Help

Basic searching

Using Search all enter a keyword or words in Any Text and click on the SEARCH button

Points to note

• The search is not case sensitive, e.g. if you type andover, the search will find Andover
• If you type, e.g. john smith, the search will find all records that include both the words john and smith. It will also find john smith and john william smith.
• * is known as a wildcard. If you type child* your search will find all instances of the word child and all words beginning with that root such as child’s, children, etc.

Your hitlist

Results are displayed in a hitlist showing basic details; Finding No, Title, Date. To sort your hits by Finding No, title or Date, click on the relevant column header. NB: if you sort by date, invalid dates and blank dates will appear at the top of the list.

Click on Full details to see which collection your hit belongs to and all additional information such as further description, access conditions, or a digital image.

Too many hits to search through? Click on New search/refine search, type another keyword or words and then click on the NARROW button. There are also options to EXCLUDE a keyword, or WIDEN your search.

A hitlist will not appear if your search has more than 40,000 hits so you will need to refine your search and try again.

Advanced search

Advanced search gives you the option to search over several fields. For example, you may wish to search for a keyword or words within just one collection, or for a range of dates*, or for a word that is likely to appear in the title of a record (e.g. will, map, register of baptisms, etc.).

* NB: search by date always results in a slower search. You can choose one year, a range of years, e.g. 1880-1895 (not 1880-95), c1900 which will search 5 years either side of the date, or even 19th century which will search 1801-1900.

The other searches allow you to search specific parts of the database, e.g. just for books, film and sound archives, digital images or collections.

Search settings

Each search page has Word and Field Options. The default is set to AND to mimic the way search engines search the internet.

Word Options: using the example john smith again, the OR option would produce a much bigger hitlist as it will find all records with just the word john, and all records with just the word smith, as well as records with john smith. The PHRASE option will find only hits where the words john smith appear together.

Field Options: used in the same way as Word Options if a search involves keywords in more than one field.