| Type In | Results |
| John Smith | Finds files that contain the word "John" or the Word "Smith" (or both) |
| "John Smith" | Finds files where the word "John" immediately preceeds "Smith" |
| "John Smith"~1 | Finds files where the word "John" preceeds "Smith" by at most 1 word For example: John Smith, John Q. Smith, John Wesley Smith. Use ~2 for a maximum of two words between John and Smith |
| "Smith John" | Finds files where Smith immediately preceeds John |
| "Smith John" not state:tn | Finds all files where Smith preceeds John EXCEPT those in the Tennessee directory |
| "Smith John" not (state:tn and county: roan) | Finds all files where Smith preceeds John EXCEPT those in the Roan County, Tennessee directory Notice the use of parentheses to indicate that both conditions have to be met to exclude the file. Also notice the colons and the 2 letter code for the state |
| smith and (lawyer attorney) | Finds all files containing the word "Smith" and either the word "lawyer" or "attorney" or both |
| sm?th | Finds files containing smith, smoth, smath, smyth, etc. Use * for multiple wild cards. You cannot start a query with a ? or a *. smith* is OK, but *smith will not work |
| "john smith" "mary jones"^3 | Use ^ to assign priorities. This search finds files containing John Smith or Mary Jones and assigns a higher priority to Mary Jones. The higher the number, the higher priority. |
| Search engine is not case sensitive, same result whether you use lower case or upper case letters. This search ignores white space and punctuation. | |
| If you get too many results, use the pull downs to limit your search to a state, county, or kind of record | |
| "John Smith" and vermont not state:vt | This may seem contradictory. If you have already searched the files in the vt directory using the state pull-down, you can search the other 49 states plus the District of Columbia with this search. You will find files in the other states that contain the word "Vermont" as well as "John Smith". This is handy when someone has disappeared from Vermont. |
| If you complete a search and use your browser's "Back" button to return to this page, you may have to use your browser's "Refresh" or "Reset" button to remove all of the previous query. | |
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