Notes on Sources

Tips, information, opinions; and yes, probably a little balderdash too.

This page is not currently being updated. The other pages on the site are regularly updated.

About Search Engines in General

It's a good idea to know just a little bit about search engines since almost all of your online genealogical searches will be performed by using a search engine of one type or another. You can improve your search success rate If you have a basic idea about how different search engines work; what they may or may not be showing you, and why.

In general, search engines can be thought of as three different types:

1. 'Crawler' search engines like Google and Bing that search the entire web.

2. 'Meta' search engines that combine the results from several different search engines together into one listing.

3. 'Directory' search engines that only search a specific set of websites that have been 'preloaded' by a human into the search engine.

Briefly and simplified, Crawler search engines like Google use little robotic programs, sometimes called "spiders" or "Googlebots", that "crawl" (visit) every site on the internet and then index every single word from every single website on the internet in a giant database. When a user enters a keyword, Google searches that database for every mention of that keyword and prepares to give you back a list of every one of those sites that has that keyword in it. However, just presenting you with a list of all those sites without any analysis or ranking would be quite ineffective. The real magic is how Google determines which of all those sites are useful enough to show you, and in what order to present them to you. Google determines which sites to show you by examining each of those website's for certain attributes. Some of these attributes are thought to be things such as: how popular a site is, how many other sites link to it, and other attributes Google keeps secret. Google then assigns each of these attributes a weighted 'score' and adds up a total score for the website. Websites that meet a certain threshold score are then shown to you in descending score order with the most relevant sites first.

Most of the individual websites you use for genealogy also use a crawler based search engine to search for records that are just on that site. These search boxes are usually powered by Google and use the same infrastructure with the Googlebots, indexing tables, and ranking algorithms that the main Google site uses. The only difference being that the search only presents results just from the table of that one site.

A Meta search engine is a search engine that uses the results of several other different search engines, then the Meta engine uses it's own ranking system to present you with the combined results. The user enters a keyword into one search box, but behind the scenes the program is recopying that keyword into Google, Bing, and many other different search engines. The Meta search engine is not actually searching the web itself with it's own spiders, it's just presenting the results of what the other engines found. Once results are returned by the base search engines to the Meta engine, the Meta engine then uses its own algorithms to decide what pages it thinks are important to show you and in which order to show them. One of the attributes the Meta engine might use for example would be to compute how many of the base search engines found the same site. If for example a Meta engine used 8 different base search engines, and 7 of those search engines found a particular website, that site result may get returned to you higher on the page by the Meta engine than a site that was only found by 2 of the base search engines.

Directory search engines operate in yet another fashion that's a little different than an engine that returns results from the entire web. Most directory engines are powered by the main Google infrastructure which again includes the same bots and the index tables. The difference being that the creator of the directory engine only lists the specific sites that he wants keyword results returned from. Directory engines are very common on genealogical websites, and are usually called "Surname Search Engines". On those genealogy sites a good webmaster may list several hundred or more genealogy record sites he wants Google to specifically and only pull from. You may not always find what your looking for when searching a genealogy directory engine; but you can be assured that every result is at least from a genealogy website.

1.1. Google Advanced Search [back to Home page]

Google is probably the best place to do a general search for your ancestor. However, the internet is so vast that if you don't search efficiently Google can return so many thousands of hits as to render your search almost useless. The trick with Google is to both limit the results you don't want, and at the same time, expand the results you do want. Fortunately, Google's search engine incorporates several built-in features that allow you to do exactly that. These features are called 'Boolean Logic keyword modifiers'. Here are some common Boolean logic search modifiers that work on Google and most other search engines:

• • Quotes - Placing quote marks ("xyz") around your search terms results in hits with the exact phrase you have listed, with the words in the exact order you listed them.

  • The Minus Sign (-) Placing the minus sign next to words that follow your search term will exclude pages that include those words. "John Smith" -Iowa, -Indiana, -Illinois.

  • OR - The modifier OR (must be capitalized) will return pages with that have either search term.

  • The "Wildcard" symbol * - Using the asterisk symbol will return all pages where Google finds your exact phrase with any word where the asterisk is. For example if you type the phrase "John Smith * in Iowa"; Google will return all pages that contain all phrases such as "John Smith lived in Iowa", "John Smith died in Iowa", "John Smith married in Iowa", "John Smith settled in Iowa", etc.

Boolean keyword modifiers strung together in different combinations within the same search can often provide some interesting and valuable results. The website Boolify is a fun place to experiment with building some long Google Boolean genealogy strings. Note that the four listed Google Boolean modifiers above are only a few of the total modifiers you can use for Google searching. For an in-depth look at dozens of other keyword modifiers check out The Google Guide.

Another tip I have for Google, and other search boxes in general, is to make up a Boolean name string cheatsheet before you start your in-depth searching for a particular ancestor. A Boolean name cheatsheet is a small Notepad file you create where you list all your specific ancestor's name variations formatted with Boolean modifiers. On this file you can have three or four or more different Boolean name strings that you use for routine or special searches on a specific ancestor. First you will want to brainstorm all the name variations of your ancestor, then write those names in Boolean format on a notepad file and save it to your ancestors file in your computer. I suggest making a of couple different name strings rather than trying to build one super long complex one. Whenever you do a search for this ancestor you simply copy one of the name strings into the search box. Creating this notepad file beforehand and saving it prevents you from having to spend time considering name variations while you search, and it keeps you from having to do it all over again the next time you search that same ancestor. Below are some of the things you may want to consider when you build your name strings, or when name searching ancestors in general:

• • Name Order Variations - Your ancestor may be listed many ways in various records. He may be listed by first name last name, last name first name, last name first initial, etc. If you are searching for "John Smith" in a search box you will miss any records of "Smith, John" or "Smith, J.". Your string in this case might look something like this: "John Smith" OR "Smith, John" OR "J. Smith" OR "Smith, J." Note that Google ignores punctuation like comma's and period's in a search, but you can insert them to make your strings easier for you to read. Google also ignores capitalization (other than the 'OR' modifier) and italicization in searches.

  • Misspelled Name Variations - Many of our ancestors altered the spelling of their names purposefully during their lifetimes; and many, many, more had their names accidentally misspelled by government record takers. By not including all those alternate spellings in your searches you may not find all the records that are out there. So if you have an ancestor with a name that was easily misspelled you may want to create a Boolean name string based on possible spelling variations of his name.

  • Old-Style First Name Abbreviations and Nicknames - You may want to include your ancestor's old style first name abbreviation if applicable in your strings depending on when the ancestor lived. These are first name abbreviations such as Jno., Thos., Wm., Jas., Chas., etc. Old style first name abbreviations are very common in older records and should be included in your searches. Here are some links to web sites with old style first names. Finally, don't forget about nicknames. Sometimes an ancestor's nickname was almost his de facto real name and he may have been known by that nickname in many of his records.

  • Associated Terms - By putting parenthesis around the whole name string you created you can then also add one or two terms that may be associated with that particular ancestor. Associated terms may be things like place names, spouse's first or maiden names, or other unique terms that might be applicable to that particular ancestor. A name string with associated terms may look like this: ("John Smith", "Smith, John) "Madison County", Harriet, soldier. How creative you are with associated terms can have a huge impact on your search success.

Finally, I would point you to the website Genealogy In Time for the most complete reading on searching Google for your ancestors. Genealogy In Time offers an excellent series of articles on searching Google that are written specifically for genealogy, and you will find them jam-packed with tips on how to best use Google for finding your ancestors.

1.2 Bing Search [back to Home page]

'Bing' is Microsoft's search engine. Bing does not have a separate 'Advanced Search' page like Google does. Instead, to access Bing's advanced functions you click on the 'Advanced' link after you enter a search term. The advanced link will allow you to expand or limit your searches very similarly to Google by using a drop down choice of phrases that modifies the search with common Boolean operators. Like Google, you can also enter your own Boolean strings without using the 'Advanced' link.

Since 2009, Bing has slowly increased market share at the expense of Google and now controls about 30% of the search market to Google's 60%. But which site should you use for genealogy searching? To answer that you may want to checkout the website 'Bing vs Google'. Bing vs Google puts both search engines side-by-side in your browser so you can evaluate both by searching for the same ancestor simultaneously. However, the real answer to which site you should use is probably - both. Even though both Google and Bing will often return mostly similar search results, Bing often will find websites that Google doesn't show, and vice versa. In addition to the different search results Bing and Google might show, the algorithms that Bing and Google use to rank those search results higher or lower are in the list are different. That difference in ranking is somewhat like "shuffling the deck" of the Google results and can sometimes bring relevant sites closer to the top of the list in Bing.

1.3 LDS Family Search - Records [back to Home page]

Family Search has four main areas for searching your ancestors - Records, Catalog, Trees, and Books. The Records section is discussed here. I have broken out the the 'Catalog' and 'Trees' sections separately and a discussion on each of them can be found below in 4.3 and 15.2. The 'Books' section is a redirect to the Family History Archives which is also detailed separately below at 3.4.

Too be continued...

LDS Family Search records formatting example:

Source List Entry: "British Columbia Marriage Registrations, 1859-1932." Digital abstract. Family Search - Record Search. https://www.familysearch.org : 2011

First Full Reference Note: "British Columbia Marriage Registrations 1859-1932", Digital abstract, Family Search - Record Search, (https://www.familysearch.org : accessed 3 July 2011), marriage license entry for George S Aylwin and Clara Sisson, married, 2 April 1902; citing BC Archives film no. B1138; FHL microfilm 1984109, digital folder, 4401582, image 720; British Columbia Vital Statistics Branch, Victoria, British Columbia.

Subsequent Short Note: "British Columbia Marriage Registrations", abstract, Family Search - Record Search, marriage entry for Aylwin-Sisson, 1902.

Wiki's

2.1 Wikipedia [back to Home page]

Unless your ancestor was notable in some way, you probably wont find him or her in Wikipedia. However, Wikipedia contains a staggering 3.5 million subject articles on every subject imaginable; so every once in a while you may find something relevant on an ancestor. Even though the odds of finding a non-notable ancestor are slight, Wikipedia should always be minimally name searched in the interest of complete due diligence. Besides a name search, Wikipedia has 1,001 other valuable uses for genealogy in general. Just a few examples of things genealogists can use Wikipedia to learn about include: famous ancestors, small towns, and more.

Wikipedia citation formatting example:

Source List Entry: Wikipedia. http://www.wikipedia.org : 2011

First Full Reference Note: Wikipedia contributors, "Charlemagne," http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlemagne, ver. 22:11, 07 May 2011 (accessed May 08, 2011).

Subsequent Short Note: Wikipedia contributors, "Charlemagne," ver. 22:11, 07 May 2011

2.2 We Relate [back to Home page]

'We Relate' is a free family tree wiki where user's create pages for each ancestor which any other user can then modify, correct information, or add content to. One of the site's goals is to eventually create a 'unified tree' where all the ancestor pages link to other related ancestor pages. Though the site is perhaps midsize as compared to the other large family tree sites on the internet, they do have over two million ancestor pages already. In one test comparison I did I took one branch of my tree with about 1,150 members and was able to find over 40 of them on We Relate.

Many We Relate users can and do, create quite elaborate pages with lengthy biographies and uploaded photos and documents. What's unique about this site as compared to other family tree sites on the internet is that it is a wiki. That means nobody "owns" any of the ancestor pages they create. Any user can edit any pages by adding genealogical information, uploading photos and documents, adding sources, and making corrections based on real facts. In general, the users of We Relate seem to have a little higher sense of professionalism and accuracy as a community than some of other online family trees.

We Relate citation formatting example:

Source List Entry: We Relate. http://www.folg.org: 2011

First Full Reference Note: We Relate contributors. "Settlement of Grave's End, Long Island", http://www.werelate.org/wiki/Settlement_of_Gravesend%2C_Long_Island, ver. 12:30, 15 December, 2010, (accessed May 12, 2011)

Subsequent Short Note: We Relate contributors. "Settlement of Grave's End, Long Island", ver. 12:30, 15 December, 2010

Books and Manuscripts, mostly viewable and searchable

There is a some overlap of books between the largest free digital libraries. Google has the most digitized books by number, with current estimates of about 15 million. Over 1 million of those books are estimated to be in the public domain (free, and fully readable online). The Internet Archives is the next largest online public domain repository with over 2.5 million books available, and every single book is in the public domain. The Hathi Trust Library has over 1.5 million public domain books (out of 7.5 million books total) and includes books from both Google and the Internet Archives, but it also holds over 50 other major large library sources. The upshot of all this is that while you may find the same book in multiple repositories, each site has enough books the others don't have to make searching all of them a good idea. Finally, there are dozens of other unique digitized book sites with smaller numbers of books that are not included in Google, Internet Archives, or Hathi Trust.

3.1 Google Books [back to Home page]

In addition to searching for books referencing ancestors, Google Books also allows you to create your own personalized 'library' on the site to store the books you find. This feature is great if you find a book that you want to read later, or if you want to 'collect' all the books you find referencing your ancestor in one convenient place. You do this by creating 'Bookshelves' with various category names on your personal 'My Library' page. For example you can create a bookshelf called 'Pennsylvania', and then save on that shelf any books you find useful about Pennsylvania genealogy. You can make an unlimited number of bookshelves so you could make one for every state you research, or even all the surnames you are researching. You can also attach notes to each book in a bookshelf to help you remember things about the book like which ancestor the book references, what kind of record you found, and what page the reference or record is on. Google Books also lets you make any bookshelf on your 'My Library' page public or private. Making a bookshelf public allows you to share that bookshelf and all the books on it with fellow researchers.

Google Books citation formatting example:

Source List Entry: Swope, Gilbert, History of the Big Spring Presbyterian Church, Newville, PA, 1737-1898, Newville, PA: Times Steam Printing House, 1898. Digital image. Google Books. http://www.books.google.com : 2011

First Full Reference Note: Gilbert Swope, History of the Big Spring Presbyterian Church, Newville, PA, 1737-1898 (Newville, PA: Times Steam Printing House, 1898), 226, Digital image, Google Books. (http://www.books.google.com: accessed 22 May 2011)

Subsequent Short Note: Swope, History of the Big Spring Presbyterian Church, 226.

3.2 The Internet Archive [back to Home page]

A good genealogy resource, with a terrible user interface. Searches only work for subject, title, author, and meta tags. The Internet Archive does not search the text within works for your keyword like Google Books does. You can search an individual book's text after you find the book, but not from the main Internet Archives page. There is an 'Advanced Search' page, but it's also difficult to use and not intuitive. Internet Archive does have a genealogy 'collection', but you are not able to search within that specific collection. Internet Archive does support Boolean-type search modifiers including wildcards such as "*", "?", and "~" which can occasionally help in searches. A complete list of the specific Boolean's that Internet Archive uses can be found here. There are no 'Help' pages of any use on Internet Archive. There are forums which you can browse that may answer some questions, but the forums are not categorized well nor are they easily searchable. In short, you either need to know exactly what your looking for; or your keyword must be a part of the subject, title, author, or a meta tag in order for you to find anything. If you are able to get a listing of books from a specific keyword, it then becomes a matter of trial and error to open each book page, then open the book itself in order to do a full text search for your keyword.

Despite the inability of Internet Archives to search within texts, the site does offer a fairly rich selection of genealogical material, and a lot of other fun non-genealogy stuff to look at as well. Internet Archives now has over 64,000 books and documents in their 'genealogy collection'. Other specific 'genealogy' meta-tagged records in the genealogy collection besides books include government military records, passenger immigration records, pension records, US Censuses, family histories, and much more.

Internet Archive citation formatting example:

Source List Entry: New England Anti-Slavery Society. "The Plea of Justice". The Abolitionist, 2 (Sept 1833). Digital image. Internet Archives. http://www.archive.org/details/abolitionist1833newe9 : 2011

First Full Reference Note: New England Anti-Slavery Society, "The Plea of Justice", The Abolitionist, 2 (Sept 1833); Digital Image, Internet Archives (http://www.archive.org/details/abolitionist1833newe9; accessed June15 2011); pg 2

Subsequent Short Note: New England Anti-Slavery Society, "The Plea of Justice", pg 2

3.3 HathiTrust [back to Home page]

HathiTrust gets it's books from Google, the Internet Archives, and member institutions. Like Google and unlike the Internet Archives, you can search by keywords within the texts of books. Despite HathiTrust holding a lot of the same books as Google and Internet Archives, there is value to be gained by including HathiTrust in your search checklist. Google may give you the same books but HathiTrust will present them in a different order which could help you. Currently only about 27% of HathiTrust's books are in the public domain, so if you find an ancestor referenced on a non-viewable book you will have to go to the library or another source to read that one. HathiTrust also has a 'My Collection' feature similar to Google and Internet Archives that will allow you to save the books you find.

HathiTrust citation formatting example:

Source List Entry:

First Full Reference Note:

Subsequent Short Note:

3.4 LDS Family Search - Family History Archives [back to Home page]

The Family History Archives are best known for their vast collection of family histories. However there is also quite a bit of other material besides family histories in the archives as well. The archives also include such other materials as local histories, periodicals, records abstracts, and biographies. The books themselves come from some of the leading genealogical libraries in the US including: Family Search Family History Library, the Allen County Public Library, the Houston Public Library – Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research, the Mid-Continent Public Library – Midwest Genealogy Center, the BYU Harold B. Lee Library, the BYU Hawaii Joseph F. Smith Library, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Church History Library.

The search function works pretty well; and the search will be able to find your search terms inside books and not just in the Title/Author/Subject fields. Narrowing down your search results can be a little time consuming however. Some books are meta-tagged more completely than others allowing you to see affiliated families and book descriptions on the results page; but some of the books you will will have to open first to see if they are relevant. Once you open a book the interface is rather clunky in that each page is a separate PDF file. Making you open one a one page PDF is a way for the site to limit bandwidth, but it is time consuming to not be able to scroll the whole book. You are able to download all the books on the site which is fantastic, but some of them are served in multiple files.

BYU Family History Archives citation formatting example:

Source List Entry:

First Full Reference Note:

Subsequent Short Note:

3.5 OAIster [back to Home page]

3.6 Genealogy Book Links [back to Home page]

3.7 Early Canada Online [back to Home page]

Early Canada Online citation formatting example:

Source List Entry:

First Full Reference Note:

Subsequent Short Note:

3.8 Canadiana Discovery Portal [back to Home page]

Canadiana citation formatting example:

Source List Entry:

First Full Reference Note:

Subsequent Short Note:

3.9 Heritage Quest Books [back to Home page]

Heritage Quest Books citation formatting example:

Source List Entry:

First Full Reference Note:

Subsequent Short Note:

Books and Manuscripts, mostly non-viewable

4.1 WorldCat [back to Home page]

4.2 Open Library [back to Home page]

4.3 LDS Family Search - Library Catalog [back to Home page]

4.4 Daughters of the American Revolution [back to Home page]

4.5 New England Historic Genealogical Society [back to Home page]

4.6 Every Name Index [back to Home page]

Periodicals, mostly viewable and searchable

5.1 Google Scholar [back to Home page]

5.2 JSTOR [back to Home page]

Periodicals, non-viewable

6.1 PERSI [back to Home page]

6.2 Hait and Henderson's State Genealogical Journals [back to Home page]

Professional genealogist's, author's, and blogger's Michael Hait and Harold Henderson have collaborated to create a superb listing of American state genealogical societies with journals. Their co-authored PDF report can be downloaded from either author's site. Their paper is a useful resource for providing an extensive and up to date linkable listing of state genealogical society websites. Local and state genealogy societies are a fantastic resource for researching your ancestors. Genealogy society websites will frequently have records and local history that can't be found anywhere else online.

While most genealogy society journals are not free, many societies with journals do have free viewable online indexes to past articles and sometimes even surname indexes. These indexes can help you determine if a journal back issue article might have any relevance to a particular ancestor you are searching for. Once you determine a back issue may have information you need, you can then either order it from the society, or possibly find it in your local library. Back issues are generally inexpensive, but you also might consider just going ahead and joining the society. Often times membership is relatively inexpensive and may include access to all their back issues. Some societies also have member-only genealogical record databases on their websites.

Hait and Henderson's society journal listing is mostly just at the state level right now. Not to be found on their listing yet are the many city and county genealogical societies throughout the United States. You may want to check your targeted GenWeb county's link page for society website listings at the city and county level. Hopefully Hait and Henderson will be issuing an update soon that drills down to list the many societies below the state level. It would also be nice to see their listing expand to Canadian genealogical societies as well.

Sample genealogy society journal article citation formatting example:

Source list Entry: Anderson, Holly Lynn. "The Scotts of Pope County: A Brief Family History." The Arkansas Family Historian 43 (December 2005). Online archives. Arkansas Genealogical Society. http://www.agsgenealogy.org/databases/pdffiles/AFH/AFH434Dec2005.pdf : 2011

First Full Reference Note: Holly Lynn Anderson, "The Scotts of Pope County: A Brief Family History", The Arkansas Family Historian 43 (December 2005); online archives, Arkansas Genealogical Society (http://www.agsgenealogy.org/databases/pdffiles/AFH/AFH434Dec2005.pdf : accessed 21 June 2011), 177.

Subsequent Short Note: Anderson, "The Scotts of Pope County", 177.

County Sites

7.1 US GenWeb [back to Home page]

7.2 Genealogy Trails [back to Home page]

7.3 Linkpendium [back to Home page]

7.4 RYRWPA - County Histories [back to Home page]

7.5 Our Roots [back to Home page]

7.6 Canada GenWeb [back to Home page]

Message Boards, Mailing Lists, and Query Boards

8.1 Roots Web Message Boards [back to Home page]

8.2 Roots Web Mailing Lists [back to Home page]

8.3 GenForum [back to Home page]

8.4 Cousin Connect [back to Home page]

8.5 Usenet: alt.genealogy [back to Home page]

Newspapers and City Directories

9.1 Google News Archive [back to Home page]

9.2 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign [back to Home page]

9.3 Xooxle Answers [back to Home page]

9.4 Newspaper Abstracts [back to Home page]

9.5 Free Newspaper Archives [back to Home page]

9.6 Library of Congress' Chronicling of America [back to Home page]

9.7 Don's List [back to Home page]

9.8 Distant Cousin [back to Home page]

9.9 Peel's Prairie Provinces [back to Home page]

Cemeteries, Graves, and Obituaries

10.1 Find A Grave [back to Home page]

10.2 Interment.net [back to Home page]

10.3 Death Indexes.com [back to Home page]

10.4 Histopolis Grave Center [back to Home page]

Land

11.1 US Bur. of Land Mgmt, Gen. Land Office [back to Home page]

Immigration

12.1 Immigrant Ship Transcriber's Guild [back to Home page]

12.2 The Ship's List [back to Home page]

12.3 Castle Garden [back to Home page]

12.4 Ellis Island [back to Home page]

12.5 BYU Immigrant Ancestors Project [back to Home page]

Census Images and Transcriptions

13.1 CensusLinks.com [back to Home page]

13.2 USGenWeb Census Project [back to Home page]

13.3 Internet Archive US Census Images [back to Home page]

Raw, as-is census microfilms; warts and all. The Internet Archives genealogy collection includes microfilm of US censuses, but they are not searchable by name. You can however, drill down to the state and the census year to narrow your search. From there you will have to scroll and find your county and then your enumeration district. There are no name transcriptions or photographic enhancements to the census pages like you would find on Ancestry.com, the censuses are presented just as they exist on microfilm. The census pages are downloadable, as is everything on Internet Archives.

Internet Archive census formatting example:

Source List Entry:

First Full Reference Note:

Subsequent Short Note:

13.4 Automated Genealogy [back to Home page]

13.5 Heritage Quest Censuses [back to Home Page]

US and Canadian Government sites

14.1 USA.gov [back to Home page]

14.2 Nat. Archives and Records Admin. [back to Home page]

14.3 Library and Archives Canada [back to Home page]

14.4 US Serial Set [back to Home page]

Free Family Trees

15.1 Genealogy.com Family Home Pages [back to Home page]

15.2 LDS Family Search - Family Trees [back to Home page]

15.3 Roots Web 'World Connect' Family Trees [back to Home page]

15.4 Geni [back to Home page]

Surname Search Engines

16.1 Genealogy In Time [back to Home page]

16.2 Mocavo [back to Home page]

16.3 Randy Majors.com [back to Home page]

Randy Majors has designed a nice little Google surname search engine that's very convenient to use and should turn up an ancestor or two for you. He has configured his engine so it will automatically search for both first/last name, and last/first name combinations of your subject and spouse, without you having to enter those name combinations. It's a great time saver and perfect if you sometimes forget to reverse names when you search. In addition to the subject and spouse fields, you can also add places and dates to the search to narrow your results. The date field has a nice touch in that when you enter a year, the search string created puts in both the year before and the year after, just in case the date you've entered is a year off. There is also a clever little 'married' check box that will insert the search terms "marriage|married|marriage" into to your search string which is great for finding marriage records. Another feature the engine has is once you hit search, the search string that is created is visible to you and you can easily edit it while you search. The engine uses Google's new 'instant' feature so you can see the results change instantly as you edit and modify the search fields or string without having to wait for the page to refresh. All in all, a great little surname search tool.

16.4 Blekko [back to Home page]

Blekko is a search engine that operates by users telling the search engine what sites should be included in their search. The object is to eliminate showing any spam and non-genealogy related sites when you search. In some ways Blekko is very similar to how a surname search engine site operates in that the Blekko search engine only searches sites that are genealogy related, or have some genealogy value. The main difference is that a surname search site is preloaded with genealogy sites by the webmaster of that particular surname site, while Blekko relies on volunteer users called 'editors' to preload the search engine's 'genealogy' category with genealogy sites. Blekko is still a relatively new site, having started up in November of 2010, and it appears they have about 2,300 sites in the category 'genealogy'. That number of sites is probably a little less than what a really good surname site might have. However, over time, with Blekko's model of using many volunteer editors to add and police links, it's possible that eventually the weight of many, many editors would begin to surpass the one or a few people that a surname search site might employ for adding sites. If Blekko is able to build a critical mass of volunteers who are active in the genealogy category, the value of the site for genealogy should increase. To search Blekko's genealogy category enter your keyword in the search box like this: your keyword /genealogy.

Besides using Blekko to search the genealogy category, perhaps the next best thing about Blekko might be that it allows anyone to build their own personalized search engine on whatever topic they choose. To do that you simply create an account, then a category, then start adding websites to your category. Voilà, you have your own personalized search engine. Give it a try.

Images

17.1 Google Images [back to Home page]

17.2 Bing Images [back to Home page]

17.3 Dead Fred [back to Home page]

17.4 Ancient Faces [back to Home page]

17.5 Family Old Photos.com [back to Home page]

Miscellaneous searchable and viewable

18.1 [back to Home page]

Miscellaneous searchable only

19.1 RYRWPA - Bible Records [back to Home page]

19.2 Sampubco [back to Home page]

Updated Saturday, July 30, 2011