April 28 - use google's site search function.

April 28 – Use Google to search Roots Web: go to www.google.com and type your search term plus site:rootsweb.com.

I teach this to all my students in my “Finding Your Roots Online” class. When I cover Google search I love this feature for any website that doesn’t have its own search engine. I use the example with usgenweb.org. These pages are volunteered run and may not have its own search engine; however they contain a wealth of information. Imagine having to go to each page of a website and using the “find” command to find your information. This would take a lot of time. Let the computer do the work for you! Therefore, after going to usgenweb.org, go to the state level then the county level page, it does work with the state level too but you might end up with too many hits. Type in your search such as: surname site: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wicolumb/.