Using Special Characters To Bubble Up Those Leads

The Basic Genealogy Search

Most of us start out using search engines for genealogy by simply typing in the name of our ancestor and maybe the location where they lived.

     Example 1:  Joseph Gambino Italy

While there is nothing wrong with this type of search, we may be missing out on a lot of great information by only searching this one way. There are a variety of ways to search and there are special characters or operators that can help us achieve our research goals.  To obtain the best possible results from our search, we can use special characters to refine our query and ensure only the most promising leads bubble up to the top.

Using Quotes  

When we search using the basic method above, the search engine will look for anything containing the word Joseph and the word Gambino in the same page.  Since we are looking for a name, we would rather have results for the phrase Joseph Gambino together.  To achieve that, quotation marks are used.

     Example 2:  "Joseph Gambino" Italy

By placing quotes around the name of our ancestor, we are telling the search engine that we only want our results to include pages that reference the exact phrase as we have typed it in between those quotes.

The OR Operator

If you read my previous post, you'll know that spelling can be an issue when doing genealogy.  Names were often misspelled.  Names can change or be Americanized.  To search on different variations of a name, we use the OR operator.

    Example 3:  "Joseph Gambino" OR "Joe Gambino" OR "Giuseppe Gambino" Italy

By including each variation in our search, we will now receive results that list any of the above names (as they appear inside the quotes).  Using the OR operator can be the difference between finding one document and finding many documents.

The Asterisk (*) Operator

Not sure if your Ancestor used a middle name or initial.  We definitely don't want to miss out on a document just because we didn't include that information in our search.  An asterisk (SHIFT + 8 on your keyboard) can act as a wildcard so the search engine will know that we want to search for the first word adjacent to or separated by one word from the second word in our quotes.  

     Example 4:  "Joseph * Gambino" OR "Joe * Gambino" OR "Giuseppe * Gambino"

                            OR "Gambino * Joseph" OR "Gambino * Joe" OR "Gambino * Giuseppe"                                 Italy

By including the asterisk, we can account for use of  a middle name or initial even if we don't know what that name or initial may be.  We have also used it here to account for documents that may reference our Ancestor by last name first.

The Range (..) Operator

If your Ancestor has a common name, you may want to narrow your search results even further by limiting your search to a specific date range.  To do this, you can enter the birth and death years separated by two dots.  If you don't have the birth and death years, you can use approximate years.

     Example 5:  "Joseph * Gambino" OR "Joe * Gambino" OR "Giuseppe * Gambino"

                            OR "Gambino * Joseph" OR "Gambino * Joe" OR "Gambino * Giuseppe"

                            Italy 1894..1973  

By using some or all of these special characters or operators, you should be able to better narrow your results so you can reach the records you desire.  I encourage you to try this with your own Ancestor.  Start with the basic search and see what results you get, then add some of the other options above and see if that improves your results.  You may be surprised what bubbles up to the top.  We'd love to see if this helped your research so feel free to share your comments below.

Stay tuned for our next post on even more special characters or operators used for improving your search results.