Google Advanced Search for Genealogy

Click on "Advanced Search" and fill in the parameters the best you can.

For instance, if the person you are searching is Jane Doe and you know she lives in IL and her husband's name is John. Fill in:

With all these words: John
With this exact phrase: Jane Doe
With at least one of these words: Il Illinois
Without these words:

Put the full name of a state and the abbreviation(s) just in case. If you get too many responses, you could enter for the above search in the "without these words" parameter: CHICAGO. This should eliminate quite a few hits since Chicago is the largest city in IL.

   Thanks to Michelle who posted this idea to the Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness list at RAOGK.org.


UK-only searches
AltaVista United Kingdom: http://uk.altavista.com/

Google UK: http://www.google.co.uk/

UKSearch.com: http://uksearch.com/

There are many sites dedicated to local areas and villages. Type in the name of the town or village, and if known add the county to reduce multiple matches. Using UK-only search engines will cut out the villages and towns in the US named after the UK originals. Thanks to Bill Lewis in the Ancestry Daily News for these links.


Beta Google Gen Search engine: http://genealogyblog.com/index.php?p=2430


The complete opposite of focussed Google searching is Memepool, a very quirky blog of bizarre links around the web. Less amusing: Fark.com.

Speaking of blogs, check out GenealogyBlog, by Leland Meitzler and Joe Edmond, along with William Dollarhide, Donna Potter Phillips, and Janet Elaine Smith. 1000 entries so far!: http://www.genealogyblog.com/


Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and diligence. - Abigail Adams, 1744-1818