Still getting thousands of irrelevant hits? Here's a quick lesson in search-engine math.
1. First, choose a search engine, such as Google <www.google.com>,
and search on just your ancestor's name (for example, john mackenzie).
The search engine will find any page with the words john and mackenzie.
In this case, Google found 1,260,000 pages — way too many to wade
through.
2.
Next, try putting quotation marks around your ancestor's name: “john
mackenzie.” This time, Google turns up 19,600 pages in which the words
john and mackenzie appear side-by-side.