By Annie from Family Tree Talks
Trove - Australia's most loved website for free family history research
Having used Trove extensively for my family history research, it occurred to me, that not everyone would know how to search their database of digitised records effectively and unlock the gems that lie within their extensive collection.
Firstly, if this is the first time you are hearing of Trove then have I got some good news for you. Trove is a website run by the National Library of Australia which has MILLIONS of digitised records from newspapers, gazettes and magazines to photos, music and audio. Best of all it's a completely free family history research tool! You don't even need to give them your email, if you don't want to. Chances are if you haven't heard of Trove you might want to check out my list of resources on how to get started researching your Australian family history.
Trove really helped me link together ancestors within my tree, whether it was a engagement announcement from the parents or an obituary from the children and grandchildren, these little nuggets of gold helped me string the relationship web between my family members.
To start, I would highly recommend using the "Advanced Search" option (I've linked you straight to the search page for newspapers to help but select any of the fields at the top of the page). The Trove advanced search will let you enter a multitude of information to ensure you are finding your ancestor and not some other "James Bennett".
The tips I found the most useful is to reduce the date range to around the time of your ancestors life, I like to add/minus about 5 years. Use quotation marks to reduce the number of results. I do this to begin with, otherwise the number of hits can be too overwhelming, however, if I don't get any good leads I will remove them. I also always check the location of the record. News didn't travel as far back in the day so I trust that the closer the records that are sourced closer to my ancestors known locations.
1. Start with Broad Searches
Use Full Names: Begin with the ancestor’s full name in quotation marks, like "John Smith", to get exact matches.
Include Variations: Search for name variations, such as nicknames, initials, or a woman’s maiden name. For example, search for "J. Smith", "Johnny Smith", or "Jane Doe Smith".
Consider what you are searching for: Try both last names of the married ancestors to check for engagement/marriage articles.
Consider Misspellings or removing apostrophes: Try different spellings, as old records may have errors, e.g., "Smyth" instead of "Smith" or if you're Irish try dropping the apostrophe from the last name.
2. Refine Your Search with Filters
Date Range: Narrow your search to the specific time period when your ancestor lived by using the date filters. This helps to cut down on irrelevant results. As mentioned above, I like to add/minus 5 years off my ancestors birth/death.
Categories: Choose specific categories like newspapers, government gazettes, or photos. Newspapers often have obituaries, marriage announcements, or local news involving your ancestor.
Geographical Filters: If you know where your ancestor lived, apply location filters to hone in on relevant results.
3. Use Specific Search Terms
Add Key Terms: Include specific terms related to your ancestor, like "John Smith" and "wedding", "obituary", "court case", or "land grant". This can help you find particular events or mentions.
Use Wildcards: Trove supports wildcards to broaden searches. Use an asterisk (*) for unknown characters or variations, like "Joh* Smith" to find both "John Smith" and "Johann Smith".
4. Explore Advanced Search Options
Boolean Operators: This is just a fancy word for "words computers know". Using capitalised words like AND, OR, and NOT will help to refine your search. For example, "John Smith" AND "Melbourne" will find results with both terms.
Proximity Searches: Find words close to each other with proximity searches, like "John Smith" NEAR/10 "Sydney", to get results where the terms appear within 10 words of each other.
5. Search for Associated People or Events
Related Individuals: If your ancestor had a spouse, sibling, or partner, search their names too. Sometimes you find information about your ancestor in unexpected places.
Significant Events: Look for events your ancestor might have been involved in, like historical events, businesses, or organisations.
6. Use Trove’s Tags and Comments
Community Tags: Some items are tagged by other users with names or events. Check these for additional information or alternate spellings.
Comments Section: Users sometimes add comments with corrections, extra details, or suggestions. These can provide useful leads.
7. Review and Adjust Your Search Terms
Evaluate Results: After checking your results, adjust your search terms if needed. If you’re getting too many results, add more details. If too few, broaden your search.
Try Different Combinations: Experiment with different combinations of names, events, or locations.
8. Check Digitised and Non-Digitised Resources
Digitised Content: Focus on digitised newspapers and documents, but remember some content isn’t digitised. Use Trove’s catalogue to find physical items in libraries or archives.
Explore Collections: Trove aggregates content from many sources, so explore different collections like books, images, maps, and archived websites.
9. Save and Organise Your Findings
Bookmark or Save Searches: Use Trove to save searches or bookmark items for later review.
Download or Print: Save copies of relevant articles or documents and make note of the publication details for citation purposes.
10. Use Trove’s Help Resources
Guides and Tutorials: Trove offers guides and tutorials to help users navigate the platform. These can give you extra strategies for effective searching.
Hopefully these 10 top tips and tricks for searching Trove has helped you on your journey to unravelling and revealing the lives of your loved ones. There are few better feelings in this genealogy field than discovering an article that describes an event so well that it feels like you were just there. This is exactly what makes Trove Australia's favourite free historical resource.
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