The Ancestor Hunt
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Newspapers
  • Newspaper Links
  • Obituaries
  • BMD Records
  • Photos
  • Yearbooks
  • Directories
  • By Location
  • Cemetery Records
  • Divorce Records
  • Naturalizations
  • Immigration
  • Mortuary Records
  • Church Records
  • School Records
  • Voter Records
  • Coroner Records
  • Probate and Wills
  • Alumni Records
  • Newsletter Page
  • Tools
  • Genealogy News
  • California Genealogy
  • Videos
  • Fun With Newspapers
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy

Historical Newspaper Research - Lesson 5 - Boolean Searches

9/9/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
This is part of a series of educational posts, intended to provide you with information that will rapidly improve the skills needed to find pertinent newspaper articles from historical newspapers.

Lesson 5 is all about using Boolean searches to find online newspaper articles. This lesson will discuss the basics of using these types of searches and why you should use them.

Boolean searching was developed by George Boole, an English mathematician.


Boolean searches provide the ability to combine words and phrases using the operators AND, OR, NOT to refine your search.

For example, let's say you have a person that you are looking for that has a common name such as "John Smith." You know that a simple search nation-wide or state-wide would provide too many results for you to ponder. But what if he lived in a smaller town, such as Saugatuck, Michigan. A good search criteria would be "John Smith" AND Saugatuck. This would narrow the search results to articles that contain the phrase "John Smith" and those articles that contain the word "Saugatuck".  See how this would help you?

How about trying a "NOT" example?  Lets say you were looking for someone named "John Dulles".  If you did a search for John Dulles you would likely get a preponderance of results for John Foster Dulles, who was President Eisenhower's Secretary of State. So to find "your" John Dulles you would enter "John Dulles" NOT Foster.

The use of the operator "OR"  operates similarly, except OR would provide results with pages with any of the words that you specify.  You can also combine multiple operators in one search.

Depending on the online collection's software, you can sometimes actually write the AND, OR or NOT in the search box: Others use a little bit different approach, as the two examples below utilize.

Picture
In the above example from Chronicling America, the term "with any of the words" operates the same as a Boolean "OR". The term "with all of the words" operates the same as a Boolean "AND".  In this advanced search example, there is no ability in their terminology to perform a Boolean "NOT".

Picture
rIn the above example from the Arizona online newspaper collection's Advanced Search feature, you have the ability to perform all three of the operators, again using a bit different terminology.  And the cool thing is that you can combine one, two, or three of the operators in the same search.

Phrase searching is an offshoot of the Boolean AND. Our research criteria of "John Smith" in double quotes, is an example of searching for a phrase.  It operates similarly to John AND Smith.  HOWEVER - a phrase search implies that the words John and Smith are right next to each other in the text, while John AND Smith do not necessarily have to be next to each other on the page. There is a difference.

So make use of Boolean searches in developing your search criteria. Whether you use AND or NOT to refine, or OR to provide more possibilities, these operators along with searching for phrases in double quotes will definitely improve the results that you get by leaps and bounds over just entering a name in a search box.
___________________________________

Please Share!


0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Free Resource Links
    ​
    ​​

    By Location Newspapers Obituaries BMD Records Directories Photos Yearbooks Cemetery Records Divorce Records Naturalizations Mortuary Records Immigration Church Records School Records Voter Lists Coroners Records Probate and Wills Alumni Records

    Subscribe
    Option 1 - Receive Links to New Published Articles 4 X per month

    Enter Email

    Subscribe
    ​
    Option 2​ - Receive New Complete
    Bi-Monthly Newsletter​ 
    ​
    Enter Email

    Search This Site


    Need Help With Your Research?
    Picture
    Check out the 4,000 Pros at Trace.com


    Facebook Page
    Picture


    RSS Feed

    Archives

    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    October 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    November 2010
    October 2010

Picture
©2012-21

Thanks for Visiting The Ancestor Hunt
The Ancestor Hunt is focused on helping primarily hobbyist genealogy and family history researchers to achieve their goals.

"The Ancestor Hunt" is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program.  There may be a small commission paid to "The Ancestor Hunt" should you purchase from Amazon.
.
"The Ancestor Hunt" is also an affiliate for "A Life Untold", Trace.com, Whoowe, StorySpot, and "Audiobiography". There may be a small commission paid to "The Ancestor Hunt" should you purchase from these companies.