Minnesota Birth Index

The certificates themselves are not online, but the index from 1900 through 1934 is searchable and users can "play" with a variety of search terms, including last name and mother's maiden name.

I probably won't order the records, but I was able to find entries for several cousins using this database at http://people.mnhs.org/bci/. Combining last name at birth with mother's maiden name I found particularly effective.

Where to Make Google Alerts

The place to get started creating Google alerts is here: http://www.google.com/alerts 

It is best to create a Google account to do this, if you do not already have one. It might be good to brush up on a few advanced google search techniques:

• More Search Help
• Advanced Search Help

How Often Do You Google?

Put a google search on your list for every "stuck" person you have. There will be some for whom you do not find anything ,but there will be others for whom you make significant finds.

Search DAR Database for more than Patriots

Not only does the NSDAR Database allow you to search for patriots, you can also search for other ancestors of members. This search was conducted to search for Archibald Kile, born in Ohio in 1812. The results located him and his wife, one of his children and his father who supposedly was a patriot. All of this will have to be validated, but it was a good clue.

Was The Data Entry "Standardized?"

When some companies index various records, they "standardize" parts of the entry, instead of transcribing it exactly as it appears.

Hence, the abbreviation "Ca" for a place of birth might become "California." The problem is that it could also stand for Canada.

Have you thought about this when searching?

Searching for Birth Place of Parents in 1880 At Ancestry.com

Do you know how to search for people living in a certain place who were born in a certain place with a parent born in another place in the 1880 census?

The search interface at Ancestry.com for the 1880 allows this (at least in a roundabout way). You can set a search to be for people born in an exact place, living in an exact location and then use the "key word" search feature to search for the place of birth for the mother or father.

I still liked the way this was done on the 1880 CDs the LDS church put out years ago, but I guess this is better than nothing.

How Do They Treat Middle Initials?

Find out how databases treat middle names and initials. Not every database incorporates this piece of information in the same fashion.

Read the site's FAQ or experiment.