Google Books and Familial Research

Working my way through all the research possibilities that the net offers for free has been an interesting experience. Refining and re-refining searches has been rewarding, if in a limited way. Actually I say that, and the Heckington Spaynes came out of a Google search, as did the marriages of Spains in Lincoln and the discovery of siblings for TDS. Though the route to them was circuitous and chock-full of frustrating dead-ends and ridiculousnesses.

Google Books has been more about personality that data. Three items really interested me: the first, and perhaps the most affecting, was the reference I found to my grandparents in a book about the Atlantic Convoys when RMDS served as First Lieutenant on HMS Reading. Next was a snipped from Recent English Domest Architecture which mentioned Hovenden House and JEDS role in redesigning the interior, a house I knew well through my maternal family. And finally, yet another reference, in the excellently titled ‘Our Heroic Airmen and their Exploits’, to GDDS’s bravery in the air during WW1.

I am not sure have entirely mined Google, and I am not sure Bing.com and Ask.com will be any more detailed, but you never know. I’ll report back here.