Searching Trove

[Joyful]

 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

[DavidG02]

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    )

[Neil Todd]

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

[whiteout7]

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

[DavidG02]

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

[rosball]

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

[Joyful]

Thanks dgibbins, whiteout, Neil and Ros... off now to

conduct trials

Joy
 

[rusted]

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.

[Joyful]

Many thanks rusted, that seems pretty straight forward even for a novice

like me I can't believe that I got through Uni and Post Grad studies and Trove

throws me for a loop

Joy