Google Books as Free Genealogy Research Tool

Many folks these days turn to the internet to research their family history. Google Books is a free genealogy research tool that is easy to use. I have found Google Books to be a valuable resource when searching for vital records and other family history information online. Here are some tips to get the most out of Google Books.

What is Google Books?

Google Books is an online repository of books and periodicals that have been scanned and indexed in a way that makes them discoverable via the internet. When you enter keywords into the regular Google search engine, these documents may appear in the search results. However, doing a similar search directly at the Google Books site, especially if you are doing genealogy research can yield more targeted and fruitful results.

The Google Books site is located at http://books.google.com

Google has partnered with libraries and publishers to include titles from many categories. What this means to the the genealogist is the ability to search, read, and in many cases, download information across countries, regions and centuries.

Genealogy Research Tips on Google Books

From the Google Books main page, enter keywords into the search box just as you would any search engine. I find I get the best results from the following:

* The exact target name permutations enclosed in quotes:
"Alexander S Browne" or "Browne, Alex" or "A S Browne".

If you forget the quotes, the results will include all instances where Browne is on a page, and Alexander is on the page. Don't be surprised to find out there are other folks with the exact same name as your ancestor. These false positive hits are easy to spot as they will be from the wrong location, wrong profession or wrong timeframe.

* Follow the name in quotes by a location:
"Alexander S Browne" Massachusetts

Fortunately, Google's search engine is smart enough to know the U.S state abbreviations. It is generally a good idea to also search surrounding locale's. Not only do folks' move, but geographic boundaries also change. Do some research into the history of places. One community may have had several names over time.

* Include "genealogy-friendly" terms as keywords combined with surnames and/or place names:
Vital Records Glasgow Browne
Cemetery Massachusetts Browne

* Google Books includes professional journals and official legislative documents. If your ancestor had an association with a particular profession, group or organization, try using those in keyword searches in combination with surnames and locations: "Alexander S Browne" Life Insurance.

Types of Search Results on Google Books

When you type in your keywords and click the Search button, Google Books will provide a list of hits. Each hit represents a book. Selecting a hit displays a book page. Books that have multiple hits will have a navigation area near the top of the view for showing the next hit, previous hit, etc.

Depending on the copyright and in-or-out-of-print status of the book, you will be presented with different views:

* A full preview provides access to the entire book. This is especially nice if the book is an extensive history of a particular family, location or event.

* A limited preview shows the hit page(s) plus a few pages on either side of each hit, but not the entire book. Usually the limited view is sufficient for you, the family researcher, to establish that you have found the desired information and capture or record it into your personal database.

* A snippet view shows only a few lines of text, with the search string highlighted. Often this is enough to let you know if the hit is relevant.

Ways to Capture Search Results on Google Books

Once in Book View, you can toggle between Plain Text or Page Image displays.

In Plain Text mode, you can select, copy and paste as with any text editor.

In Page Image view, you can use the Link tool to save the page link in IM or Email or by embedding the html reference into a web page.

You can also use the Clip tool to select a section of the page image, then chose to translate that image into text, create a link to that snippet, or create an html reference to embed into a web page.

For books that are in public domain and no longer subject to copyright, you can download the entire book to a file in PDF format on your local drive.

Finally, in the left-hand panel of the book view page is the "Get this book" list. Depending on the status of that particular book, you may be able to purchase a paid full view, or you can choose to locate a physical copy of the book through provided links to online booksellers. Google Books has agreements with many universities and libraries to provide full online access to out-of-print in-copyright books via institutional subscription.

Even if you cannot get full view access, you can do a search on that book title plus your search string to possibly find a transcribed version of the information you seek.

The folks at Google Books are adding more documents all the time. It is a good idea to check back periodically to discover more data for your family history research. I hope you found this information helpful. I wish you happy hunting.