AncestorSearch
Transform Google Search into your personal genealogy search engine with this free tool
NEW! Now you can Filter Search Results to include or exclude search results from People Search sites and Social Media sites.
Try searching for living people using PeopleSearch.
Quick Tips for using this search tool
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Type in as many search criteria as you want. Use of alternate names, a second person, place, or year
are all optional. You can also optionally filter on marriages, births, and deaths.
TIP: Use the tab key to save time moving between input boxes - Click the “Run Full Google Search” button to run your search (or just press the Enter key)
Search results appear in a new tab; close that new tab to go back and refine your search - NEW! Choose any of the Filter Search Results options to EXCLUDE or to INCLUDE ONLY search results from major people search sites and/or social media sites. Read more details below.
- NEW! Click the “Set Google Alert” button (near the bottom of the tool) to automatically receive updates when Google Search finds a new page matching your query
- Subscribe to receive notification of tool updates and usage tips
NEW! How to Filter Search Results from People Search sites and Social Media sites
- EXCLUDE search results from people search sites:
If your search results are inundated by tons of results from people search sites, choosing this option will remove as many of those sites from your search as possible. Note that Google Search has a 32 word limit, so depending on how many search terms you have entered, as many as possible of the people search sites will be removed in the order shown in the next bullet (based roughly on traffic ranking according to Alexa). - INCLUDE ONLY search results from people search sites:
To find a person’s listings in all of the major people search sites, choose this option. If you’re concerned about your privacy, this is a great way to find out which people search sites have your information. Typically, it’s best to start by typing just First Name, Last Name and Place (e.g. city or state). You can also type a 4-digit year or an age into the Year box, and choose “Exact”. Because of Google Search’s 32 word limit, your search will often be executed as two searches and two tabs will open containing the search results (for the same reason, two tabs will open when setting a Google Alert with this filter option).
For your convenience, the following links will take you to each people search engine’s opt-out page where you can request to have your information removed:
whitepages.com, beenverified.com, zoominfo.com, mylife.com, spokeo.com, truepeoplesearch.com, instantcheckmate.com, clustrmaps.com, truthfinder.com, fastpeoplesearch.com, peoplefinders.com, rocketreach.co, apollo.io, intelius.com, owler.com, usphonebook.com, peekyou.com, peoplelooker.com, radaris.com, smartbackgroundchecks.com, pipl.com, familytreenow.com, searchpeoplefree.com, checkpeople.com, thatsthem.com, 411.com, advancedbackgroundchecks.com, ussearch.com, anywho.com, zabasearch.com, peoplesearchnow.com, xlek.com, publicrecords.directory, peoplebyname.com, checkthem.com, usa-people-search.com, veripages.com, peoplesmart.com, findpeoplesearch.com, dobsearch.com, people-background-check.com, fullnamedirectory.com, phoneowner.com, publicrecords360.com, backgroundcheck.run, publicrecords.com
- EXCLUDE search results from social media sites:
If your search results are inundated by tons of results from social media sites, choosing this option will remove as many of those sites from your search as possible. Note that Google Search has a 32 word limit, so depending on how many search terms you have entered, as many as possible of the social media sites will be removed in the following order (based roughly on traffic ranking according to Alexa):
youtube.com, facebook.com, baidu.com, qq.com, wikipedia.org, amazon.com, reddit.com, instagram.com, twitter.com, stackoverflow.com, linkedin.com, github.com, whatsapp.com, tumblr.com, medium.com, stackexchange.com, pinterest.com, messenger.com, quora.com, tripadvisor.com, skype.com, yelp.com, tiktok.com, nextdoor.com, wechat.com, snapchat.com, qzone.com
- INCLUDE ONLY search results from social media sites:
To find a person’s listings in all of the major social media sites’ public pages, choose this option. The priority order searched is the same as shown in the prior bullet. Note that Facebook and some other social media sites do not allow Google Search to index most of their pages, so you must manually search within Facebook to get the full set of search results. - Subscribe to receive notification of tool updates and usage tips
FAQs for AncestorSearch
TIPS FOR THE POWER USER:
- Shortcut keys: Use the Tab key to move to the next field, and press the Enter key to run the full search
- Don’t worry about upper case or lower case; Google Search is not case-sensitive
- Use the “Other search terms” input box at the bottom of the form to add additional search terms:
For example, to ONLY search one website, type “site:wikipedia.org” (without the quotes), or to EXCLUDE search results from a particular website, type “-site:wikipedia.org” (without the quotes)
Also, multiple terms can be used in the “Other search terms” input box to add Google advanced search strings to your search, such as this (typed exactly as shown here):
-site:wikipedia.com -“saratoga springs” -albany
The above example excludes search results from wikipedia.com and excludes search results that contain the phrase “colorado springs” and excludes search results that contain the word denver - If you get too many search results, try checking the box “Only return search results where persons’ names are within 10 words of each other”
- After clicking the “Run Full Google Search” button, you can edit the search string on the Google Search page that appears, or just close that tab to go back and refine your search
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