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Research in Other Countries => Australia => Topic started by: Joyful on Sunday 22 February 15 04:04 GMT (UK)
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Please will someone tell me how to search efficiently in Trove :) I spend hours trawling through
Trove looking for information and usually give up :( Do all the efficient researchers use the
advanced search option or what :-\ Should I put the query in quotation marks or not :-\
Trove is a great resource and I'm not getting the best out it or using my time productively :(
Thanks
Joy
Edit to replace missing word
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Hi Joy
Best advice I can give is do variations.
I always search ''earliest first'' unless I know its a later but 95% I search earliest
For example I have been searching Samuel Sheppard. I enter Samuel+sheppard and then I started with a nationwide to see if I could spot anything. Then clicked on SA and saw 1 or 2 for a Samuel Sheppard which fit with what I had already found. I then checked by doing a spelling variation ie Shepherd/Shepperd/Sheppard etc then work down to initials ie S+Sheppard or even Sam+Sheppard ( you end up with the Texan accused of murder)
Others may know more tricks ( and I will pinch them as well ;D )
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You need to search by state, if you know it, if not just quotation the single surname. Then roughly by decade and area which are in the lists on the left by paper.
Much depends on what you already know as to how quickly you will get through to the info needed. The requirement may be for a wedding so the list of those in family notices is the one to head for.
Start small, little is better to much info particularly if wrong can lead you away so stay tight and only use what you know as the correct parameters.
Neil
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I've had good results by using the surname and the area they lived in sometimes they are the only family of that name in an area. Everytime you find a town name or street name add that to the surname :)
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I've had good results by using the surname and the area they lived in sometimes they are the only family of that name in an area. Everytime you find a town name or street name add that to the surname :)
Yes that's a good one. I have done that and it helps when looking for articles or obits
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I love the tilda feature of trove. In main search box if you type
"John Blakewell"~2
it will find occurrences of John and Blakewell occurring within 2 words so will match with a middle name or initial. You do get lots of false hits though.
For death notices I usually extend the number
"John Blakewell"~10
as the death notices sometimes have the date and the address between the surname and the first name.
cheers,
Ros
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Thanks dgibbins, whiteout, Neil and Ros... off now to
conduct trials ;D ;D
Joy
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Have a look at what you get with a pretty basic search (in the advanced search box) and start using the "without these words" line to exclude things that are not relevant. Say you are searching for John Bruce, you will have heaps of articles about the ex Prime Minister, so put government, parliament, member, MP, PM. etc. in until you get the articles down to a satisfactory level.
Try to search only your local papers, then the state wide papers and when you have exhausted all these try all of Australia. I have a lot of people in Ballarat, but apart from a few years around the first world war the Ballarat Courier isnt available so a state search often turns up bits of scandel in the Melbourne Argus. Mining towns often repeated stories of disasters and mine accidents too, so you may get information about a mine accident that happened in Ballarat appearing in the Barrier Miner paper in Broken Hill or in Kalgoorlies paper for example.
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Many thanks rusted, that seems pretty straight forward even for a novice
like me ;D I can't believe that I got through Uni and Post Grad studies and Trove
throws me for a loop ;D
Joy
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Hi Joyful, Interesting and helpful advice here.
Must remember Rusted's trick.
I look up Daley and find there was an undertaker of that name so thousands of hits. I look up Burke and find one of the main thoroughfares in Melbourne - must make use of the without these words feature.
As for looking up Brown . . . . . ::) ::) ::) :-\
Someone told me to put underscore between names to limit the search too - work for others??
Wiggy
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Trove also has a help section that gives lots of hints and tips. I also use the phrase section a lot. It's good for places such as Richmond River or names that are in two parts such as de ville
Regards
Jennaya
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:) If you have an address, then put this address (but don't include the suburb) into the "the phrase" option.
:) If looking for a married woman, then try looking for her under her husband's given names .... eg Mrs John SURNAME or Mrs J SURNAME
:) remember to try the usual abbreviations for given names .... Jno, Thos, Wm, Saml, etc
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Abbreviations_for_English_given_names
:) if you are looking for BDM announcements, then "Family Notices" can be a good option
:) use the 'then' spellings for the surnames/localities/
And, please please please sign in to Trove, and where you have spare moments, use the OCR options and transcribe if you see the need. "it only takes a minute and its free"
Cheers, JM
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I agree with JM about fixing up the transcription, it is wonderful when you get an article that someone has fixed. Such a fantastic resource its worth giving a little back.
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Thanks JM, I always transcribe any entries that I stop to read, and I'm always getting
side tracked so I have done quite alot ;D
Thanks again rusted I agree Trove is a wonderful resource ;)
Joy
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Definately advanced search and then narrow it down as much as possible from there, 'less is better'. Thanks Ros for the tip on the 'tilda' search, I didn't know about that one. One of the surnames I have been looking for is Miner and another is Grant so you can imagine how many articles have those words in them.
Bette
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Thank you so much everyone for your advice...obviously there are a lot
of successful researchers out there ;) ;D
Joy