Standard Search

Extended Search

People, Places and Subjects

Help with Searching              Basic Help

Search Keyword (or phrase)

The Keyword (or phrase) search box searches the text of descriptions of archives in the A2A catalogues. Thus, you can use it quickly to find catalogue entries referring to names and places which you are interested in. Just enter the word or words you are looking for (such as Nicols, James Cunningham, Mary Trim, Southampton Water) in the box. Remember that the search is not case sensitive, so Green will find Green and green. Your search results will be a list of links to catalogues containing the word or words you are looking for; click on each link to read catalogue entries, with your search terms highlighted in yellow. You can also target a search using the drop-down options on the Standard Search page and in the Extended Search.

To search for a hyphenated term, such as Bulwer-Lytton or half-yearly, simply omit the hyphen and search on Bulwer Lytton or half yearly. A hyphen is interpreted in a special way by the search engine (see 'Search Operators' section below).

You can target a search using the drop-down options on the Standard Search page and in the Extended Search. Your search results will be a list of links to catalogues containing the word or words you are looking for; click on each link to read catalogue entries, with your search terms highlighted in yellow.

It is possible to search for variant spelling using * and ? as wild cards, such as
Sm?th will find Smith and Smyth
Hil*ard will find Hilyard and Hillyard and Hilliard
M?l*n*x will find Molyneux and Mullineux and Mollinix

It is also possible to use search operators such as |, + or - to refine your search. For more information, see the tables below:

Wildcards

Symbol		Description		Example		Retrieves any catalogue that...
?		Replaces one character		p?t		contains the words "pat" or "pet" or "pit" or "pot" or "put"
*		Replaces a group of characters		b*y		contains any word that starts with "b" and ends with "y", such as "boy" and "bigamy"
[,]		Defines a choice		bigam[y,ist]		contains the words "bigamy" or "bigamist" (NB. use no spaces!)

Search Operators

Symbol		Description		Example		Retrieves any catalogue that...
|		OR		cats | dogs		contains the word "cats" OR the word "dogs"
+		AND		cats + dogs		contains the word "cats" AND the word "dogs"
-		BUT NOT		cats - dogs		contains the word "cats" BUT NOT the word "dogs"
ADJx		ADJACENCY		cats ADJ3 dogs		contains the word "cats" within 3 words of the word "dogs" in this order
NEARx		NEAR		cats NEAR3 dogs		contains the word "cats" within 3 words of the word "dogs" in any order
>x		FREQUENCY		cats >3		contains the word "cats" 3 times or more
( )		OPERATOR PRIORITY		(cats + dogs) - mouse		contains the words "cats" AND "dogs" BUT NOT the word "mouse"

Remember that a search operator in a Keyword (or Phrase) search looks across whole catalogues, not individual catalogue entries or references. For example, to find references to archives mentioning Mary Jenkins or Mary Ann Jenkins or Jenkins, Mary or 'William Jenkins wife Mary' use the NEAR operator: Mary NEAR1 Jenkins. But you do not need to use the AND operator to find references only to Mary Jenkins - a simple phrase search on Mary Jenkins will work.

'Stopwords'

250 specially selected words are excluded from the A2A search engine in order to significantly improve its efficiency and speed. These 250 'stopwords' are amongst those most commonly found in written English and usually only return excessive, meaningless results if searched for. Nonetheless, some traditional stopwords have not been excluded in A2A because they also possess an alternative meaning, such as 'will', or because they could be part of a name, such as 'More'.

Searching for a single instance of any of the 250 stopwords will produce no results - but using stopwords in combination with standard words is not actually illegal. Though stopwords cannot be found by the search engine, it does recognise their presence when entered in a search and will take one of two courses of action:

1. simply ignore the stopword, such as a search for "the queen" will retrieve results for just "queen"
or
2. if found mid-phrase, substitute any of ten special stopwords for 'ADJ1', the adjacency operator which means 'within 1 word of'. For example, a search for "fire of London" will translate to "fire ADJ1 London" or 'search for fire within 1 word of London'. This will consequently retrieve all instances of "fire of London" (plus "fire in London", "fire at London" etc. as well)

The ten special stopwords which are substituted mid-phrase are:
for, from, in, next, of, on, the, under, upon, with

The full list of 250 stopwords is as follows:
0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, a, about, above, across, after, again, ago, all, almost, along, already, also, although, always, am, among, an, and, another, any, are, around, as, asked, at, available, away, b, be, became, because, become, been, before, began, behind, being, better, between, both, brought, but, by, c, called, can, cannot, certain, come, could, d, days, did, different, do, does, done, during, e, each, either, enough, even, ever, f, fact, find, following, for, form, from, g, gave, get, give, given, go, going, got, h, had, has, have, having, he, her, here, him, himself, his, how, however, if, important, in, into, is, it, its, itself, j, k, knew, know, known, l, later, least, let, like, look, m, made, make, many, me, might, most, must, my, n, never, next, no, not, nothing, now, o, of, off, often, on, once, one, only, or, other, others, our, out, own, p, per, perhaps, possible, present, probably, put, q, quite, r, really, rather, s, said, same, see, seem, seems, set, several, shall, she, should, since, so, some, something, sometimes, soon, such, sure, t, take, taken, tell, than, that, the, their, them, themselves, then, there, therefore, these, they, things, think, this, those, though, through, thus, time, to, together, told, too, took, turn, two, u, under, until, up, upon, us, usually, used, various, very, w, was, we, were, what, when, where, whether, which, while, who, whole, whom, whose, why, with, within, would, y, year, years, yet, you, your, z

NB. If you really do want to search for one of these 250 stopwords, you could try instead to think of the stopword in a likely context and then search for a phrase using either an adjacency operator ADJx or a proximity operator NEARx. For example, to search for "attributed to Churchill" you could try instead "attributed ADJ1 Churchill".

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Search Location of Archives

You can use this drop-down menu in three ways: on its own to browse A2A catalogues from a specific record office or other repository; with the other drop-down options on the Standard Search page and in the Extended Search to refine your results; or to target a Keyword (or Phrase) search, with or without the other options. Your search results will be a list of links to catalogues. Each catalogue includes a link to contact details for the repository you select.

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Search English Region or Wales

You can use this drop-down menu in three ways: on its own to browse A2A catalogues from record offices or other repositories in a particular region of England or Wales; or with the other drop-down options on the Standard Search page and in the Extended Search to refine your results; or to target a Keyword (or Phrase) search, with or without the other options. Your search results will be a list of links to catalogues. Each catalogue includes a link to contact details for repositories in the region you selected. Remember that archives held in a particular region may relate to other English or Welsh regions, other parts of the UK or other countries.

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Search Dates: ranges (between years)

Specifying a date range will enable you to retrieve whole catalogues which include descriptions of archives for a particular period. A search between the years 1500 and 1700 will produce a list of links to whole catalogues describing archives dating from this period, including archives covering part of the period or a wider period, eg 1626-1929 or 1290-1937. To search an open range such as -1350 (before 1350), just leave the relevant search box blank; but bear in mind that an open range search will still also find catalogues covering a wider period. You can use a date range search with the drop-down options on the Standard Search page and in the Extended Search to refine your results.

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Search Dates: specific year

Use this option to find specific catalogue entries for archive documents dating from particular years, such as 1666 or 1914. This search will also find catalogue entries for date ranges including the year you are interested in: thus a search for 1666 will find entries for documents dating from the periods 1666-1667, 1558-1689, and Oct 1660 - Apr 1669. Your search results will be a list of links to relevant catalogue entries; click on each link to read catalogue entries, with your search term highlighted in yellow. Bear in mind that a few (c 1%) catalogue entries are undated and thus are missed by the specific year search.

You can use a specific year search with the drop-down options on the Standard Search page and in the Extended Search to refine your results. You can also use this search with the Keyword (or Phrase) search. For example, a specific year search on 1856 performed together with a Keyword (or Phrase) search on Hunmanby will result in a list of links to catalogue entries containing: either Hunmanby or 1856 (with those words highlighted in yellow); or both (highlighted in blue).

Search Dates of Catalogues

This drop-down menu enables you to find catalogues added to A2A on or after a certain date. You can use it in three ways: on its own to browse A2A catalogues added after a certain date; or with the other drop-down options on the Search page and in the Extended Search to refine your results; or to target a Keyword (or Phrase) search, with or without the other options. If you regularly use a favourite Keyword (or Phrase) search, this strategy will enable you to restrict your search to new A2A catalogue descriptions.

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Extended Search: creator(s) of archives

The creator or creators of archives may be one person or more than one, a family, or an organisation; the creator may have physically created archives material, or accumulated it as a result of business or other activities. Use this option to find archives created by a specific creator. You can type in any word or phrase which forms part of a creator's name, to search creator name terms which have been added to individual A2A catalogues.

These terms may include descriptive information about people, families and organisations, such as the places where they lived or operated or the work they did. For example, to search for catalogues of archives created by Ransomes, Sims and Jefferies Ltd, agricultural manufacturers, you can search for Ransomes or Sims and Jefferies or Ransomes, Sims and Jefferies. A search for manufacturers as part of a creator name term will find not only catalogues of archives created by Ransomes, Sims and Jefferies, but also catalogues of archives created by other organisations described as manufacturers. You can use wildcards and operators to refine your search terms. Your search results will be whole A2A catalogues.

To find catalogues describing archives which are particularly rich in information about individual people, families or organisations, whether or not those people, families or organisations actually created archives, please use the People, Places and Subjects search.

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Extended Search: catalogue reference

The catalogue reference is the code used for quick reference to all the archives described in a particular catalogue. If you know the reference for a catalogue which you want to browse, use this option to find it. If you think that several catalogues may have the same reference, use the drop-down options above and below to refine your results. Bear in mind that this search can only be used to find whole catalogues (via top level references), not individual catalogue entries (with specific references).

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Extended Search: archive category

The archive category is a broad classification of the archives described in A2A catalogues, based on the creators of the archives: such as Parish (Church of England), Poor Law Unions, or Business. Use this drop-down menu on its own to browse A2A catalogues by category; or use it with the other drop-down options above and below to refine your results; or use it to target a Keyword (or Phrase) search, with or without the other options.

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Extended Search: A2A theme

Archivists and archive users across England and Wales have chosen the majority of catalogues in the A2A database on the basis of broad theme: among others, From Landlord to Labourer (family and estate archives in the South East of England), London Archives on the Wider World (archives held in London relating to Britain's relationships with the world beyond Europe), Picks and Pistons (archives relating to the industrial development of North East England) and Tracking Railway Archives Project. Use this drop-down menu on its own to browse A2A catalogues by theme; or use it with the other drop-down options above to refine your results; or use it to target a Keyword (or Phrase) search, with or without the other options.

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People, Places and Subjects

This option is designed to take users to catalogues which are particularly rich in information on: individual people, specific families or organisations, places, or subjects. The catalogues are rich in this information either because they describe archives created by individual people, families or organisations, or because they describe archives which record information about people, families, organisations, places, or subjects. This search therefore does not cover every possible term. If you search for a term which is not listed, you will see a message telling you so.

The People, Places and Subjects search option covers terms which have been added to individual A2A catalogues. It does not cover every word in the database. Therefore, it does not cover every person, family, organisation, place, or subject mentioned in the catalogues. To look only for catalogues created by specific people, families or organisations, please use the Creator(s) of Archives option on the Extended Search page. To look for catalogue entries containing a specific word or phrase (such as Nicols or James Cunningham or Mary Trim or Southampton Water or nisi prius), please use the main search page or the Extended Search. You will find this second strategy helpful if you have used the People, Places and Subjects option and have not found a reference to the person, family, organisation, place, or subject you are interested in.

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People, Places and Subjects: persons

For rich information on individual people, both historical figures and ordinary men and women. This search does not cover all possible personal names. Try the Standard Search page or the Extended Search too.

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People, Places and Subjects: families

For rich information on particular families. This search does not cover all possible family names. Try the Standard Search page or the Extended Search too.

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People, Places and Subjects: organisations

For rich information on organisations, such as local government organisations or companies. This search does not cover all possible organisations. Try the Standard Search page or the Extended Search too.

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People, Places and Subjects: places

For rich information on places, in England and Wales, the UK and world wide. This search does not cover all possible place names. Try the Standard Search page or the Extended Search too.

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People, Places and Subjects: subjects

For rich information on specific broad subjects, such as Agriculture or International trade. Subject terms are based on the UNESCO Thesaurus: you can browse the UNESCO Thesaurus on the web for a list of possible subject terms. This search does not cover all possible subjects. Try the main search page or the Extended Search too.

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