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 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.
Arizona Genealogy Custom Search Engine Is Now Available
Family history researchers should look upon search engines such as Google and Yahoo as their friends, as a valuable tool for uncovering available information about ancestry and genealogy. It is important, though, to be able to search efficiently and productively, and to use the search engines in a way that produces results that are relevant to your research.
There are many ways of fine-tuning the search process — for example, careful choice of search terms, and refining search terms as you proceed with your research. Search engines such as Google also have advanced search options, which allow researchers to limit the search to an exact phrase, to limit the search results to a particular date range, and so on. Read more