Thought this may be of help The following text borrowed from the current Rootsweb Review Setting the Record Straight on Internet Searches" By Robert Ragan [email protected] Creator of "Search Engine Secrets Made Easy for Genealogy Researchers" and editor of "Treasure Maps" -- an e-mail genealogy newsletter. http://amberskyline.com/searchsecrets/ I was alarmed when I read a recent letter in RootsWeb Review that suggested ignoring the "symbols" when doing online searches. This is a HUGE mistake. Understanding how to use the symbols and the search process itself is critical to all genealogists. I've taught thousands how to troubleshoot their specific research problems-at-hand and craft them into pay dirt on the Internet. When you learn how to translate a problem into keywords and symbols to use in a search engine (let's say Google at www.google.com), the keys to the Internet are yours. Here is how it works: The plus (+) symbol forces a key word to be INCLUDED. The staple of genealogy research is vital records -- when our ancestors were born, died, and married -- so a search with any surname and these keywords work well: Example: +ragan +born. You can use the keyword "died" or "married" in the spot where "born" is in the above example. The minus (-) symbol forces a keyword to be EXCLUDED. This is an extremely powerful research tool when you learn how to use it properly with the plus symbol. One of the variant spellings of my surname is REAGAN. What do you think happens when you start doing searches with this name? Many of the "hits" or "results" that come back are about former U.S. President Ronald Reagan. Here is how to fix it: Use: +reagan +born -president. The word "president" will not be in any of my results. Get the idea? What if the surname was "Morse" or "Cook"? Here are example of searches that you might do using the symbols: Search: +morse +married -code (the word "code" is excluded because of "morse code"). Try: +cook +died -food -chef (the words "food" and "chef" are excluded). Fine Tune Your Searches: Count on doing a search from three to five times. Each time you click on the "Search" button examine the results and see if there are any other keywords you can include or exclude. Don't worry about a large amount of results. What matters is the top 10 or 20 -- ignore the rest and start fine tuning. This way you really can find the needle in the haystack. Happy hunting Bye Marg Morters List-admin NSW-CENTRAL-COAST NSW-SYDNEY NSW-NEW-ENGLAND AUS-USA