I have a 3rd great grandfather by the name of Gottlieb Stahley. This is the kind of name that can give a genealogist agita. There are probably a dozen different ways to spell both his first and last names. Most genealogy sites have a wildcard function that eases the pain somewhat. But what if you are searching on Google? Well, the trick I use is to run a search like this:
Gottlieb|Gotlieb|Godlieb|Gottleib|Gotleib|Godleib Stehley|Stahley|Stehly|Stahly|Staley|Staly
The pipes mean "or," so the above string will find every combination of the listed names...thirty-six in all. I don't have time to run thirty-six separate Google searches, so this is a great little shortcut.
By the way, this particular search helped me break through a huge brick wall. I found Gottlieb in a list of headstone transcriptions, which further yielded a bonanza of information on that branch of my family
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