Narrowing a search on Trove

[Forfarian]

I've been looking in Trove for information about Owen Parker, who married Ada Craig Guthrie in Sydney in 1951.

Unfortunately I can't seem to narrow the search to exclude mentions of addresses with Park in them, or mentions of the Parks Department, or references to people named Park, Parks or Parkes, which means that I am getting thousands of 'hits' (far too many to wade through) that are not what I want.

Listing these words/names in the 'without these words' field results in just one result containing 'Owen' but not, as far as I can see, Parker, Park, Parkes or Parks. So it looks as if the search cannot distinguish between these four words.

However I know there are at least half a dozen mentions of an Owen Parker, in the 1960s. What I can't make out is whether or not they are the Owen Parker I am interested in.

His wife was born in Wales in 1902, emigrated to Australia in 1948, married in 1951 and died in 1964.

The Owen Parker in trouble with the law in 1966 is said to be 41, so he is about a quarter of a century younger than Ada, so looks an unlikely candidate to be her husband.

Any suggestions for targeting the search more precisely?

[Neale1961]

I think it might be best to direct you here, rather than trying to explain myself.
https://trove.nla.gov.au/help/searching
I always use an ‘advanced search’, and frequently I use some of the “little tricks” explained in the complex search function.

[wivenhoe]

Try this -

Use Trove Advanced   https://trove.nla.gov.au/search/advanced/category/newspapers

   The Phrase.........Owen Parker

   Titles and Places..........New South Wales

   Date Range...........

Latest (most recent)  access using Trove is 1954, with a few publications more recent.  Using ...The Phrase.....will pick out occasions of the words appearing together...next to each other.

[Forfarian]

Thank you both. I always use the advanced search, and quotation marks for phrases.

I've tried the tilde ~ method to get "Owen Parker" with no other words between, and it gets 4705 'hits', many of which are references to "Owen Park".

I have tried fulltext:"Owen Parker"~0 as suggested in the search tips. I get one result - an item about a place called Parkes.

The long and short of it is that it seems that the search is incapable of distinguishing between 'Parker', 'Park', 'Parks' and 'Parkes', so no matter what I do I still seem to get either thousands of results or none at all.

Oh, and it seems to be unable to distinguish 'Owen' from 'Open', which doesn't help.

[matthewj64]

I have tried fulltext:"Owen Parker"~0 as suggested in the search tips. I get one result - an item about a place called Parkes.

I get 293 results for this search
https://trove.nla.gov.au/search/category/newspapers?keyword=fulltext%3A%22Owen%20Parker%22~0

Are you limiting it by decade, because most newspaper results will stop in the 1950s?

M

[Neale1961]

Have you refined by place and refined by date?
Have you sorted by relevance?

[matthewj64]

Ada Craig Parker and Owen Parker are at 86 Stephen rd Botany NSW in the electoral rolls for 1954, 1958 and 1963

Owen Parker, late of Botany, N.S.W., cleaner, died 1st May, 1967; letters of administration, with the will dated 1st July, 1966, annexed, were granted on 22nd February, 1968.
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article219988177

M

[matthewj64]

NSW death reg 2260/1967 Owen PARKER, father Francis Henry, mother Ada

NSW birth reg 37096/1914 Owen PARKER, father Francis H, mother Ada, district Murwillumbah

WW2 record - service Num QX13986, DoB 22 Jun 1914 NSW, enlisted Kelvin Grove QLD, NoK - Lennard HOGG (friend)
https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=4496937

M

[CassT]

Hi I found this information On the Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park Website
https://www.smcnsw.org.au/eastern/find-a-loved-one

Ada Craig Parker  07/03/1964   11/03/1964   Cremated   Bunnerong Walls, Wall A, Position 0016

Owen Parker         01/05/1967  03/05/1967   Cremated  Bunnerong Walls, Wall A, Position 0017

Cass

also on TROVE 
PARKER Ada Craig Death notice 07MAR1964 Death late of BotanySydney Morning Herald   9MAR1964
PARKER Owen Death notice    01MAY1967 Death 52 late of Botany Sydney Morning Herald   2MAY1967

I have found the Death Funeral Notices for Ada and Owen in the SMH. If you would like copies send your Email address to me via a PM..

here I am again. just noticed that there is a tree on Ancestry that has photo of Ada and Owens Memorials at Botany