Using Google’s Tools for Your Genealogy Research - Part 4, Translated Search
Family history researchers often find themselves in need of translation resources. The Google Translate service offers a collection of free translation tools that can prove useful to genealogy and family history researchers.
For years, the Google search engine has had a Language Tools section that allowed search engine users to perform some translation tasks, such as translating a chunk of text, or translating a Web page by submitting the Web page URL. The Google Translate service retains those capabilities on the Text and Web tab at the top of the Google Translate page, and also adds some more useful features.
The chief new aspect available with Google Translate is the “translate as you search” feature. You can give it a try at the Google Translate site. First choose your language (the choices are English, French, German, Spanish, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portugese, Russian, Dutch, Arabic, Chinese (Simplified), and Chinese (Traditional).
Next, choose the language of Web pages that you’d like to search (the choices are French, German, Spanish, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portugese, Russian, Dutch, Arabic, Chinese (Simplified), and Chinese (Traditional).
The final step is to fill in a search term in the search box, and then click on the “Translate and Search” button. The translated search results will appear side by side with the search results in the original language.
Check the other tabs at the top of the Google Translate page, too. There is a Dictionary feature, that offers word-by-word translation to and from English and other languages (English to French, French to English, and so on.) The Tools tab at Google Translate lists a series of translation tools that are available for users of the Google Toolbar.
For more information on using Google for genealogy research, check our previous articles, here, here, and here.
More Maps and Search Tools - Ireland, Massachusetts, Alberta
Custom search engines are now available here at GenealogyExplore.com for three more locations — Massachusetts, Ireland, and the province of Alberta in Canada.
These custom search tools search across the Web, focusing in on genealogy and family history resources that pertain to a particular country, state or province. Give these search tools a try; we think you’ll be pleased with the relevance of the search results.
In addition, maps annotated with links to research resources are also now available for Alberta, Ireland, and Massachusetts.
Check our Search Tools and Maps sections for lists of the currently available resources.
Maps Added to GenealogyExplore.com
With a compass as this site’s icon, it seemed logical for us here at GenealogyExplore.com to launch some map resources to aid family history researchers. So, that’s precisely what we’ve done.
The growing collection of maps here at GenealogyExplore.com offers family history researchers a resource for finding the towns where their ancestors lived, looking for landmarks that are significant in their families’ history, and for doing many other location-oriented research tasks. The maps are also annotated with links to research tools and resources.
New Genealogy Search Tools - Illinois, Germany, British Columbia
Three new custom genealogy search engines have been added to our collection of custom search tools here are GenealogyExplore.com. The custom search engines — for Illinois, Germany, and British Columbia — are focused on searching genealogy and family history research resources across the Web. These custom search tools are designed to improve the relevance of the search results.
Try our new custom genealogy search tools:
Using Google’s Tools for Your Genealogy Research - Part 3, Annotated Maps
Google’s Maps feature has been a part of the Google search repertoire for awhile now. The availability of this maps feature is surely helpful to family history researchers, as they identify the locations that have relevance to current and past generations of their families.
A more recent addition to the services available through Google is My Maps., a feature with great utility for family history researchers. As explained in the My Maps user guide, this feature enables Google account holders to create maps that are annotated with custom placemarks, text, links, images and videos. The creator of the map can designate the map as a “public” map which can be accessed by others via Google search, or as an “unlisted” map which is available to those to whom the map’s creator provides the map URL.
Using Google’s Tools for Your Genealogy Research - Part 2, iGoogle and More
In a previous post, I discussed signing up for a Google account, and the value of using Gmail as a tool for organizing, collecting and sharing your family history research. Here are some more useful services that are available to Google account holders.
iGoogle, and Google Gadgets: One of the chief benefits of a Google account is the iGoogle start page. By selecting from an array of available modules, or “Google gadgets,” a family history researcher can customize the content of the iGoogle start page to meet the needs of an online researcher. Need a place to jot a few notes about your family history research? There are various “sticky note” gadgets available. Need to compile a research “to-do” list? There are gadgets available for that, too. Calendars, dictionaries, translation tools, your Google bookmarks, RSS feeds, your Gmail account, and more, are all available from your iGoogle start page.
Google Notebook: Another useful feature for researchers is Google Notebook, a tool for clipping and annotating information, links and images from the Web. The Notebook feature is available as a browser extension for Firefox and for Internet Explorer 6. The Notebook feature can also be placed on your iGoogle start page, with the use of a Google gadget. Learn more about Google Notebook here.
Using Google’s Tools for Your Genealogy Research - Part 1, Gmail
The Internet, and the information available online, are wonderful resources for family historians. To make effective use of those abundant online resources, however, family history researchers need tools for gathering information, organizing their collected research, making notes, and retrieving notes and information. We have some suggestions for using the resources made available by Google to assist you in those research tasks.
A variety of useful services are available through a Google account, which Google describes as a “unified sign-in system” that provides access to many free Google products. The first step to making use of these services is to set up a Google account. The sign-up process essentially involves providing an email address, and selecting a password.
Once you’ve established a Google account, you’re ready to try out the available services. In a series of posts, I’m going to be discussing the Google account services that are particularly useful for doing genealogy research, and for compiling and sharing family history.
Our starting point today is Gmail. The value of a Gmail (Google’s email service) to family history researchers lies, first, in the ability to use Google search to search through all emails in the account. This search capability makes it possibile to easily retrieve email conversations.