Names which cause problems with searches....

[Chrisann]

The name Cock/Cocks- I need say no more

I know what you mean my Cock family in Kent are a real pain - oh and I have Pain(e)s too, and they are one. Laws also  Chrisann

[Jean McGurn]

You can imagine what I get searching for Stables 

Jean

[Pebbles Kernow]

I've got Painter, Fisher and May causing problems as you would expect.

The one that suprised me was Brind - I never knew there is a Hamlet in East Riding of Yorkshire - I do now!

[Darwin]

I have Heard, which is hopeless in newspaper searches and searching for the Bird family has rarely been successful.

[Paul Caswell]

Look at the Google advanced search to see what you can do.  You can do Boolean searching (AND OR NOT) with AND being default.  So if you know first names of some relatives you can do a search like, "Elias Street" OR "Joseph Street" OR "Matilda Street".   You can also search drury aberdeen NOT "drury lane".

There are a few other tricks:

You can do Drury -Lane which is equivalent to your Drury NOT Lane.

Try Ferry ~Ancestry although Bird ~Ancestry doesn't seem to do quite so well.

Added: You can also refine with "+" which is supposed to mean "must contain" but I can't think of an example right now.

Paul

[Gaille]

I have Childs Put it in any search and you get "Child of" "Stilborn Child of" etc.

Drives me nuts when I dont have a first name to add to it!

On the plus side tho .................... Its was getting a whole load of "Stillborn child of" results that led me to realise that sometimes search engines have a whole list of stillborn children listed under their parents name not their own..............and found me my mums long lost 'memory of a baby cousin' that she was convinced maybe she had imagined existed!

[justmej]

I have any amount of James Pattersons... I'm sure I must be related to that author, as he keeps appearing when I do a search!

[Suffolk Mawther]

    Bridges - all I ever find are cousins with the names suspension, arched, box, girder, cantilever, London, Tower . . . . . . .

Pat ...

[Greensleeves]

My Pearl(e) family cause a lot of trouble with searches, because I get screeds of stuff about necklaces and other items of personal adornment,  and very little about people.  And when I do get people, it's those with Pearl as their first names, rather than their surnames.