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Searching for Online Information
Genealogy Reaearch: Week 2
February 18, 2016 1 Richland Place David R. Dowell
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Today’s agenda
1. Student recitation: – Who is the one person in your family are you most
interested in learning more about?
2. Lecture: – Sharpening our online searching skills
3. Laboratory: – Playing in FREE genealogy databases on the
Internet
4. Next week we start the serious work. ;-)
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Week 2
• Database Searching Basics –
• Applying Basic Concepts to Searching Google
• FREE databases for your genealogy “speed dial”
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Now on with the Class
Database Searching Basics
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Database Searching Basics
Based on:
Google Your Family Tree:
Unlock the Hidden Power of Google by Daniel M. Lynch 2008
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Two Important Search Concepts
Recall:
• Finding everything relevant to your search
Precision: • Not finding anything irrelevant to your search
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Two Important Search Concepts
• These concepts are almost mutually exclusive.
• The more you maximize one you minimize the other.
• There is a continuum from one to the other.
• Recall --------------------------- Precision • One is not “better” than the other.
• It depends on the purpose of your search.
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Boolean Logic to Steer Searches
• Boolean Logic: AND, OR, & NOT
• AND reduces recall but increases precision. All terms “anded” together must be present. It is a way to narrow search results
• OR reduces precision but increases recall. Any one of the terms “ored” together must be present. It is a way to cast a wider net when you are not finding enough.
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Boolean Logic to Steer Searches
• NOT reduces your recall by eliminating false matches but it increases precision. A “noted” term can not be present.
• Proximity searching means that search terms must be next to or near each other to eliminate irrelevant matches and improve precision.
• Wildcard is substituted for anything to increase recall.
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Searching for “George” “Washington”
George Washington
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Where are the results of George Washington University?
University
Washington George
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Boolean Logic to Steer Searches
• Using these theoretical concepts to “Googlize” your research:
• Any words listed in a Google search must be present—at least in some form.
• Listing too many terms can lead to no results (too much precision and not enough recall).
• Listing too few terms can lead to too many results (too much recall but too little precision).
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Boolean Logic to Steer Searches
Google uses AND and OR as Boolean operators but they must be in all CAPs for Google to recognize them as Boolean Operators.
- The minus symbol is the Google command for NOT. There must be no space between –and the term being noted.
~ The tilde is the Google command to find similar words. Again there must be no space between ~ and the term being “synonymed”.
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Blank spaces matter!!
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Boolean Logic to Steer Searches
Google uses
“..” to group words that must appear adjacent to each other. They can be an exact name or a phrase.
* as a wildcard which means any word or phrase can appear at that spot in the document. For example a search for “Barack * Obama” should return the following Barack Obama, Barack H. Obama and Barack Hussein Obama.
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Google Search Exercise
See handout@ http://goo.gl/YGccdB
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“Free” Genealogy Sites
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TANSTAAFL • “There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch –
TANSTAAFL”
• An acronym that expresses the idea that even if something seems like it is free, there is always a cost, no matter how indirect or hidden.
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“Costs” to you for free sites
• Tax dollars already paid for it.
• Wants to sell you an expanded version.
• Wants you to read advertisements.
• Websites cost time and money.
• Servers cost money.
• Someone has to pay some way, some how.
• Very few are totally free to you.
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“Free Sites” Handout is online
“Free” Genealogy Information
http://goo.gl/YGccdB
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•Questions so far?
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