Google Books Just Got WAY Better! New Features Tutorial
Show Notes: I’m excited to share with you my favorite new tool at Google Books. This is a game changer for utilizing the information you find on the digitized pages. Plus I’ll show you other new features recently added to Google Books.
Why use Google Books for genealogy? Well, Google Books features over 10 million free digitized books, most of which were published prior to 1927. That makes Google Books a gold mine for genealogy research. And when you visit Google Books, think “published on paper” NOT just books! In addition to books, the collection includes newspapers, magazines, journals, almanacs, city directories, catalogs, court papers and so much more!
Watch the Video
Why use Google Books for genealogy?
Google Books features over 10 million free digitized books, most of which were published prior to 1927. That makes Google Books a gold mine for genealogy research. And when you visit Google Books, think “published on paper” NOT just books! In addition to books, the collection includes newspapers, magazines, journals, almanacs, city directories, catalogs, court papers and so much more!
SHOW NOTES
Access Google Books at https://books.google.com
Downloadable ad-free Show Notes handout for Premium Members.
Filter to Free books only
- Conduct a search.
- On the results page look for the filter menu. If you don’t see it, click the Tools
- Click the down arrow for Any View
- Click Full View
- Now your results list only include free fully digitized materials.
If you haven’t been over to Google books for a while, this is going to look a little bit different. A while back they launched a new user interface. They’ve now made some improvements. The main difference is we’re going to see this menu along the bottom of the screen.
My favorite new feature: convert image to text
Before we even look at the new menu, I promised you my favorite item that they have added to Google Books.
In the upper left corner, click the three vertical dots icon. This reveals a menu that gives you access to a lot of items that typically are kind of ‘behind’ the book. If you were to close this book, you would see the catalog entry for it.
New menu at Google Books
My favorite new feature here is View as Plain Text. Click the toggle button to convert the entire book to plain text. This makes the digitized images of the pages usable in many other projects and programs. Google applied optical character recognition to the books to be able to read the words on the images to make the books keyword searchable. In the past, we had to use the clipper tool to capture a bit of the image and convert it to text. The box was really small and inconvenient. This new feature provides the ability to instantly use as much of the text as you want.
Convert digitized books to text in Google Books
Because this book is fully digitized, it’s already been cleared for copyright. These books are in the public domain. They are available to use for free, copyright free. You are free to copy the text and include it in your projects, in your genealogy database, in a family history book, and so on.
Download a book
Back over at the three-dot menu in Google Books, you can also:
- download the book as a PDF or EPUB for free,
- find the book in a store, if you need a hard copy
- find the book in a library at WorldCat.
Keyboard Shortcuts Hot Keys
Another new feature is keyboard shortcuts.
Google Books shortcuts / hot keys
Find Book Catalog Entry
I mentioned that the catalog entry for this book is sort of ‘behind’ the book. To access that, click the X in the upper right corner of the screen. This removes the view of the book. We haven’t lost access to the book. You can still access it by clicking the blue Read free of charge button.
The nice thing about the book catalog entry page is that it contains all the details about the book such as where you can purchase it, finding copies at the library, and additional editions.
Source Citation Tool at Google Books
Also on the catalog entry page is the Source Citation tool. Click create citation to reveal the options. Click the desired style, and then copy the citation and paste it in your family tree database, or other places where you are referencing this book. So, there’s no reason not to cite your source for any book found at Google Books. Source citation is very important, because down the road you might discover something more about your family and realize that you need to access that book again. Without the source citation you may not remember where you got the original information. The source citation is your breadcrumb trail back to the previous research that you’ve done. Also, if anybody ever has a question about what you have put in your family tree, you can point them to the sources that you used.
New Google Books Menu
The final new feature at Google Books that I wanted to draw your attention to is the main menu for this item. It used to be at the top of the screen, but now you’ll find it at the bottom. At the top of the screen, we now have a search box that allows you to search the entire Google Books collection. But oftentimes, when you’re looking at a book, you’re going to want to be able to search for particular names, places, dates, events, topics. You will find the search field for that in the new menu at the bottom of the screen. Type in names or other words and press enter. You’ll be given all of the pages in the book that mention those words. Also, in this menu are:
- zoom buttons,
- chapters menu (if available for the book you are viewing)
- page views (single, side by side or thumbnails.)
Clip and download an image from a book
Also in the new menu is the clipper tool. The materials in Google Books contain maps, drawings, photos and many other types of imagery that you may want a copy of. Or perhaps you just want an image of a section of text. The clipper tool allows you to capture it and save it to your computer as an image file.
- Click the scissors icon, and your mouse cursor will turn into a clipper.
- Draw a box around the desired area
- In the pop-up box click to copy the link to the clipped image.
- Open a new web browser tab and paste the link. (You can also paste the link into notes in your family tree, and other programs and documents.)
- Press enter and the image will appear in the browser tab.
- Right-click on the image.
- Select Save Image As to save it to your computer’s hard drive.
There you have it, some of the exciting new features over at Google Books. There’s never been a better time to search for information about your family history in Google Books.
Resources
- Downloadable ad-free Show Notes handout for Premium Members.
- Learn more about using Google Books: Google Books – Getting Started (Premium video class) and Google Books – 10 Surprising Finds (free.)
New Records on Ancestry.com, FamilySearch and Findmypast
Search millions of new records on Ancestry.com, FamilySearch & Findmypast, three of the Genealogy Giants. Find your family history in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, England, Germany, Hungary, New Zealand, Panama, Poland, Sweden, the U.S., Wales and in PERSI,...How Facebook Users Reunited a Bible with its Family: Facebook for Family History
These genealogy sleuths used Facebook for family history when they responded to a plea to help return a family Bible to its family.
Back on March 21, Donna Whitten posted a video on her church Facebook page. Her post says, “How far would you go to get back something you’ve lost?”
She was talking about a 150 year-old family Bible she’d come across while antiquing one day in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Her post says, “We want to find this family and return it to them! Can you help?” (Click here to see that post and video.)
That video post got 34,000 views, thanks in part to more than 600 people who shared it! Family history fans immediately stepped up to the challenge. They looked for names on Ancestry.com and reached out to tree owners. Within two days, several descendants were aware of the Bible and asking for copies. The bible eventually went to a woman in California named Carrie Robinson, who has been researching her tree for several years. It contained obituaries clipped from newspapers and handwritten vital family events. (Wouldn’t you love to receive that kind of family treasure?) Click here to watch the follow-up video about when Donna took the bible to the new owner.
Hats off to Donna and her team of sleuths who took the time to find Carrie’s family and return their past to them! I find a few take-home messages in this story:
- Social media is a great way to cast your net wide, not just when you’re sharing family history, but when you’re looking for information. Click here to read more about gathering memories through Facebook.
- You can watch for orphaned heirlooms in your path and return them to descendants. Click here to read tips on how to do that.
- The video Donna created got attention on Facebook! Video is powerful. Use it to share your family history. (Full disclosure: This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. I appreciate you using these links because that compensation helps make the Genealogy Gems blog possible. Thank you!) Click here to read about Animoto, a DIY-video making service I love that lets you produce your own professional-quality videos. Below is one quick video I created. Can you say shareable?!
How to Find Your Irish Ancestors
Episode 18 Video and Show Notes
Live show air date: July 23, 2020
Join me for Elevenses with Lisa, the online video series where we take a break, visit and learn about genealogy and family history.
Book your 45-minute consultation with a professional genealogist like I did here.
Click here to learn more about 45-minute genealogy consultations.
An Irish Genealogy Brick Wall
This week I’m taking you on a bit of my own genealogical journey. It’s that one line of my family that crosses the pond to Ireland with my 2X great grandparents. I first learned about Michael Lynch and Margaret Scully as a child from my maternal grandmother. They were her husband’s (my grandfather’s) grandparents. She didn’t know much about them.
Margaret Scully born in Limerick Ireland 1840
Michael Lynch born in Ireland in 1818
In 2000 I got an opportunity to sit down with my grandfather’s sister – the historian of that generation of the family – and ask her about them. She was nearly 90 years old at the time, and she told me the family lore that Margaret was supposedly from a more well-to-do family, and Michael was not.
Aunt Bea in 1937
“He was a groom. And they eloped. I don’t know where they came in. I don’t know which port, but I think it was Canada.”
A few years later after Aunt Bea’s passing I got in touch with some distant Lynch cousins through a bit of online genealogical research. They were descended from Ellen’s siblings who had stayed in the area where the Lynch family had lived (Western Wisconsin and Eastern Minnesota).
These distant cousins supplied with a few more pieces of the puzzle.
- They mentioned Kildysart, though my notes are unclear whether that was the possible location for Michael or Margaret.
- There had some sketchy parents’ names through family lore and Margaret’s death certificate.
- Margaret’s parents were supposedly James Lynch and Bridget Madigan.
- Michael’s were possibly Michael Lynch and Johanna Healy but no evidence was provided.
I searched extensively several years ago but was unable to find a passenger list record. I did find the family in East Farmington, Wisconsin. where Michael purchased land and ran a dairy farm.
East Farmington Wisconsin postcard
My research questions were:
Who were the parents of Margaret Scully born in Limerick Ireland on approximately July 9, 1840? Where in Ireland was she born?
My Aunt Bea said Margaret was from county Cork. This was based on her conversations with her mother Ellen. However, Ellen left Wisconsin as a young woman and lived her adult live in California, far from her family.
The Wisconsin cousins were sure Margaret was from Limerick. They believed Michael was from Cork. Considering that their parents had known Margaret well, I put more stock in their information.
Then the cousins produced Margaret’s obituary from Fargo ND where she died a widow living with her son John in 1929. I clearly stated she was born in Limerick. I became even more confident that Limerick was the place to focus.
A secondary question which would be a bonus was ‘where were Michael and Margaret married?’ Was it true that they had eloped in Ireland and came to America via Canada as my aunt had said? And did any of her brothers and sisters come to America as well?
I’m not an expert in Irish genealogy. I have interviewed a few experts over the years, so you might think I would have jumped right into this Irish research. Instead, I found it a bit daunting.
So, earlier this month, I sat down for a 45 minute consultation with Kate Eakman. She’s a professional genealogist with Legacy Tree Genealogists specializing in Irish research among other areas.
My consultant: Professional Genealogists Kate Eakman
These 45-minute consultations are designed to evaluate what you have, and kick start or restart your research.
As a seasoned genealogist, I want to do the research myself. This short focused consultation was perfect for helping me move forward with confidence.
Before we discuss the path we followed in the consultation, let’s talk a moment about how to prepare for a genealogical consultation.
Preparing for a Consultation with a Professional Genealogist
There are three things you can do ahead of time to help a professional genealogist help you.
1. Be clear what you want to accomplish.
It’s only 45 minutes, so one clearly defined research question is best. Avoid “I just want to find whatever is available”. It needs to be a specific question.
I wanted to specifically find out who Margaret’s parents were which I expected would also tell me where she was born.
2. Gather what you already have in advance.
I didn’t have much, but I made every effort to distill the known facts down in a list. I then added all source information I had for those items.
To get the most from a consultation it is important to not only share what you have but the strength of the source. Many of my sources were family lore. These rank low on reliability. The death certificate my cousin sent me ranked higher.
Remember time is limited and costs money, so don’t bog the genealogist down with EVERYTHING you have. Focus on the items that a relevant to the question.
3. Briefly jot down what you’ve done so far.
You may have tried research avenues that were fruitless in the past. You definitely don’t want to spend precious time in the consultation going back over those. Making a list of what you did, and the outcome clears the way for your consultation time to be spent on new strategies.
A Consultation with a Professional Genealogist
My consultation in this episode of Elevenses with Lisa is focused on Irish research. You will see us using many of the most valuable online resources available.
But if you don’t have Irish ancestors, I encourage you to listen carefully to the process. The questions she asks, and her approach to finding answers. You may be pleasantly surprised to hear some things that can translate to your research process.
Irish Genealogy Websites
Searching at RootsIreland.ie ($)
https://www.rootsireland.ie
They have:
- Baptisms
- Marriage
- Burial / Death
- Census
- Gravestone Inscriptions
- Griffith’s Valuation
- Irish Ship Passenger Lists
- Census Substitutes
Strategies:
- Search by name and birth year (+/- 5 years)
- Narrow by county
- The records will list the parents.
Online Research Tip: Right-click on each results to open in a new tab.
More Strategies:
- If no results, revise your search to go broader.
- Look at sponsor names as well.
- Use maps to see where places are located and their relationship to each other.
Griffith’s Valuation at Ask About Ireland
http://www.askaboutireland.ie
(Free)
Click Griffith’s Valuation or go directly to http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/
From the website: “The Primary Valuation was the first full-scale valuation of property in Ireland. It was overseen by Richard Griffith and published between 1847 and 1864. It is one of the most important surviving 19th century genealogical sources.”
The value of family stories
“These family stories always have some kernel of truth to them, even if they seem outlandish. There’s something that’s true. Her parents were wealthy, or he was a groom, even if it wasn’t this falling in love with a groom and running away and getting married.” – Kate Eakman
More Strategies
- Spend some time looking for children of the suspected parents (James Scully and Bridget Madigan)
- Children may have been baptized as “girl” or “infant.” Look for these while searching.
National Library of Ireland (NLI) Parish Registers
https://registers.nli.ie
(Free)
After finding the parents James Scully and Bridget Madigan, the next step was to look for parish registers at the National Library of Ireland. Search parish registers by clicking on Family History Research > Visit Catholic Parish Records. They are not indexed by name. You have to know who you’re looking for and where. But if you have an idea of the parish, you can enter that. Choose Baptism and the year and month in known.
If you are not sure about the name of the location, search for it at the NLI to see if their system recognizes it or suggests a slightly different spelling.
We then headed back to RootsIreland.ie to look for marriage records.
IrishGenealogy.ie
https://www.irishgenealogy.ie/en/
(Free)
Click Civil Records
From the website: “All civil marriage records from 1845 to 1944 are now available online to members of the public, along with the release online of birth register records for 1919 and death register records for 1969. Over 15.5 million register records are now available to the public to view and research online on the www.irishgenealogy.ie website. The records now available online include: Birth register records – 1864 to 1919; Marriage register records – 1845 to 1944 & Death register records – 1878 to 1969.”
- Kate likes to sort results by date.
- First and last name won’t always be together in the results.
Searching for Records in North America
Kate and I dug for and discussed U.S. records that might lend more information that could help with the search in Ireland such as:
- Marriage Records
- Passenger Lists
- Military Records
- Documents relating to his work as a civil servant
Researching forward (known as Reverse Genealogy) could lead to collaboration with more cousins and the discover of letters or other helpful items.
Canadian Passenger Lists at the Library and Archives Canada
Action Items for My Irish Genealogy Research
My consultation with a professional genealogist specializing in Irish research left me newly found records and the confidence to continue exploring Irish records. I also had in hand a list of steps I could take to move forward:
- Compile a list of all of James and Bridget Scully’s children.
- Find birth, marriages and deaths for the children.
- Look for siblings in America (start with Farmington, Wisconsin area)
- Research the sponsors of the baptisms
- Conduct a browsing search of the Parish Records for a baptism that lines up with Margaret Scully’s known birth.
More Irish Genealogy Websites
Irish Ancestors by John Grenham
https://www.johngrenham.com
(Free)
Check this web site to confirm what’s available before you start searching more in Ireland. I searched for Kildysart and found it here!
Our Finds During this Genealogy Consultation
I was very satisfied with the progress we made in just 45 minutes!
- A good candidate for James Scully in Griffith’s Valuation
- James and Bridget Scully’s marriage record at Roots Ireland
- James and Bridget Scully’s original marriage record at the National Library of Ireland
- Baptisms for seven of the couple’s children.
- A large gap where Margaret’s birth would have been.
- We found Kildysart in county Clare. (I’m still not sure where that fits in by I now suspect the place is associated with Michael Lynch and not Margaret Scully.)
Postscript to My Consultation with a Professional Genealogist
I was so encouraged by our research session, that I combed back through the papers I had collected over decades in my Lynch binder. There I found a death date for Michael Lynch given to me by one of the distant cousins. The place of death was Stillwater, Minnesota.
A quick look at a map revealed that Stillwater, Minnesota was just 21 miles down and west across the Saint Croix River from East Farmington, Wisconsin.
On a hunch I did some digging and I discovered that Michael and Margaret were married at St Michael’s church in Stillwater, MN!
Marriage Question Solved!
Book a 45-Minute Consultation with a Professional Genealogist
Thank you to Kate Eakman of Legacy Tree Genealogists for sharing her expertise and helping me make significant progress on my genealogical brick wall!
Click here to learn more about 45-minute genealogy consultations.
A 45-minute consultation with a professional genealogist is just $100. If you decide to book please go to www.LegacyTreeGenealogists.com/GenealogyGems
By using our link you are helping to support this free show at no additional cost to you. Thank you!
Exclusive Gems Offer: Save $100 on larger full-service genealogy research projects with code GGP100
Resources
Live Chat PDF– Click here to download the live Chat from episode. Includes answers to your questions about using the Adobe Spark Video app to make a video.
Show Notes PDF – Genealogy Gems Premium Members can click here to download the show notes PDF for this episode. (Log in required.) Become a Premium Member here.