Use Google Country-Specific Search Engines for Ancestry Research

How to use Google country-specific search engines for in-country Ancestry research.

Consider using one of Google’s country-specific search engines to search for your ancestor. Google has over 160+ different country-specific search engines. For example, Google’s search engine for

• Goolge.com (United States)
• Google.ca (Canada)
• Google.co.uk (United Kingdom)
• Google.au (Australia)
• Google.ie (Ireland)

If you are searching for an ancestor who immigrated to the United States from England in the 1800s, try doing a Google search on the United States search engine and then the exact search on the United Kingdom search engine. You will be amazed at the differences in the search results.

Google Country-Specific Search Engines
Table of Contents

• Use the Google Country-Specific Search Engines
• Google Country-Specific Search Engines
• Other Google Articles for Ancestry Research

Google attempts to automatically detect your location and provide customized results for that location. The factor for auto-detect a location is based on your IP address and Google Toolbar’s My Location feature (if you use it). Ever wonder why, when you are searching for a restaurant or movie, you usually get Google returns on the establishments near your home?

Google provides personalized results based on previous searches. For example, if you often click on Amazon links in your search results, Google will start to see that as a preference and show you Amazon links more often and higher in the placements in your search results.

As a historian and genealogist, don’t assume your Google search will search all countries and return results from websites worldwide.

If you are in the United States and you are using the US “Google.com” search engine, and you are looking for an ancestor’s records who lived 150 years ago in the United Kingdom, plan for your search results to be from US websites and entirely to skip over UK databases/websites that you would find if you used the country-specific search engines.

A better strategy would be to use the Google United Kingdom search engine “Google.co.uk” to conduct the exact search, and most of your search results will be based on UK websites.

Many historians and genealogists have resolved genealogical brick walls by using country-specific search engines. There are two ways to search for in-country databases/websites.

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Use the Google Country-Specific Search Engines

If you don’t know the Google search engine URL, simply type the Google search engine you are looking for as your search query and you will be presented with the country-specific URL at the top of your Google search results. A sample query would be as follows:

• Google Australia search engine
• Google Canada search engine
• Google Germany search engine
• Google United Kingdom search engine

Another option would be to copy and paste the country-specific search engine URL in your browser and you will be taken directly to the desired search engine. Examples of country-specific search engine URLs are as follows:

• www.google.com.au or google.com.au (Australia)
• www.google.ca or google.ca (Canada)
• www.google.com.de or google.com.de (German)
• www.google.co.uk or google.co.uk (United Kingdom)

Force Google to show pages originating from any country-specific search engine

You can use your current Google country-specific search engine or search engine of preference and force Google to search and display only pages from a specific country. You will use the following URL parameter:

• CR=country…

You will replace the dots with the country code as follows:

• CR=countryuk (United Kingdom)
• CR=countryca (Canada)
• CR=countryde (Germany)

Here is how it works. In my example, I am going to search for Johannes Schreiber and require Google to search websites only in the United Kingdom.

1. Use your Google country-specific search engine. In my case it would be the United States “google.com”
2. In the search box enter your search query. In my case I will use as my search query “Johannes Schreiber.”
3. Google then created the following search URL that appears in the browser: https://www.google.com/search?q=johannes+schreiber&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
4. Look closely at that URL and see where the ampersand “&” is right after “=johannes+schreiber&.”
5. Replace everything after that ampersand “=johannes+schreiber&” with “cr=countryuk.” It will like this:

• Before: https://www.google.com/search?q=johannes+schreiber&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
• After: https://www.google.com/search?q=johannes+schreiber&cr=countryuk

Note: I deleted: “ie-utf-8&oe-utf-8” and replaced it with cr=countryuk

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Google Country-Specific Search Engines

The following list provides country-specific codes, search engines and codes to force Google to search country-specific websites when using your search engine of preference.

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Other Google Articles for Ancestry Research

The following are other articles you may enjoy to help you Google your ancestry.

• QuickStart Beginners Guide to Ancestry Research
• How to Easily Google 18 Ancestor Records
• How to Get Great Google Search Results in Ancestry Research
• 21 Advanced and Essential Google Operators for Ancestry Research

• Energize Google Ancestry Research with AND, OR, NOT Boolean Operators
• How to Use the Google Wildcard Operators in Ancestry Research
• 4 Easy Steps to Google American Ancestry

• 26 Essential Google Search Skills for Ancestry Research
• 25 Google Reference Tips and Tricks for Ancestry Research
• 9 Advanced Google Search Strategies to Trace Ancestors

• 7 Advanced Google Search Features for Genealogy Websites
• Google Queries for Blogs, Social Networks and More
• Google Quick Helps for Ancestry Research

• 17 Ways to Google Name Variations in Ancestry Research
• 15 New Google Specialty Searches for Tracing Ancestors
• How to Google Record Collections of Libraries, Societies and More

• How to Cite and Verify Sources for Google Ancestry Research
• 37 Everyday Google Queries for Home, Work and Play
• How to Use US Postal Code Abbreviations for Google Ancestry Research
• Use Google Country-Specific Search Engines for Ancestry Research

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