures with your surname who dominate the results, you can narrow your search (and remove them, if you want). I'm not sure how familiar you are with using punctuation on a web search, but using a minus sign ("-") in front of a name you don't want to read about can score big dividends. Don't forget to enclose exact phrases with quotation marks. Use the Google search features ("custom [date] range") and, under "more search tools", the Timeline. to post the results in such a way that you can skip through items you don't want to see. Before we finish with searches on the web, I should mention that results may lead you directly to a site like Ancestry.com. Before you get a membership, you should realize that your family history will probably not magically appear on the Internet - even on that kind of site. But there there are definitely many useful digital records there (census, city directory, vital records, etc.). One great way to access these resources is to get a library card - then you can search for free at your local branch before deciding whether to purchase a membership. Happy hunting!