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There are thousands of books that have content relevant for family history research including [[directories]], civil lists, biographies and military histories. As well as reading around a topic or finding out about a place, it is worth searching on an ancestor's name in inverted commas e.g. "John Doe". You may have to try various combinations of the name. This is particularly successful for ancestors of a certain social class living in the first half of the nineteenth century, but you never know what you may find. Try tracing an officer's career via listings of promotions, look for births/marriages/deaths or find the postings of an [[apothecary]]. Using the Advanced Search to narrow down the time frame of publication can be useful.
===FIBIS resources===
*"Using Google Books for Family History Research" by Ed Storey [[FIBIS Journals|''FIBIS Journal]] Number 25 (Spring 2011)'', pages 44-48
===FIBIS on Google Books===
*”Plain Text” to copy the text to a Word or similar document. What you copy will not be fully accurate, so you will need to check your copy against the original wording.
*”Clip” as a first step to copying a part of the actual page. A small blue rectangle should appear around the word clip. Next left click and draw a rectangle around the paragraph you require. Click within the paragraph which should then become blue. Then copy the link which appears under “Image” and paste in a document. You can subsequently use this link to view the paragraph you have saved. You can also use programs such as Powerpoint to make a slide of the paragraph you have clipped.
===Expanding a Google Books Snippet view search result===
A researcher was seeking further information on Colonel Warren Francis Trotter, born in India The first Google Books search result stated [http://books.google.com/books?id=JT8ZAAAAYAAJ&q=Colonel+Warren+Francis+Trotter+intitle:The+intitle:Near+intitle:East&dq=Colonel+Warren+Francis+Trotter+intitle:The+intitle:Near+intitle:East&hl=en&ei=ucCeTYXENY-qcb-c0OYB&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAA The Near East, Volume 11] 1916 Snippet view "Colonel Warren Francis Trotter, Royal Marine Artillery, died at Briery Close. Windermere, on Monday. ... district preferred, and rough idea of fees should be given".
The link inside the book was not helpful, and the wording from the search result could not be seen on the snippet view of the page inside the book.
One method is to focus on less common words at the end of the search result wording and carry out a new search for these words. The next Google Books search was Artillery, “Briery Close” which resulted in the wording “Colonel Warren Francis Trotter, Royal Marine Artillery, died at Briery Close. Windermere, on Monday. He joined the RMA in 1876, and had seen service in China, Esquimault, and Egypt. He was awarded the Egyptian Medal. ...”. The next Google Books search result for "China, Esquimault, and Egypt" resulted in the wording “He joined the RMA in 1876, and had seen service in China, Esquimault, and Egypt. He was awarded the Egyptian Medal. 1882, and the Khedive's Bronze Star. At the time of his death he was in command of a howitzer and antiaircraft brigade. ...”. A final search using the words "Khedive's Bronze Star" howitzer resulted in the wording” 1882, and the Khedive's Bronze Star. At the time of his death he was in command of a howitzer and antiaircraft brigade. Captain Henry Needham Knox, RN, who took part in the Crimean War, died in Bournemouth ...”
The final wording appears to be Colonel Warren Francis Trotter, Royal Marine Artillery, died at Briery Close. Windermere, on Monday. He joined the RMA in 1876, and had seen service in China, Esquimault, and Egypt. He was awarded the Egyptian Medal 1882, and the Khedive's Bronze Star. At the time of his death he was in command of a howitzer and antiaircraft brigade
==Archive.org==
