Life before Google? Sometimes it hurts to think about.

Even before learning some tricks while working on our January 2009 Family Tree Magazine genealogy Googling article, my favorite Google trick was the site search. I’d be racking my brain because I knew I saw something about probate records on some page of a site, and for the life of me I couldn’t find it again.

I go to my Google toolbar and type in site: plus the URL and the search terms, and Google will search just that site. For example, say I want to find FamilySearch’s Denmark research outline. Here’s my Google search: site:www.familysearch.org denmark research outline.

The first result is exactly what I'm looking for.

Other tools I love: language translation (handy when editing foreign-research articles), area code lookup and—since I found out about them from the googling article—the currency converter and calculator tools.

On our Web site, you'll find five time-saving Google shortcuts and an excerpt from Google Your Family Tree, a book by Daniel Lynch. Our readers share their Google love on our Forum.

Learn more about making the most of Google in the January 2009 Family Tree Magazine (it's mailing to subscribers right about now; you can get it Nov. 11 on newsstands and from FamilyTreeMagazine.com).