Search Help
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Basic Search
Refined Search
Advanced Search
Wildcard Search
Dates
Records without references
Use of the Back button
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Please follow this link for a summary of the current catalogue coverage
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Basic Search
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Details can be entered in one or any combination of the boxes on the Archive Catalogue Search page. Any word or phrase entered in the ‘AnyText’ box will result in a search of all text fields in the database. If the reference of a document is already known, this can be entered in the ‘Ref’ box. If you want to narrow your search by date or by period, a flexible range of formats is permitted in the ‘Date’ box – see the table of Date formats below.
Please note that search text is not case-sensitive, so upper or lower case can be used.
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Refined Search
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Sometimes your initial search may produce too many, or the wrong type, of results. By clicking on the ‘Refined/Advanced Search’ option, you can refine this search. The original term(s) will not be visible, but will have been remembered. Additional terms can now be entered and you can then click on one of the ‘Widen’, ‘Narrow’ or ‘Exclude’ buttons.
The following examples are based on an initial search for the name ‘Herrick’:
- If you only want records of the Herrick family’s property in Rothley, enter the new term ‘Rothley’ and click on the ‘Narrow’ button – this will only find records which contain both the words ‘Herrick’ and ‘Rothley’.
- If you then decide you also want records of the family’s property in Mountsorrel, enter the new term ‘Mountsorrel’ and click on the ‘Widen’ button – this will find extra records containing the word ‘Mountsorrel’ in addition to the previous results.
- If you want records of the family’s property anywhere except at Beaumanor, enter the second term ‘Beaumanor’ and click on the ‘Exclude’ button – this will find all records containing the word ‘Herrick’, except those which also contain the word ‘Beaumanor’.
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Advanced Search
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Terms can also be combined in the same field or different fields, by clicking the Word and Field option buttons on the Refined/Advanced Search page. The default settings for both this and the basic search are the Word option ‘Phrase’ and Field option ‘And’.
Examples:
- Word option ‘Phrase’ and AnyText ‘Snibston Colliery’ will find all records which contain this exact phrase.
- Word option ‘And’ and AnyText ‘coal Snibston’ will find all records which contain both the words ‘coal’ and ‘Snibston’.
- Word option ‘Or’ and AnyText ‘coal Snibston’ will find both any records which contain the word ‘coal’ and any records which contain the word ‘Snibston’.
- Field option ‘And’, AnyText ‘churchyard’ and Ref ‘DE6103’ will find all records in the Knighton Parish Church deposit, reference DE6103, which contain the word ‘churchyard’.
- Field option ‘Or’, AnyText ‘churchyard’ and Ref ‘DE6103’ will find every record in the Knighton Parish Church deposit, reference DE6103, as well as every record in the database which contains the word ‘churchyard’.
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Wildcard Search
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Searches can be made for words which have the same stem or ending, including personal and place names with alternative spellings, by using an asterisk.
Examples:
- Sm*th will find Smith and Smyth.
- Quorn* will find Quorn and Quorndon.
- *knitter will find frameworkknitter, framework knitter and framework-knitter.
- farm* will find farm, farms, farming, farmer etc.
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Dates
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A wide variety of dates and periods can be entered in the ‘Date’ field when performing searches. There are many possibilities, but the following are the most common formats supported :
| Search term entered | Dates searched |
| 1764 | Any date in the year 1764 |
| 1764-1782 | Any date within any of the years 1764 to 1782 inclusive |
| April-Dec 1764 | Any date between 1 April and 31 December 1764 |
| 1-2 April 1764 | 1 and 2 April 1764 only |
| 1 April-10 Dec 1764 | Any date between 1 April and 10 Dec 1764 |
| 1 April 1764-Dec 1765 | Dates between 1 April 1764 and 31 Dec 1765 |
| 1 April 1764-1765 | Dates between 1 April 1764 and 31 December 1765 |
| c 1764, c. 1764 or circa 1764 | The year 1764 and 10 years either side (i.e. 1754-1774) |
| 18th century | The range of years 1700-1799 |
| Early 18th century | First 40 years of the 18th century (1700-1739) |
| Mid 18th century | Middle 40 years of the 18th century (1730-1769) |
| Late 18th century | Last 40 years of the 18th century (1760-1799) |
| Early 1700s | Any date between 1700 and 1704 inclusive |
| 1700s | Any date between 1700 and 1709 inclusive |
Notes
- Months may be entered in full or by the first three letters - April or Apr, September or Sep
- Dates may be entered with or without an ordinal suffix - 1 April or 1st April, 18 century or 18th century.
- A date found within square brackets is inferred or estimated from evidence in the document (or elsewhere) and is not actually stated - [1764], n.d. [c.1760], n.d. [Mid 18th century] (n.d.= no date).
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Records without references
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A search may find ‘records’ which contain no references. These are merely ‘section’ or ‘series’ level headings in collections and cannot be ordered in the Record Office searchroom. If you click on the ‘More’ button in the Catalogue Record to take you to the Collection View, the references of the individual records within these headings can be seen. Only these records (at ‘file’ or ‘item’ levels) may be ordered up.
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You can return to previously viewed pages (e.g. from a full catalogue record back to the search results), via the usual ‘Back’ button on your browser. The exception to this is returning to the basic search and refined/advanced search pages. These can be found by clicking on one of the links in the green menu at the top and bottom of each page, but if you wish to return to these pages with your original search term(s) still visible, double-click on your ‘Back’ button.
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