The Basics of Boolean Logic

Searching for Peter Bieger's Pickled Pepper Web Page

Practice, Practice, Practice
If you are unfamiliar with creating Boolean searches, try this approach to increase the chance your search is performing the way you think it is.

1) Perform a search at your favorite search engine for a simple word or a phrase that you are certain will result in several hits.

2) Scan one page from the results list for several words and try a new, more complicated, search based upon those words.

3) See if the search locates the page you already found.

Practice is always good. If you can't find things you know are in the index, how can you search for anything else?

Change One Thing at a Time
A Boolean search for michael AND (trautvetter AND troutfetter AND troutvetter AND trantvetter) will result in extremely few hits. The intent of this search is to locate those pages that contain the word "michael" and at least one variation of the surname "trautvetter."

Broadening the search is necessary, but over-broadening it by entering "michael OR (trautvetter OR troutfetter OR troutvetter OR trantvetter)" will result in entirely too many hits. (Readers that remain unconvinced should enter this search term as an advanced search at AltaVista. The user most likely intends to enter "michael AND (trautvetter OR troutfetter OR troutvetter OR trantvetter)." When broadening a search, change one parameter at a time instead of giving in to frustration or desperation and changing everything.

Throwing Things Out
Are you researching ancestors with the surname Farmer? Entering that search term in a major search engine is bound to turn up numerous hits, most of which probably deal with agriculture. In this case, it may be helpful to throw out pages that contain words commonly associated with farming such as "agriculture," "rural," "tractor," "harvest," etc. In some search engines these terms can be eliminated from the results list by searching for "farmer-rural-tractor-agriculture-harvest" (without the quotation marks). If the search engine does not support the use of the minus sign then "farmer AND NOT rural AND NOT tractor AND NOT agriculture AND NOT harvest" may do the trick (again, sans quotation marks). If the site supports the use of wildcards, adding using "-agri*" or "AND NOT agri*" will remove any page that contains agriculture, agri-business, etc. While not removing every page associated with farming, it will significantly reduce the number of undesired hits obtained because the search term is an occupation.

A similar situation exists for the surname Baker. Researchers of this surname may wish to remove words such as food, catering, etc. from their search terms.

Perhaps your surname has another connotation, entirely removed from genealogy or the origin of the name. A recent conference attendee was researching the name Soled. One suggestion for reducing her number of hits was to remove the word "shoe" or another word associated with footwear (by searching for "soled AND NOT shoe" or "soled-shoe." Of course, such a search would eliminate a page containing an estate settlement of a Soled ancestor where a shoe was listed in the inventory! The use of "AND NOT" or "-" should always take into account the possible pages that might be removed from the list of results. If you are willing to live with the possibly overlooked pages, then go ahead and perform the search.

Another individual's difficulty centered on a surname that was also an acronym for a professional organization. It was suggested that the researcher throw out the topic the group focuses or perhaps throw out several of the words that comprise the group's acronym.

Clifford the Big Red Dog
Another genealogist performed a search for the surname Bridwell and was frustrated to learn the majority of hits were for books in the Clifford the Big Red Dog series. The books' author's name is Norman Bridwell. She was not interested in these books and was dismayed at having to read through all the hits. Removing the "big red dog" from her results (by putting the phrase in quotes and using either AND NOT "big red dog" or -"big red dog") took care of her problem. This removed pages containing the phrase "big red dog" from her results list. Removing just the word Clifford would likely remove the "dog" pages, but would also remove those pages where "Clifford" is the first name of a potential human (and not canine) relative.

Copy and Paste
Copying and pasting your search terms (ie. smith AND thomas) from your web browser into your word processor serves a dual purpose. The first is that it makes it easier to redo the searches later at the same or other sites (assuming the other site supports the exact same type of search parameters—test it first). The second, and more important, reason is that it facilitates documenting searches. The date of the search and the name of the search engine should also be included along with the exact searches conducted.

Read! Read! Read!
If you are unfamiliar with how to use certain aspects of your favorite search engine, look for a FAQ, Help page, user's guide, etc. on the search interface page. Read this page! Don’t just enter words in a search box and click search. It's the online equivalent of failing to read the preface of a genealogical book and simply looking in the index without knowing what you have just searched.

Get Thee to a Library!
However, don't spend an inordinate amount of time refining search engine searches in hopes of finding all your ancestors online. There's still a tremendous amount of information that is currently only available in a courthouse, library, or archives. Don't overlook it by spending hundreds of hours typing searches into search engines!

Thanks to the NGS attendees who patiently listened to the discussion of Boolean searching at 5 in the afternoon and asked insightful questions despite the fact that they were already on "information overload" by the time the lecture started.

Good luck!

Copyright 2000, Michael John Neill. Michael John Neill, is the Course I Coordinator at the Genealogical Institute of Mid America (GIMA) held annually in Springfield, Illinois, and is also on the faculty of Carl Sandburg College in Galesburg, Illinois. Michael is the Web columnist for the FGS FORUM and is on the editorial board of the Illinois State Genealogical Society Quarterly. He conducts seminars and lectures on a wide variety of genealogical and computer topics and contributes to several genealogical publications, including Ancestry and Genealogical Computing. You can e-mail him at: mneill@asc.csc.cc.il.us or visit his Web site at: www.rootdig.com.

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