|
|
WeRelate contains a great deal of information concerning places, genealogical sources, names (as opposed to people with those names), and other topics of interest to researchers. Although you can search these topics using the Web or WeRelate searches, you will probably have to sift through pages of results to find exactly what you want. The Search menu makes searching for this information simpler. In the lessons below, you will learn how to use WeRelate to research these topics.
- -You may want to open a new browser window or tab, allowing you to both complete and consult this tutorial at the same time. Alternatively, you could print this tutorial page for your convenience as you work through the lessons.
- -All search results totals are confirmed as of 19 Sep 2007.
Lesson One: Searching for articles
Articles are WeRelate pages that are intended to contain helpful information not directly related to specific persons or families. WeRelate articles include research guides on various topics, including state by state research tips (e.g. Pennsylvania Research Guide), ideas for beginning genealogists, and possible sources. Also considered "articles", shared research pages collect collaborative information on research being done on surnames in certain places (e.g. Phillips in Texas).
Objective: This lesson will teach you how to use the Articles search page to search for articles on WeRelate.
- Click on the blue Search menu at the top of the screen.
- Click on the Articles menu item. This will take you to the Articles search page.
- There are three ways to search for articles on the Articles search page:
- If you know the exact title of the article:
- On the Articles browse page, enter the exact title of the article in the Title: field under the heading "Go to or add an article". As an example, type "Phillips in Texas". Remember that this search is case-sensitive.
- Click "Go to page". The page should load automatically.
- You can find the page as long as you know at least the first few letters of the article title. For example, if you entered "Phillips", or even "phil", you would be sent to a search page listing all the articles that begin with those letters. Only four articles are found beginning with "phil", one of which is our desired page: Phillips in Texas.
- If you want to search all WeRelate articles:
- At the top of the Articles search page, enter the correct search information:
- To find a shared research page, type the relevant last name/surname and place into the Surname and Place fields. As an example, type "Phillips" into the Surname box and "Texas" into the Place box. The correct shared research page will appear in a list of 7 results.
- To find another type of article, including research guides, a keyword search is the most successful. Be as specific as you can accurately be when selecting the keywords to use. As an example, type "Massachusetts vital records" into the Keywords box. This search will return 3 results, including the Massachusetts Online Vital Records Research Guide.
- Click "Search".
- Find the desired article among the search results. Click on the title of the article to view the page.
- If you want to browse articles in categorized lists:
- On the Article search page, under the Browse heading, select the article list that you wish to browse:
- Shared research pages and research guides are the two main types of articles. Both lists are alphabetized.
- The New articles list shows all articles that have been created in the last several days. The most recently created articles are at the top of the list.
- Clicking on the Featured articles link takes you to a list of well-constructed pages (articles and otherwise) that have been singled out by WeRelate administrators.
- You can also browse a list of Recently-changed articles, listed chronologically according to the date and time of the recent changes, and a comprehensive, alphabetized list of All articles on WeRelate.
- Once you have selected your category, scan the list of articles and click on the article you wish to open.
Our collection of articles is still growing, as more people join WeRelate and share their knowledge with us. For now, you'll probably have success finding specific articles by browsing the article categories. As more articles are written, however, the search function will become more and more necessary for finding specific articles, while browsing will be used principally for scanning large lists of articles to see if any cool ones unexpectedly catch your eye.
See Help: Articles, Help: Shared research pages, and Help: Research guides for more information.
Lesson Two: Researching places
WeRelate is home to over 430,000 place pages. Place pages reference alternate, historical, and abbreviated place names, show latitude and longitude (for displaying on maps), and link you to smaller subdivisions of the place. if you need information about a place, or wish to share interesting place information with others, place pages are a good "place" to start.
Objective: This lesson will teach you how to use the Place search page to search for place pages.
- Click on the blue Search menu at the top of the screen.
- From the Search menu, click on Places to open the Place search page.
- As with articles, there are three ways to search for places. The same methods are used, but each search function behaves slightly differently for places.
- If you know the exact name of the place:
- On the Place browse page, under the heading, "Title", type the exact name of the place.
- To use this search option, you need to be certain that you are using the name as it is listed in the place index. This method does not search related names or alternate spellings of places. Remember that place names are case-sensitive; capitalize the first letter.
- To find place pages for cities in the United States, type the place name in the following format: "City, State". As an example, type "Chicago, Illinois" in the Title: field. For cities outside the US, use this format: "City, Country".
- In addition to cities, you can search for individual place pages for counties, states/provinces, and countries. To access a country page, simply type the country name in the Title: field. Do the same for states within the US. For states/provinces of other countries, use this format: "State/Province, Country". For counties, use "County, State/Province, Country".
- Click "Go". The place page for Chicago should open automatically.
- Unlike with articles, if you only have a partial name for a place, you can still search for its place page using the Go button, as long as the part of the name you have is exact and is at the very beginning of the place name. For example, if you wanted to find a place page for the city of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, but you didn't know how to spell "es Salaam", you could type "Dar" in the Title: box and click "Go". This would open a search page listing all the place pages on WeRelate whose titles begin with "Dar". You could then look through the results to find the desired place page.
- If you want to search all WeRelate place pages:
- At the top of the Place search page, in the search bar, enter the appropriate place information:
- If you are searching for a city or town, type the city name in the Place box. If you know in what state or country the city is located, put the state/province or country name in the Located in box. This helps you specify the exact location for which you are searching. As an example, put "Bowling Green" in the Place field and "Ohio" in the Located in field. By entering both the city and state, you avoid searching for "Canton, Ohio", or "Bowling Green, Kentucky".
- If you were searching for a state/province or country page, you would put the state, province, or country name in the Place box, not the Located in box. The Located in box serves only to identify a larger division of which the place in the "Place" field is a part.
- Click "Search". There are three cities in Ohio named Bowling Green in the search results list.
- If the desired place page does not appear as a search result, a new search box will appear. Try it again, after checking the Alternate place names box next to the Place fields. Perhaps the place is indexed under a new name (Istanbul instead of Constantinople) or a different spelling.
- If you want to browse lists of place pages:
- On the Place search page, select Browse, choose and click on the list you would like to browse:
- Recently-changed places include all place pages that have been changed in the last several days.
- You can browse the entire list of place pages either alphabetically by country or alphabetically.
- In the By country list, the countries are indexed according to global region/continent. Clicking on a country name opens that country's place page. On the right of the place page, at the bottom of the Place Information box, you will find a Contained Places section. Below you will find links to subdivisions of the country (states, regions, etc.). By opening those pages and consulting the Contained Places section, you can move down the layers to the desired place page. Browsing for places in some countries will require creativity on your part, as the layers are not always perfectly organized.
- In the alphabetical list, the places are indexed by alphabetical ranges (e.g. Chestnut Grove, Shelby, Kentucky, United States to Childs, Orleans, New York, United States). All places that fall alphabetically between these two places (e.g. Chezelles, Indre-et-Loire, Centre, France) can be found by clicking on the range and scanning the list provided.
- Once you have selected your category, scan the list of pages and click on the page you wish to open.
See Help: Place pages for more information.
Lesson Three: Researching names
WeRelate helps you find and share information about specific names (as opposed to individuals with that name). Want to see all the shared research pages that are concerned with the Phillips name? Go to the surname page for Phillips, and you will find links to all the relevant shared research pages, as well as links to surname pages for all possibly related last or surnames. WeRelate also contains pages for first or given names, allowing you to see alternate spellings and other information.
Objective: This lesson will teach you how to use the Names search pages to find information on last/surnames and first/given names.
- Click on the blue Search menu at the top of the screen.
- From the Search menu, click on Surnames menu item. This will take you to the Surnames search page.
- There are three ways to search for last/surnames from the Surnames search page. Here, we will practice searching for last or surnames, but you can apply the same lessons to first or given names.
- If you know a surname page exists for the name:
- On the Surnames search page, enter the last or surname into the Title: field under the heading, "Surname". As an example, enter "Phillips".
- Click "Search". The surname page should load automatically.
- Again, if you are unsure of the exact name, try entering its beginning (i.e. "phil"). Clicking "Search" will take you to a search page, displaying last/surnames that begin with those letters. If your desired name does not appear, look to see if the bottom of the page reads "More not shown". If so, click on "show all" to see the complete list of results.
- If you want to search the complete surnames index:
- On the Surname search page, enter the last or surname into the "Surname:" box under the Search heading. Try your last name, or "Phillips" as an example.
- Click "Search". This will take you to a search results page, displaying all WeRelate surname pages for names identical or similar to the one you entered.
- Locate the appropriate surname page and click on the page title link to open the page.
- If the desired page does not appear in the list of results, try clicking on a link to a page for a similar name. Look on the left side of the page in the Related Names box. Scan the list for the name for which you were searching. If it is written as a red link, a surname page has not yet been created for that name. If you click on the link, and then click on Edit at the top of the next page, you can enter information about the name and automatically create a surname page.
- If you want to browse lists of surname pages:
- On the Names search page, select Browse, select the category that you would like to browse:
- Once you have selected your category, scan the list of pages and click on the page you wish to open.
- Remember: you can apply these same lessons to searching for pages for first or given names.
See Help:Name pages for more information.
Lesson Four: Searching for sources
WeRelate allows you to search within an index of over 1,300,000 sources. Sometimes, you might want to search for a source that could provide you with information about an ancestor. Other times it may be helpful to determine the location of a source. Each source has its own source page, which contains information about the surnames, places, or years to which the source is relevant. If the source is online, a url link is typically provided to the appropriate page, and the page is included in the WeRelate web search. WeRelate also allows you to add personal sources (records in your possession or of a personal, rather than general, interest) to the source index. These personal sources are given source pages and are also referred to as MySources.
Objective: This lesson will teach you how to use the Source search page to find sources relevant to your research.
- Click on the blue Search menu at the top of the screen.
- From the Search menu, click on the Sources menu item.
- If you know the exact name of a source .
- On the Source browse page, type the exact source name into the "Title:" field under the Title heading. As an example, type "Family Bible of Elwood Neel and Nancy Irene Moore : Morgantown, Butler, Kentucky".
- Click "search". The source page for this family bible should load automatically.
- If you do not know the full title of the page, you can type the first few words or letters and click "Go". This will run a search for all source pages beginning with those words/letters.
- If you would like to search the entire source index:
- Note: the Source search page function searches only the text of source pages, not the full texts of online sources. To search for contents of sources, use the Web search. Use this option to search for information about sources, rather than information in sources.
- On the Source search page, enter the appropriate search information into the boxes under the Search heading.
- You typically will not need to enter any information into the "Given name:" box. Entering a last or surname into the "Surname:" box searches for sources that deal specifically with issues involving that name. As an example, type "Moore" into the Surname field. (If you wish, you can choose to search for other related last or surnames.)
- The place boxes allow you to restrict your search to sources that deal specifically with a certain place. As an example, enter "Morgantown" into the "Place:" field. The "Located in:" box allows you to further specify the location of the place named in the Place box. In this case, type "Kentucky" into the Located in field. This tells the search engine to ignore sources dealing with Morgantown, Indiana; Morgantown, Pennsylvania; and Morgantown, West Virginia. (If you wish, you can choose to search for alternate place names.
- The subject box allows you to select from 27 primary types of sources. Example United States Census records Source:United States. 1910 U.S. Census Population Schedule
- The "Keywords:" field allows you to restrict your search to source pages containing certain words or phrases. In this example, you are searching for a family bible, so type "family bible" into the Keywords box.
- Click "Search". This will take you to a page showing you the results of your search.
- If you want to browse lists of sources:
- On the Search Source, select the subject you wish to browse:
- You can choose to view lists of recently-changed source pages or an alpabetized index of sources of which there is 925,909(as of 23 March 2011 and growing). Just click on Source in names space and search.
- Once you have selected your subject, place and even surname you can scan the list of pages and click on the page you wish to open.
- Remember: you can apply these same lessons to searching for personal sources (aka MySources).
See Help:Source pages and Help:MySources for more information.
Where do I go from here?
|
|
