January 26, 2010
I had a basic question yesterday that reminded me of one of the core values of GenealogyBank – it’s flexible search engine.
A woman wrote asking for the obituary notice of her father – who had died in December 2008 – but she had not included her father’s name. So I wrote back asking her for that detail.
While I waited for her response I thought – you know, GenealogyBank’s search engine can find his obituary even without knowing his name.
Here’s how I did it.
Step One. 
I first entered what I knew – the name of his daughter and the month/year that he died. I left all of the other search fields blank. I reasoned that the obituary would likely include the name of his children and close relatives – in this case, the name of his daughter.
Step Two
There was only one hit that met that search criteria. 
Step Three
Bingo – it was the correct obituary.
Tip: Be flexible in your searches.
GenealogyBank indexes over 4,200 newspapers published over the last 300+ years. You may search by the name of the deceased or by other persons named in the obituary or news article. Search on every clue.
I've been teaching this to people ever since I started using Genealogy Bank! It's the best tool around! Use this same process when using other databases that have keyword searches. Try to think of the way that the person may be listed in an obit for example. Use Matt instead of Matthew, or Kathy instead of Kathleen.