Close and close

[Elizabethmaud]

Sorry to be dim but here is my problem, the family name I am researching is Close , when I search for that name I get pages of results for the word close . Please am I missing a trick and if so what is it?
Many thanks
Elizabethmaud

[Procat]

Hi,

Unfortunately it is the way the search engine works - it is unable to distinguish the subtleties of the english language.

Try using the "Advanced" search option and narrow the search down to thread titles only.

[Peter Goodey]

...or confine your search to the Surname Interests forum

[Geoffers]

There's an old thread where this was discussed sometime ago. It'll give someone who enjoys looking for these things, something to do in looking for it.

Basically using a search engine try entering:

surname + "Close"

I have a similar problem in looking for 'LOW'

[Elizabethmaud]

Thank you all for the very helpful suggestions I will try them out
kindest regards

[JAP1]

Hello Elizabethmaud,

My bugbear - in this computer age - is Googling for the surname of my forebears which is HACKING!

JAP

[Colin Moretti]

To search for an individual you can also put the forename and surname in quotes, eg:

"john close"

It won't find john david close of course so you would have to search for that separately but neither will it find close file etc so it is some improvement.

Searching for "colin moretti" gives about 8,000 hits while colin moretti (without the quotes) gives about 370,000.

You can also ask your search engine to omit pages with certain words by using advanced search or by putting a "-" (without the quotes) immediately in front of the word to omit (with no space between), eg:

moretti -nanni

will find all pages with moretti except those that refer to Nanni Moretti (a well-known film producer/director), knocking about 1m hits off the result.

The advanced search facilities of Google can be very powerful and they're very easy to use.

Colin

[ChristineR]

You can also try using the place of birth as a keyword too, that will help narrow results.