Lyceum Course - Internet Genealogy - Search Principles
- Common Mistakes
- Using Too Much Information on Forms Page - Ie. Over Specifying
Browsing Through Multiple Hits More Productive Than Not Hitting the Record/File You're Looking For
- Assuming a Field is Required
- Giving Up Too Soon - On Occasion Even Months Later - Try Again
Reason - May Search Slightly Differently
- Not Trying Multiple Times
- Not Trying Different Approaches
- Misspelling (Especially) a Name
- Census Enumerator Spelled the Name Differently than Family
- Indexer Read the Name Incorrectly (Corrective Action - See Below)
- Name Spelling Has Changed Through Generations (Corrective Action - See Below)
- Name is Indexed Differently Than You Expect
Eg. Mc Anulty versus Mcanulty or vice-versa
- Looking for Wrong Name (Corrective Action - See Below)
- Many Census Records - Persons Used Initials
Use First Initial in Given Name Field
- Common Name - Easily Get Too Many Hits to Manually Scan
- Needed or Missing Diacritical Marks - Especially on Non-English Sites
- Circumventing Common Mistakes
- Try Searching With Wild Card(s) - If Allowed
Symbol(usually) "*" stands for any string of characters including none.
Eg. "Sm*th*" will match Smith, Smyth, Smithe, etc.
- Too Many Possibilities to Consider - Add negative terms if allowed
Eg. Looking for a person with name close to famous person, require
some characteristic of the famous person not be included. Eg. Occupation, state of residence, etc.
- Census Searches -
- If know State & County, Use Given Name Only
- Too Many Hits - Add Age Range (Try at least two)
- Try Leaving Out Name Completely!!
But You'll Have to Add Other Qualifiers
- Age
- Locale - State/Country of Birth
© Prepared by Jay February 3, 2012