searching for online information€¦ · week 2 •database searching basics – •applying basic...

Searching for Online Information

Genealogy Reaearch: Week 2

February 18, 2016 1 Richland Place David R. Dowell

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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