Google Tips for Genealogy: Spelling

When you use Google you are searching an index of web pages found on the Internet. Keep in mind who publishes those web pages: fellow genealogists, cousins . . .human beings. Are human beings consistent with spelling? Nope. Do human beings make mistakes? You bet. Does every human being use his or her spell-checker? I wish.

Variant Spellings, Misspellings, and Typos:

When searching on names we have learned (or are learning) to look for all variant spellings of given names, surnames, and place names. For example, when looking for Anderson you should also look for Andersen, Andersson, Anderssen, and possibly just Anders, etc. The same goes for keywords or phrases that you might use in a search. So, when looking for one word/phrase also look for misspellings or typos for that word, such as:

• genealogy --> geneology, geneaology, genology
• ancestry --> ancestory
• family history --> family histroy
• cemetery --> cemetary

Other Languages:

Remember to use words and phrases from languages other than your own, particularly those from the country of origin for your ancestors. If you are looking for your Swedish ancestor use Swedish words in your searches. For example, use translation software or tools like the FamilySearch word lists to locate the Swedish words for birth (födda, födde, född, födelse), burial (begravning), wife (hustru, maka), etc.

Build Your Queries:

You need to build a series of possible search queries based on various spellings, words, and phrases. The queries can be stored in a document on your computer and used over and over again each time you sit down to Google your ancestors. Just copy and paste them when you are ready to search. So, using my previous (simple) Peter Johnson example, I would start to build a series of several queries like this:

• genealogy peter johnson iowa sweden
  
• geneology peter johnson iowa sweden
  
• geneaology peter johnson iowa sweden
  
• genology peter johnson iowa sweden
  
• "family history" peter johnson iowa sweden
  
• "family histroy" peter johnson iowa sweden
  
• "family tree" peter johnson iowa sweden
  
• ancestry peter johnson iowa sweden
  
• ancestory peter johnson iowa sweden
  
• genealogy peter johnsen iowa sweden
  
• geneology peter johnsen iowa sweden
  
• geneaology peter johnsen iowa sweden
  
• genology peter johnsen iowa sweden
  
• "family history" peter johnsen iowa sweden
  
• "family histroy" peter johnsen iowa sweden
  
• "family tree" peter johnsen iowa sweden
  
• ancestry peter johnsen iowa sweden
  
• ancestory peter johnsen iowa sweden

As you can see above it would be possible to come up with dozens of variant queries to try out based on combinations of misspellings, typos, and more.

Wanted Dead, But Not Live (for the most part)

At what point did it become acceptable to pass off live people-finding search services as "genealogy" and "family tree" resources? I'm thinking it is mostly an Internet phenomenon. I'm talking about web sites on which you look for living people through searches in databases with things like phone books, reverse phone directories, address directories, directories of names of living people, criminal background checks, court records, utility records, property records, etc.

Yes, genealogists and family historians with any level of experience or expertise enjoy meeting cousins and finding long-lost family members to help fill out branches on the family tree. Especially when they are also interested in genealogy and can shed light on an ancestor. But, searching for live people isn't the main purpose or objective in family history, is it? Aren't we looking backward, generation by generation, to figure out who and where we came from? Or am I alone in thinking that is why we are all in this obsessed hobby?

A quick look at a dictionary for definitions of the word genealogy:

1. a record or account of the ancestry and descent of a person, family, group, etc.; a record or table of the descent of a person, family, or group from an ancestor or ancestors; a family tree.
2. the study of family ancestries and histories; the study or investigation of ancestry and family histories.
3. descent from an original form or progenitor; lineage; ancestry; direct descent from an ancestor; lineage or pedigree.

That has always been my view of genealogy. I do document the cousins and their children as I find them, but I don't go actively searching them in online resources. It is hard enough to find time (and money) to look for the dead ancestors, much less the thousands of live cousins spread around the world.

I started this thread tonight after receiving a new link submission from a site labeled as genealogy and described this way: "Find help for building your family tree and finding lost ancestors." However, it only had a search form and links that point to databases for finding living people, such as those I described in my first paragraph above. This isn't the first time I've received such link submissions. And it isn't the first time I've wondered about these types of sites. Why do the owners and/or visitors of these sites consider this genealogy? I worry that people who are new to genealogy will waste their time, money, and energy on sites like these before they learn where to really begin with their research. I worry that the descriptions on sites like this mislead people. It bothers me. I work hard to help people get pointed in the right directions in their research. I don't ever want to lead them astray with misleading links.

All that said, I do have a Finding People category on Cyndi's List where I link to individual phone books, people-finding services, etc. for those people who are looking for a living cousin. But that is only 191 links out of more than 260,000 total. And the links point to web sites that are all titled and labeled for what they are and what they do. None of them claim to be genealogy when they aren't.

A Late Post - Roots Television

I was recently reminded that I forgot to post a message here about my Roots Television interview on the Genealogy Cruise at the end of October. See the interview here: http://www.rootstelevision.com/players/player_howto.php?bctid=1299131268

A lesson in broken links

Recently someone submitted several new links through the form on Cyndi's List. There are several guidelines for submitting new links. Three of the points read as follows:

• First verify the address before submitting it.
• Type the address carefully for complete accuracy.
• For error-free submissions, use the "copy & paste" function on your computer to highlight and copy the address from your web browser window and paste it into the text box below.

That seems straight-forward to me. The links are automatically added to a waiting area page on Cyndi's List (What's New) and they are sent to me to be forwarded to the mailing list. So, if links are submitted I assume the submitter is following the guidelines. I also assume the submitter cares about the link(s) they are submitting, thus the reason they submit. Well, you know that old saying about why I should never assume anything.

Links are often submitted to my site without much care. Incorrect URLs (addresses), no descriptions, poor descriptions, misspelled words, lack of punctuation...you've heard some of this from me before. But, that isn't what this message is about today. Today it is only about the incorrect addresses that cause broken links.

I don't normally pick on specific people or instances, but this one is still haunting me today, over a month and a half later, with dozens of e-mails coming to me to report the failed links. On November 15th someone submitted a link for each US state to a site called iMortuary.com. 51 new links (don't forget DC). Of those 51 links, 43 links were submitted with bad addresses and are broken. Further, the submitter didn't use consistent descriptions, so they obviously weren't merely doing a copy and paste (if so, the description would probably have been the same over and over again). 43 broken links, newly submitted, means extra work for me to now fix them on my What's New page for November (http://www.cyndislist.com/new1107.htm); 43 links are forever broken in the mailing list archives (http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/CyndisList/2007-11/1196067888); there are numerous wasted e-mails back and forth reporting the broken links to me; and a bunch of wasted time for all of you who tried to use those links. In the end, the broken links defeated the purpose of submitting them to my site in the first place--to get visitors to that site.

Now to the lesson in broken links. If you encounter a broken link you might be able to find the correct address yourself by looking carefully at the URL. In this case, the broken links resulted because the submitter put the first letter in the name of the state in uppercase instead of all lowercase letters. For example, they submitted this:
     http://www.imortuary.com/cemeteries/Ohio/
when it should have been this:
     http://www.imortuary.com/cemeteries/ohio/
Another issue with the link for New York was easy to spot. It was uppercase, but they also left off the hyphen used in the two-word names for other links. For example, they submitted this:
     http://www.imortuary.com/cemeteries/New York
when it should have been this:
     http://www.imortuary.com/cemeteries/new-york/

Another thing you can do is break down the address and move up directories to the main directory. In the examples above, just backtrack through the address, removing first the state name:
     http://www.imortuary.com/cemeteries/
In this example you are taken to a page which is an index of all of the links to each state page. If this example hadn't worked we could just backtrack more through the address and go to the main homepage at:
     http://www.imortuary.com
If you haven't already learned these tricks, start looking at URLs for web sites to see if you might figure out broken links that you happen upon. I'm off to fix the links on the What's New page.

Successful surfing!
Cyndi