you have an ancestor with an incredibly common surname or a surname that is a place verb or
noun these people can be tricky to identify in old records join me today on the ancestral
findings podcast and I'll give you some tips for searching for them and finding them in
old newspaper records all you need are some fancy search tricks to reveal your ancestors
we've all been there we discover a new family line to explore but to our frustration the surname is
incredibly common seriously common like millions of unrelated people also have that same surname
and many of them live in the same town or county as your ancestors when you combine
common surnames like Smith Jones Johnson Williams and such with astoundingly average first things
like John Mary Michael William Margaret Martha Elizabeth and more it can start to seem like a
virtual impossibility to pull out the ancestors who are actually yours from the common name crowd
here are some tips to get past this common but no less frustrating genealogical obstacle one of the
best methods for finding these ancestors is to use old newspaper articles as researching the
newspapers from the places where your ancestors lived is a good way to identify the people who
are actually them however if you are using online newspapers which is the best and easiest way to go
as these are usually indexed by word allowing you to search and go right to the relevant page rather
than searching the entire newspaper in person at an archive common surnames can still trip you up
if your ancestors name is also the same as a place or a thing you will get a lot of irrelevant search
results think of the kind of results you might get by searching online newspapers for surnames like
Barry Gould Miller bacon or Baker daunting isn't it the good news is that there are ways around
this you just have to know how to search those online newspapers strategically when you search
the right way you will be amazed at the accurate results you will receive results that are relevant
to your own personal genealogical research and family tree branch use the include exclude
words field most online newspaper databases have this field and it is a useful one when searching
for common surnames and trying to filter out irrelevant results if your surname is a verb
or a noun you will find this feature especially beneficial simply use the exclude words field
to filter out words commonly associated with the surname as an example if your last name is Barry
filter out words like straw Blue Goose rasp black cobbler pie and cake you can additionally make use
of the include words field to narrow down those search results try making sure you get results
that are actually people by including words like family mister miss and missus if you want to find
an obituary birth or wedding notice or notice of a family reunion include those words - putting words
in the include words field like died obituary survivor survived born parents birth wedding weds
married ceremony and reunion can help you find your ancestors in those old newspaper databases
with far greater ease than if you did not use these helpful word fields instead of hundreds
or thousands of results pages you will just get a few or even only one which makes searching far
more targeted and easy try phrase searching if you are sure of the spelling of your ancestors
last name you can put it in quotation marks in the search field to get exact search results the
indexing feature of most old newspaper databases may give you results that are spelled similarly
but not exactly if you do not put the surname or first name in quotations of course this only works
if you know exactly how the surname was spelled and if the newspaper did not misspelled the name
which was a common occurrence in old newspapers though usually more common with unusual surnames
be sure to include the first name the last name in quotations to get even more exact search
results filter it further by trying variations on spellings of first and last names by abbreviating
first names like JN o for John or Jas for James and adding middle initials to get you closer to
the exact ancestor for whom you are searching give the boolean feature ago don't ignore the
boolean search feature on most old newspaper databases it could be just what you need to
find your ancestors it's not a difficult search field to use and its exotic name is nothing to
put you off about the boolean feature is just a common and simple search tool with a fancy name
that's all when you use boolean you can include boolean operations in your search these operators
are connecting words like and not and/or this is simply telling the search engine what to do
in the search like not including certain words in search results pairing certain words together
using and and giving the search engine a choice of words using or you can do things like search
for baker not bread Jones and family or Walsh or Welsh the or feature is particularly helpful
if you know your family members in the past used more than one spelling for their surname sometimes
family members in the same generation spelled their surname differently such as Douglas with
two S's and Douglas with one s or Smith with a y and Smith with an I use or in boolean to make sure
you find the ones who were using a different spelling of the family surname don't give up
on that ancestor these tips will help you find those ancestors with common surnames or surnames
that are used as places or parts of speech like verbs and nouns however you may have to search for
awhile there are all kinds of search words phrases and combinations you may have to go through before
you find your ancestors you may also have to search more than one newspaper database and
even more than one paper just keep going you're commonly surnamed ancestors are there waiting for
you to find them it will be so rewarding when you do all the effort you put into it will be worth it
the Freedmen's Bureau records are an invaluable resource for the descendants of formerly enslaved
people in the United States they provide information that isn't found anywhere else
and can bring people long-lost to history back into the light join me in the next episode as we
talk about where to find them and how to use them thanks for joining me today I'll see you next time
on the ancestral findings podcast and for further info you can visit us at ancestral findings com