Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Googling Grandma and Grandpa

Have you Googled your grandparents, or any of your ancestral families? You might find someone else on the Internet who shares your particular ancestors.

The key is to Google both names of your ancestral couple. For instance, if I Google one of my ancestral couples, say as (Benjamin Seaver Martha Whitney), I get over 31,000 hits, nearly all of which are useless - not about my couple at all, but for web pages with the four words in them.

However, if I Google them as ("Benjamin Seaver" "Martha Whitney") I get only 87 hits - and they all apply to my ancestral couple.

The key is to use the quote marks around the names. If you have names with middle names or initials, you can use say "Benjamin * Seaver" to find hits with a middle name or initial. The * acts as a wild card entry.

Have you Googled Grandma and Grandpa recently? Did you find cousins also searching for them? Tell me about it!

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