Search Tips

Basic searching

    • A single word, just type into the search box to retrieve your results.
    • Phrases [two words or more]. use double quotation marksto retrieve records for that exact phrase, .g.“Receipt Book”, “mass-produced” or “06/097/100”
    • Two words in the same record, e.g. flying AND school. Find records with both words flying and school. AND must be in capital letters
    • Wild cards. Expand your results to include plurals or similar words, such as beads or beading, use these symbols;
      • Bead* will return words such as beads
      • Bead? will return words such as beading.

Advanced search tips.

Boolean Operators: If you are searching for multiple words, but not for an exact phrase, you can use these to combine your search terms in different ways.

  • flying OR school : Records with either the words flying or school, or both flying and school. OR must be written in capital letters.
  • flying NOT school : Records with the word flying but not the word school. NOT must be written in capital letters.

Advanced wildcard searches

  • be*d : Records that contain words beginning with the letters be and ending with the letter d. e.g. Bead, bend, beard, bedford etc.
  • bead? :Records that contain words beginning with the word bead plus one additional character e.g. Beads, beady
  • be?d : Records that have any 4-letter word beginning with be and ending with d e.g. Bead, bend
  • bead~ : fuzzy search: Records with the word bead, as well as records with words that are similar to this word eg. Bean, bed, lead etc
  • [1945 TO 1950] : Range search: Records with any number between 1945 and 1950, including both 1945 and 1950. The TO must be in capital letters.
  • {1945 TO 1950} : Range search: Records with any number between 1945 and 1950, but not with 1945 or 1950. The TO must be in capital letters.