RootsChat.Com
General => The Common Room => Topic started by: Hodgkiss on Saturday 09 April 11 14:28 BST (UK)
-
I have gotten in the habit of checking sites like google and ebay most days for information regarding my family, as you never know what will come up.
I was searching for pwllheli ( where alot of my family came from ) on Ebay just to see what came up.
To my suprise i came across a picture of a girls school group with a woman who looked remarkably like my Great Great Grandmother holding a pan, ( my gggran was the cook at the school ).
I already own one picture of her so i know what she looks like)
The picture was not of high resolution, so i put bid in, won and recieved it today.
I scanned it in at high resolution, and it is 100% my GGGrandmother. So im very excited and amazed.
So just to say, never give up and keep searching, its amazing what come up.
-
Hi Hodgkiss
Congratulations on that find and how very true it is to regularly search or google for any thing new on the internet.
Many people do not realise or have forgotten that a sinple search of a full name enclosed in quotes can some times strike lucky.
Linda
-
How exciting!
I can't emphasise enough that you should google. I've found so much - including a photo of the house my gt grandfather was born in (its a gorgeous listed building) various parish transcriptions, mention of my gt x 3 grandfather as a witness in a trial and all sorts..
Sometimes you find something when you are looking for something else. Happy hunting!
-
My wife having just found out some of her ancesters came from Canisbay in the very north of Scotland, googled it and the first thing that came up was a photo of her 3G granfathers gravestone, to say we were surprised would be putting it mildly
Tkgafs
-
Googling can bring despair as well as joy!
I thought i had my James Needham more or less sorted -- father had moved to Liverpool, married and produced children. James had at some time returned to the family home area of Derbyshire for his own marriage & children
UNTILL i found a copy of a will on-line of a Sarah Wardle leaving money to the children of her brother James Needham - including another Sarah
It was definitely the right family - but i didnt have a Sarah amongst Jame's sisters or children!
Further reseach led me to discover that I had attached my James to the wrong set of parents back in Liverpool. I then found the birth of a Sarah to the "correct" set of parents -- but so for no James to these parents! And still no Sarah as a child of James.
The search continues....
-
I put my mother's family name and the county that her mother was born into Google, and I found something written by the son of my grandfather's brother, giving an account of how life was during his lifetime (from about 1918 to 2005). Not only was it a fascinating account of life in those times, but it also contained pictures of relatives that I didn't have pictures of :)
You should Google regularly ...... you never know what will turn up ! 8)
-
I put my name into Google a few months back and discovered that I am a long legged African American chanteuse! Good looking too! which I'm not, on either count.
;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
Dawn M
-
I totally agree. Keep searching - even if you've searched before.
I also search Google Books regularly. It's amazing how much can be found on there. Some of my rellies were lawyers, JPs etc and there is always something new being added about them. Some of them wrote papers which are only just finding their way onto the internet.
Also, be imaginative about your search. Try searching for the wife of the person you are looking for. I did this (a bit by accident) and found out a lot about the husband although the wife was the one with the peerage.
Rishile
-
BINGO ! Browsing through RC I came across this thread ... idly put in my fathers name, and found an obit I knew nothing about in the London Gazette !
Thanks Hodgkiss ... :-*
-
You can use Google Alerts where you can register a name or a phrase and any new occurrence will be alerted to you by e-mail. You can set the frequency you want it checked, I have some set up for daily checking, then you don't have to remember to do it. Only works if the name is fairly unique! Put it in quotes just to pick up that exact name rather than the individual parts of the name.
-
Don't just use Google. Different search engines throw up different results.
Bing, for instance, didn't give me many results, but one was new & proved very interesting.
Betty
-
I put my dad's cousins married name into google (very unusual name) and it came back with her war time account when she was stationed in Portsmouth which she had written for the bbc history site!
My dad and uncle were really chuffed to bits to read it, their cousin used to visit my uncle as he was stationed on the Isle of Wight during the war.
-
I love googling :) :).
Googling my family name came up with an artical written in 1832 by the Chairman of the Local Health Board for Tranent and Prestopans by a H Cadell.
In the article he writes about Peter Horn aged 10yrs of Cockenzie who made a remarkable recovery from Cholera.Peter's brother Adam 18mths is also mentioned.
Marysma
-
You used to be able to specify England or UK, in Google. I always did this, otherwise I got a lot of American stuff which was not relevant.
Now it does not give you that option. :-\
Kooky
-
You used to be able to specify England or UK, in Google. I always did this, otherwise I got a lot of American stuff which was not relevant.
Now it does not give you that option. :-\
Kooky
If you search for say "John Smith" england your search will eliminate lots of the US ones .... using the quotation marks around the key words and then the country etc ... still works for me
Teddles
-
OK!
Kooky
-
With my Google account, on the first page of results for a search, on the left are some options, one of which is 'pages from the UK'. I just click on that.
Salvia
-
I put my grandfather's name in to find he was convicted and hanged for murder.However being only 9 at the time I am fairly certain he didn't do it ;D
-
I was googling a distant relative who died at sea in 1915 so i always assumed he was a soldier, finally found information about his death on a Grimsby Trawler forum!
-
I've only had a modicum of luck with these types of searches, but admittedly I'm not very good at them. Any hints at how to enter the search info?
I've searched Google, Google News, & Google Books. Do I need to separate them out like this or should I just use the main search engine?
I've been using the surname in quotations, country or community, and then (when searching in Google news) limiting the dates i.e. 1900-1930.
Is there a better way to do this to get better results?
-
I prefer to put minimal search information in, and do the filtering myself :)
-
Tracking Great Uncle Alexander from Poland to Nottingham, I discovered he had connections with Canterbury in Kent. Searching for just surname+Canterbury gave a couple of hits for Canterbury, New Zealand. It turned out he had a son who had emigrated, so a useful find I wasn't expecting.
Betty
-
I put my grandfather's name in to find he was convicted and hanged for murder.However being only 9 at the time I am fairly certain he didn't do it ;D
Well, fancy that, George was once ONLY 9 .... and already well accomplished on the keyboard, a slave to Geggle ... Well of course being such an accomplished chap, George would not have any forebears who at age 9 already had fathered a child as well as having faced a jury, and been found guilty of murder and had missed having such a sentence of death by hanging then remitted to one of servitude in prison or in a penal colony or otherwise dealt with ... Pardoned perhaps .
-
;D ;D ;D
I wasn't 9 at the time Teddles,the grandfather was and I am sure had no moustache like the chap in the photo.I of course was also once only 9,well outside,inside I guess I have been 9 several times(especially in the brain department ;D)
ps.I put another great grandfathers name in and it appears he was a baseball player or a senator both in the USA or a magician.To get to the USA and back in between a stint down the coal mine for the first two he would have had to be the third and to be the third he would have to be 117 years old :o
Seriously though,I have found a couple of relatives in a roundabout way through Googling.
-
When on ebay ( which is how this thread started ) I always search for the place name my family came from. I search with the box ticked for searching title and Description and then filter it by collectables.
it seems to be a good way of bringing up alot of photographs of that area. or people of that area.
I found the group photo which included my GGGran by chance, and i only have one other photograph of her that was sent to me at the beggining of the year! Amazing coinsidences.
photo only cost me £4!
-
A lucky find Hodgkiss and worth far more to you than the £4 spent.
-
I check Google regularly for info on ancestors. I type things such as "Richard Taylor" Wimbish and see what comes up.
Today on SEAX I found a settlement examination for my Taylor ancestors from Barkway to Saffron Walden. SEAX collections come up in Google searches.