If you’re reading this hoping to get great clues on finding your brick walls, do not get too excited. I do have a few for you, though.
Today, I searched for more of my dead ends using techniques taught to me by fellow family historians and professional genealogists. They provide some great tips and websites for research.
One such tip is to get the most out of Google™ searches using “Boolean Operators.” Here are some examples.
Some others are:
*
Acts as a wildcard and will match any word or phrase.
Example: christmas*trees
( )
Group multiple terms or search operators to control how the search is executed.
Example: (Christmas OR trees) decorations
$
Search for prices. Also works for Euro (€), but not GBP (£) 🙁
Example: Samsung $329
define:
A dictionary built into Google.
Example: define:entrepreneur
cache:
Returns the most recent cached version of a web page (an old version of a web page) (provided the page is indexed, of course).
Example: cache:samsung.com
site:
Limit results to those from a specific website.
Example: site:samsung.com
related:
Find sites linked to a given domain.
Example: related:samsung.com
intitle:
Find pages with a specific word (or words) in the title. In our example, any results containing the word “Samsung” in the title tag will be returned.
Example: intitle:Samsung
allintitle:
Similar to “intitle,” only results containing all the specified words in the title tag will be returned.
Example: allintitle:Samsung android
Another excellent search tool in my research has been Google Books.
- Go to Google search
- Type a surname or subject and hit enter
- Click on the “More” menu
- Click on “Books.”
- You can leave the search as is or click on “Any Books”
- Then click on “Google EBooks” to search for books online.
- Again, you can use the above Boolean Operators here.
I used these techniques today, searching for brick walls of mine and some of my clients, family, and friends. I was able to find some information that may help, but I have many names that stump me at the moment. Here is just a sample of my particular toughies:
Abigail Soper (cannot find proof of last name)
Daniel Logan’s marriage record to the above Abigail
Margaret Johnson Carr
Letitia Porterfield and John Rowan
John McMahan and Margaret Hargrove
Horace Case (could be John Horace Case)
Himan Chapman and his wife, Ann
Kezia(h), who married Isaac Burns
Williams Morrison and Christina Spiker
Charles William Davis and Eliza Wake’s parents
Jožef Fugina
Katharina Ilić
Andreas Henning
Maria Kriese
Franz Sierotzki’s family
Josephine(a) Tesmer
Jesse Decatur Simmons (researching for my uncle) 😉
There are many more, but these are my frustrating names now. I hope those searching these same names will find this blog, and we can collaborate.
I have many emails to different historical societies, churches, and county clerks trying to gather information or possible avenues for me to search.
Another great tool to find older, archived items is https://archive.org/.
For instance, go to that website and type in the search engine “Wood County, Ohio.” You get 1,147 results! Once you click a book or similar, you can then search inside the book itself.
And, always, always work sideways! Research the siblings, the aunts, the uncles, and cousins. You will be amazed at what you can find. You can even find others who are researching the same family.
So, do not give up. Keep trying and dig, dig, dig. I have broken many brick walls. It has sometimes taken years, but it happened.
To all those reading, have a Merry Christmas, Festivus, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Boxing Day, Ōmisoka, or any other holiday you celebrate. Make beautiful memories together, and write them down for your descendants while you’re at it!
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