The following article is a sample from Barry J. Ewell's book "Family Treasures: 15 Lessons, Tips, and Tricks for Discovering your Family History." He is the founder of MyGenShare.com, an online educational website for genealogy and family history.
The following is a series of preformatted searches that offer new ways to research your family. Let's start with an example for a particular individual. His family information is listed here:
Randy Johnson
Father: Richard Johnson Mother: Amy Bradshaw Spouse: Sandy Green Place of birth: Nashville, Tennessee Place of death: Kansas City, Kansas
The searches (below) are shown in the order that will often provide the best search results. Each of the searches checks for the terms genealogy and ancestry, along with similar terms, in an attempt to focus on genealogy websites. Also, each search will pick up websites that might use the common misspelling of genealogy: geneology.
Search for Randy Johnson with Spouse's Names
Often, searching for the spouse's names along with the primary person's names is the best way to look for an ancestor. This is because a spouse's name is more likely to be known than, for example, a mother's maiden name. So you are more likely to have good search results than with other searches.
1.This search uses the three name formats for Randy Johnson with the spouse's first and last name:
- "Randy Johnson" OR "Randy * Johnson" OR "Johnson, Randy" "Sandy Green" ~genealogy OR ~ancestry
2.This search uses the three name formats for Randy Johnson with the spouse's first name, middle name or initial, and last name:
- "Randy Johnson" OR "Randy * Johnson" OR "Johnson, Randy" "Sandy * Green" ~genealogy OR ~ancestry
3.This search uses the three name formats for Randy Johnson with the spouse's last name, followed by a comma and the spouse's first name:
- "Randy Johnson" OR "Randy * Johnson" OR "Johnson, Randy" "Green, Sandy" ~genealogy OR ~ancestry
Search for Randy Johnson with Father's First and Last Names
Searching with the parents' names could pick up websites that have information about siblings of your ancestor and their parents. This would be the case if someone had already researched a sibling's ancestry but was, for some reason, unaware of your ancestor. Searching for the father's names along with the primary person's names might be useful, because fathers' names are more likely to be recorded in older records than mothers' names. In turn then, fathers' names are more likely to be found on websites.
1.This search uses the three name formats for Randy Johnson with the father's first and last name:
- "Randy Johnson" OR "Randy * Johnson" OR "Johnson, Randy" "Richard Johnson" ~genealogy OR ~ancestry
2.This search uses the three name formats for Randy Johnson with the father's first name, middle name or initial, and last name:
- "Randy Johnson" OR "Randy * Johnson" OR "Johnson, Randy" "Richard Johnson" ~genealogy OR ~ancestry
3.This search uses the three name formats for Randy Johnson with the father's first name, middle name or initial, and last name:
- "Randy Johnson" OR "Randy * Johnson" OR "Johnson, Randy" "Richard * Johnson" ~genealogy OR ~ancestry
Search for Randy Johnson with Mother's Names
Searching for the mother's names along with the primary person's names is not the best possible search, but it might be worth a try if you are unable to find your ancestor by searching with other names.
1.This search uses the three name formats for Randy Johnson with the mother's first and last name:
- "Randy Johnson" OR "Randy * Johnson" OR "Johnson, Randy" "Amy Bradshaw" ~genealogy OR ~ancestry
2.This search uses the three name formats for Randy Johnson with the mother's first name, middle name or initial, and last name:
- "Randy Johnson" OR "Randy * Johnson" OR "Johnson, Randy" "Amy * Bradshaw" ~genealogy OR ~ancestry
3.This search uses the three name formats for Randy Johnson with the mother's last name, followed by a comma and the mother's first name:
- "Randy Johnson" OR "Randy * Johnson" OR "Johnson, Randy" "Bradshaw, Amy " ~genealogy OR ~ancestry