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Search Tips:
If
we search for Luke Swetland on most search engine sites, we are likely
to get results on Luke Swetland, however you will also likely get
results for pages that contain Luke and Swetland, but not
necessarily together. So you might get a match on something like a Luke
Smith in one part of the web page and then maybe a Joseph Swetland
somewhere else.
So how do we get results for exactly what we are looking for? Well,
most search engines also use a bit of math and limiters. I will step
you through some of these with examples. The examples I use, I have
made up as I created this document and I do not guarantee what the actual
results may be.
Quotation Marks: The use of quotation marks ( "
") around phrases, for most search engines, is a limiter and will limit
the search to exactly that phrasing. So, in the case above, if we now
type in "Luke Swetland" we will get results for Luke
Swetland as a whole phrase. I have found the use of quotation marks
to really help speed up, or reduce the number of page matches that I need to
scan through for possible information that I may be looking for. What
if there is a web page that has Luke Swetland in it but it is listed
surname, then given name. We might have missed that with the previous example.
So you may also want to try searching for the phrase "Swetland,
Luke" to see what results that yields. In the same line of
thought, what if there were colons (:) after his name in a possible table or
data record. Then you might want to try "Luke Swetland:"
or even "Swetland, Luke:".
Plus Symbol: I also mentioned math. In most search engines
the use of and is ignored. But you could use the plus (+) sign
to be able to link several things together. If you were looking for
information on the Wyoming Massacre you could just type in Wyoming
Massacre. Or, as we just learned you could type in "Wyoming Massacre"
to be more exact. What if I wanted to find a web page that has
information on Luke Swetland and the Wyoming Massacre ? I
could just type all the words in and then try to sift through all the results
I get, or I could try this: "Wyoming Massacre" + "Luke
Swetland". This would narrow my results down and possibly lead
to a more exacting match. You could also use the plus symbol for multiple
words to narrow results or for common words that search engines usually toss
out. An example of some of these common words are who, how, and, or,
if, and so on. You can usually find these documented somewhere on
the search engines' website. However, a usage like thus: "Luke
Swetland" +how +Forty +Fort +burned would include the word how and
use it as part of the search.
Minus Symbol: Another math operation I could use is the minus
(-) symbol. This will eliminate pages that contain the words I minus
out. For example, if I wanted to search for but I did not want matches
containing the Wyoming Massacre I could search this way: "Luke
Swetland" - "Wyoming
Massacre". This would yield results of Luke Swetland,
and again in the exactly matching phrasing because we used quotation marks,
but would eliminate any pages that contained the Wyoming Massacre.
Why would you want to do this? Well, say you have been doing searches,
and you find that you keep finding the same bit of information on Luke
Swetland linked with the Wyoming Massacre. You already know
what it is going to say, and you really do not want to filter through 100
more pages of results, this could really reduce your work-load.
Tilde Symbol: The tilde symbol(~) is another operator we can
use. This is that wavy line that is to the left of your number 1
key on your keyboard, and you have to use you Shift key to get
it. The use of this symbol in front of a word will cause most search
engines to look for synonyms of that word. For example, if we were
searching on best sharpening techniques for axes and we entered +sharpening
+techniques ~axe, this might yield results on sharpening techniques for
hatchets, woodsman's axes, broad axe, etc.
Numeric
Range:
Here is one I nearly forgot, but could be quite useful in researching
ancestors is the numeric range limiter. For this we just use two
periods (..) with no spaces between them and the numbers on either side or
between. So, if we are searching for the surname Sweetland and
occurrences with dates between the years 1820 and 1860.
We could do a search like this: Sweetland 1820..1860 .
Again, note, no spaces between the periods and no spaces used before or after
them. This defines the range.
OR Usage: When I was describing the usage of the plus symbol I
mentioned that most search engines will ignore common words, one of them
being or. So, how do we use this in our searches? We need
to CAPITALIZE on the situation. The use of a capital OR is
considered a math operation. In this way we can look for any matches of
possible combinations. A good example would be to search for Swetland
OR Sweetland OR Sweatland OR Swetlana OR Sweetlin and you can see how
extensive you can make this. This will yield us matches for any of the
names or words listed.
Combinations: Finally, as you could see in a few of my previous
examples I combined a few operations together. That is perfectly
acceptable and can yield narrowed results as well. Let's take this for
example: +Luke +Swetland OR Sweetland OR Sweatland 1740..1792
-"Wyoming
Massacre" ~rifle. This could provide us with web pages results
mentioning a rifle, or pistol, or gun, without the mention of the Wyoming
Massacre with dates ranging anywhere from 1740 to 1792 and with mention of
the names Luke, Swetland, Sweetland, or Sweatland. So if you try this
do not be surprised if you see mention of a Luke someone and a someone
Sweetland as we are allowing for that to be a possibility in the search
phrasing. If we really wanted Luke and any of the three possible
spellings I listed above, a better search might me to input this: "Luke
Swetland" OR "Luke Sweetland" OR "Luke Sweatland"
1740..1792 -"Wyoming
Massacre" ~rifle.
Most importantly, have fun. Enjoy the breadth and depth of knowledge
available on the Internet. Remember, though, the Internet has been
around for over 20 years, but it has only been within the last 10 years that
is has really boomed and been used widely by the public domain. There
are still people with information and knowledge out there that have not ever
posted anything on the Internet or have had access to the Internet or even
know how to put anything up on the Internet. It is like a living,
growing plant. Everyday it gets bigger and new things appear. So,
just because you did not find what you were searching for today, does not
mean that it does not exist or that it is not out there. Check back
often and key in some of those same searches again. And finally, a
caution. Not everything you read on the Internet may be accurate.
Just as there was handwriting mistakes and poor spelling in the days of ship
records and court records, there continues to be typographical errors and the
proverbial "computer mistakes" that pick at us today.
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