After watching a video on YouTube about how Google Books can show you some important information about your relatives and that Google Book Search even searches within books to show you detail, i knocked up a small tool that will take a GEDCOM file and search for each name in Google Books:
EDIT: - here is thenewurl - bit prettier:
http://www.freefamilytreetools.com/
In about 2 minutes, I found out that two different members of my family were studied n Psychology Studies and that one branch of my family tree has a book written about them!
The tool is a bit rough and ready, but give it a go and let me know how you get on or if you can think of a way to improve it (besides the way it looks!!)
Andrew
Search Google Books for mentions of your family
Moderators: grangers14, admin, Northern Lass
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Fatman
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Search Google Books for mentions of your family
Last edited by Fatman on Sat Oct 02, 2010 1:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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grangers14
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Re: Search Google Books for mentions of your family
i knocked up a small tool
How do you do that!
Well a lot came up for mine but not the right person. I didnt have a thorough look mind.
Jo
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Fatman
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Re: Search Google Books for mentions of your family
Tis my job jo!
Ive got a facebook one too to try and find pictures of distant relatives in your tree.
WIll polish that one up too and let you all have a look
Ive got a facebook one too to try and find pictures of distant relatives in your tree.
WIll polish that one up too and let you all have a look
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grangers14
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Re: Search Google Books for mentions of your family
Ooohhh Clever boy! 
Well done you though!
Jo
Well done you though!
Jo
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Maths girl
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Re: Search Google Books for mentions of your family
I had a go but got
Name Results
Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/fatman1/public_html/temp/bookssearch.php on line 78
Does that mean I did something wrong?
Name Results
Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/fatman1/public_html/temp/bookssearch.php on line 78
Does that mean I did something wrong?
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Fatman
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Re: Search Google Books for mentions of your family
Ooh Maths Girls - you didnt do anything wrong but it means something went wrong!
Can you have another try now just to be sure?
If its till breaks, ill work out what it is!
Can you have another try now just to be sure?
If its till breaks, ill work out what it is!
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Jimmy
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Re: Search Google Books for mentions of your family
Maths girl wrote:I had a go but got
Name Results
Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/fatman1/public_html/temp/bookssearch.php on line 78
Does that mean I did something wrong?
Thats what happened to me.
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Fatman
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Re: Search Google Books for mentions of your family
Jimmy or Maths Girl,
Could one of you pm me your gedcom?
i need to work out whats going on!
Could one of you pm me your gedcom?
i need to work out whats going on!
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grangers14
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Re: Search Google Books for mentions of your family
Not sure if you have done anything Andrew but worked for me just now.
Jo
Jo
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Fatman
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Re: Search Google Books for mentions of your family
Nope havent changed anything and works for me too...
Think it must be something in the GEDCOM file i think? thats what im hoping to get one of the one that files to see if i can work out what it is!
Think it must be something in the GEDCOM file i think? thats what im hoping to get one of the one that files to see if i can work out what it is!
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Jimmy
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Re: Search Google Books for mentions of your family
I got it to work and ended up with,
Name Results
John Shakespeare 593
John Shakespeare 593
Mary Ann Allen 594
Emma Smith 573
Thomas Shakespeare 575
Hannah Mullet 69
James Havard 581
Emma Shaw 582
Elizabeth Edwards 585
Harriet Clark 599
Thomas Clark 582
Harriet Owens 121
Benjamin Clee 15
Elizabeth Hall 338
Name Results
John Shakespeare 593
John Shakespeare 593
Mary Ann Allen 594
Emma Smith 573
Thomas Shakespeare 575
Hannah Mullet 69
James Havard 581
Emma Shaw 582
Elizabeth Edwards 585
Harriet Clark 599
Thomas Clark 582
Harriet Owens 121
Benjamin Clee 15
Elizabeth Hall 338
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Fatman
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Re: Search Google Books for mentions of your family
Yeah thats what effectively it should do, just a little bit of a shame if some of the names return so many results - kinda dilutes the point of the tool!
What did you do to make it work?
What did you do to make it work?
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Jimmy
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Re: Search Google Books for mentions of your family
I put a few extra names in and saved it, I havn't been doing Gedcoms for very long.
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grangers14
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Re: Search Google Books for mentions of your family
Oh goodness Jimmy! 
What a terrible thing.
What a terrible thing.