Some old Googlers – Scottish MI’s and Travel.

[Currie]

Some old Googlers – Scottish MI’s and Travel.


1. - Collection of Epitaphs and Monumental Inscriptions: Chiefly in Scotland.
By Robert Monteith, 1834.

A lot of them are aristocracy and possibly too early to be of much use but there’s an index on page 361 with 800 names so why not try your luck.

There’s a particularly heart rending one on page 358.

http://www.google.com.au/books?id=K0kLA ... frontcover


2. - Leigh's new pocket road-book of Scotland.
By Samuel Leigh, 1829.

Lose yourself in Scotland with the very latest from Sam Leigh.

Has an index at the back with lots of obscure places and establishments encountered in his travels

http://www.google.com.au/books?id=OZwHA ... frontcover


3. - Black's Picturesque Tourist of Scotland.
By Adam and Charles Black, 1861.

Thirty odd years later, not just more of the same, but more pages, more illustrations and more steam.

Has a general index and a person index at the back.

http://www.google.com.au/books?id=-5DVK ... A1#PPP2,M1


Alan

[Anne H]

Hi Alan,

I'm going to enjoy reading through these books...many thanks for the links.

Regards,
Anne H

[speleobat2]

Alan,

Thanks for your post. I have been going to check out google books several times but never got around to it. Last night I decided to have a look at the MI book. Didn't get very far with it but then I searched Clerihew and came up with something like 771 hits!

I think 765 of them are about Edmund and his rhymes, but some of the others are interesting. One: Aberdeen Grammar School: Roll of Pupils 1795-1919 by Theodore Watt has two Clerihews listed in the 1840-1850's. Now I need to check and see if they are mine! There were some legal proceedings also--one a complaint of tresspassing and "knocking my rod out of my hand...". Sounds exciting. I only got through page 13 last night so we'll see what's there for today!

Carol

[Currie]

Hello Carol,

That’s not a bad haul. You’ll have to try some of your more sensible variations as well. That should keep you busy for a while. Even narrowed down to “Full View” books there are over 70. The “No Preview” and “Snippet View” results can be really frustrating but at least you can get something out of them if you’re lucky.

I once worked out a way to manipulate the ‘No preview ones” so you can expand the info you get. This is handy if you can’t get hold of the book and are desperate to see a little bit more. It’s possibly not so helpful with this sort of a list of names.

This is your normal search result
1843-1846. Clerihew, Alexander. Entd. I. 1822-1824. Clerihew ... Clerihew, William. Entd. III. 1825-1827. Clerk, Alexander. Entd. IV. 1826-1827. ...

Search Google books for the tail end of the above and add quotes i.e.
“Clerk, Alexander. Entd. IV. 1826-1827"

Result will be: (make sure you’re still getting the same page i.e. 11.)
Entd. I. 1822-1825. Clerihew, William. Entd. III. 1825-1827. Clerk, Alexander. Entd. IV. 1826-1827. Clerk, Alexander K. Entd. V. 1827-1829. Clerk, Leslie. ...

Search for
“1827-1829. Clerk, Leslie”

This result means you could be at a dead end
Entd. I. 1822-1825. Clerihew, William. Entd. III. 1825-1827. Clerk, Alexander. Entd. IV. 1826-1827. Clerk, Alexander K. Entd. V. 1827-1829. Clerk, Leslie. ...

Then go in the other direction search from the front end of the original result
“1843-1846. Clerihew, Alexander”

Result will be:
1809-1812. Clark, William. Entd. IV. 1835-1837. Clark, William [Mortimer]. Entd. I. 1845-1847. Clark, William G. Entd. II. 1843-1846. Clerihew, Alexander. ...

And that might be another dead end – but you end up with in total

1809-1812. Clark, William. Entd. IV. 1835-1837. Clark, William [Mortimer]. Entd. I. 1845-1847. Clark, William G. Entd. II. 1843-1846. Clerihew, Alexander. Entd. I. 1822-1824. Clerihew ..............………….. Entd. I. 1822-1825. Clerihew, William. Entd. III. 1825-1827. Clerk, Alexander. Entd. IV. 1826-1827. Clerk, Alexander K. Entd. V. 1827-1829. Clerk, Leslie. ...

Confused? Me too! I hope I didn't get any of that back-to-front.

There seems to be a missing Clerihew(s) in the gap, unless it’s an earlier enrolment by William. This method is recommended only if you’re desperate. Someone is sure to come up with a single click method that will give the same result and will make all this look a bit silly.

All the best,
Alan

[speleobat2]

Thanks, Alan!

I've printed that one out so I can try it later.

Question: How can I do a search for just one whole name? For example,
if I want to search for John Fraser Taylor in a newspaper archive. I tried using quote marks, but I still get every John, Fraser, and Taylor which takes forever to wade through especially with dial up! All I want to know is if this one person is mentioned anywhere. Or does this depend on each and every different database?

Carol

[Currie]

Hello Carol,

It seems to vary a lot from database to database and I guess it depends on the software the database uses. If you’re searching for a phrase sometimes you can put it within quotes in the normal search area or in the phrase box under Advanced Search as for Google.

This system works for those using Olive Software such as the Guardian/Observer Archives, Sydney Morning Herald Archives etc. but sometimes the Near option is best for phrases if the name suffers a line break or is back to front. These databases include lots of other options including wildcards. The Scotsman Archive uses a different variety of Olive Software but still gives the Exact Phrase option.

The London/Edinburgh Gazette gives the Exact Phrase option. I don’t think you can use quotes with the London Times database (Gale-Thomson – Info Trac) but if you type in three words such as a name the results will only include instances where all those words occur within a couple of words of each other and that system works quite well. There’s something known as Proximity Indicators see this page (Match exact phrase only civil w1 war) (In case this link doesn’t work the w1 means one word after and is supposed to pick up the phrase “civil war”) http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itw/infom ... ord_Search I haven’t tried that one and don’t know whether it works in other databases.

According to ProQuest’s Historical Newspapers database (U.S. Newspapers, including N.Y. Times) two word queries are searched as an exact phrase by default but that exact phrases of three or more words should be enclosed within quotes. I’m not sure whether this is the same with the free, pre 1930 or whatever, N. Y. Times.

I guess that the name within quotes would be the best one to try, if that doesn’t work look for an Advanced Search/Exact Phrase/All the Words option. If that doesn’t work try just the three words and hope for some proximity default like the London Times, or try AND between each word or try the Proximity indicator referred to above. Maybe searching within results, if that’s available, by first searching for just the most unusual part of the name and then narrowing it down. There are probably others that don’t immediately spring to mind.

Sometimes the OCR doesn’t read one of the words properly and it can be worthwhile searching for just two of the three words as a phrase if that’s not too common a combination. When I’ve been searching for death notices I’ve often found that the search has brought up a funeral notice the day after a death notice and I’ve had to browse to get a death notice that was quite readable by eye but was unreadable for an OCR program. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if at least a quarter of the text in these old newspapers, given the poor quality of paper and printing and general deterioration is totally unreadable by an Optical Character Recognition program.

Hope that helps,
All the best,
Alan

p.s. I’ll have a bit of a look around for Mr Taylor.

[SarahND]

I once worked out a way to manipulate the ‘No preview ones” so you can expand the info you get.

Hi Alan,
I remember doing exactly as you describe to find something that was still archived in google somewhere, but the site was no longer up. Once got a longish quotation from something or other for one of my classes that way!

Sarah

[speleobat2]

Alan,

I'm definitely going to print out that one!

Thanks for all of the information. It really helps to clarify things for me and I keep putting all the tips in a resource file. My brain just doesn't remember things well!

Back to my lists!

Carol

[speleobat2]

Hi again Alan,

I've been trying out some of your suggestions on Google Books and found that if I add a placename behind Clerihew i.e. Clerihew Scotland, it really narrows things down to a manageable size.

I also just found Google Archives! The same placename addition works there too. Unfortunately, most of their newspapers are only available full view if you pay. I have been able to figure out most of them from the snippets, but there are a few that I might want to read more of. Oh well!

Carol

[speleobat2]

One more time!

I was just looking at the books again and Bingo!!! I found Printers and Printing In Providence 1762-1907. This was a 50th anniversary publication by the Providence Typographical Union #33 and the snippet started out: James L. Clerihew born April 19, 1880 in Aberdeen.... That's my grandfather!!!!!!!!! It turns out that he was a journeyman printer, being admitted to the union in Aberdeen in 1899 and admitted to the Providence union in 1906 when he came over here.

I knew from the 1901 census that his first job was as a printer-compositor, but I thought he was strictly a journeyman jeweler by the time he moved to the US.

After some more googling I located a posting to the RIGenweb of much of the Printers book including the entry about my grandfather. Now I just have to see if my sister wants a copy for our family archive.

By the way, after all of that training, my grandfather ended up working on an assembly line for Chrylser automobiles in Detrioit!

Carol