Google Your Family Tree, by Daniel M. Lynch. Softcover, xii + 340 pp. FamilyLink.com, Inc. $34.95. Available through Avotaynu, <www.avotaynu.com/books/ Google Your-Family-Tree.htm>

I rarely get excited about new things. The last time that happened was when a man named Stephen P. Morse claimed he had a better way to search the Ellis Island Database. When I saw how Morse accomplished his search, I got excited because I realized it not only solved the problem of the inadequate EllisIsland.org search engine, but it had relevance to many other Internet applications.

    Google Your Family Tree excites me because it has relevance to applications other than genealogy. A more appropriate title might have been “How to Use Google with Examples from Genealogy.” Whoever uses Google must read this book, whether you are a genealogist, a school student with a homework assignment or a cooking buff looking for a recipe.

Google has revolutionized information retrieval. Because just about everything and everyone is mentioned in some way on the Internet, this remarkable search engine is a boon to family history research. I have used it to find information about living persons, deceased persons of note, the history of my ancestral towns, the origin of the surname Mokotow and other subjects.

One might ask, “What is there to Google beyond learning how to use keywords?” Google Your Family Tree author Lynch does use the first 28 pages to demonstrate rigorously how to select and apply keywords, but the next 296 pages teach the reader about many of the other capabilities of Google, including:

• Language Tools. The ability to search in any language for pages in any other language. You can search for websites in Russian that include the word “genealogy” or find sites in English that include the word генеалогия <http://www. vgd.ru/> (the Russian word for “genealogy”). Google Your Family Tree includes 16 pages explaining the function.
• Google Books. As more and more books are added to Google’s digital library, many of them historical, this is becoming a valuable resource for genealogy. Google Your Family Tree devotes 14 pages to the function.
• Google News Archives. How to use Google’s vast news archives is discussed on the 16 pages of Chapter 6.
• Google Images and Videos
• Google Alerts. I use this capability to receive e-mails about subjects of continual interest to me. The book contains 10 pages on this function.
• Google Maps. Find locations anywhere in the world and create maps for your family history site. Also get auto-route directions between cities. Google Your Family Tree covers it in 16 pages.

At this point,we are only halfway through the book. Additional chapters cover Blog Search, Google Earth, Google Notebook, Google Toolbar and Other Tips and Tricks. See <http://www.google.com/intl/en/options/> to understand the vastness of the Google environment. The “Other Tips and Tricks” chapter is full of shortcuts for using Google to check flight status, airport conditions, weather and currency rates, and to track parcels and stock prices, and many more tasks.

For those readers who consider themselves Googlephiles, the following quiz is offered. If you know the answer, perhaps you are already a Google maven (expert). What is the difference in searching for “Mokotoff genealogy,” “Mokotoff AND genealogy” and “Mokotoff +genealogy.” There is a difference. Each produces a different number of results, and, in this particular example, the first ten hits are different. Lynch explains the differences in Chapter 1.

Google has the ability to search for “similar” words by using the ~ (tilde) command. A search using ~genealogy locates any web page that not only has the word “genealogy” but also words related to “genealogy,” such as “ancestry,” “family tree” and “roots.” Question: How can you determine what words or phrases Google uses as synonyms for “genealogy?” There are exactly 15. Lynch explains how to do it in Chapter 1.

The book is easy reading because it is rich with sample screens from Google. Remarkably, I can find no other book that explains how to use Google. Google Your Family Tree is a must for every household, not merely for family history research, but for every family member who uses the Internet to glean information.

Gary Mokotoff