Parish Records - Advanced Search (General)

by mrsbruso , Sunday, December 19, 2010, 18:36 (5092 days ago) @ m p griffiths

If there's a way to mess it up, I guarantee I've found it. One of the solutions I've found works best is to enter as little information as you can. For isntance, CLARKE won't show up if it was transcribed as CLARK, so even though our name was spelled with an "E" I never search for it that way. William can be transcribed as W[illia]m if it was originally entered as "Wm", so if you search for "William" or "Wil" you will miss it . . . Stephens can be entered as Stevens, so I usually just go to "Ste" and ignore the other names with an "ste' that turn up. "Thos" could be entered for Thomas, and "Chas" for Charles, so limit what you can . . .

And not every field is filled out . . . so put in as little as you can. It may or not mention the bride or groom's father's name, so I skip that in the search screen and just look through the records that turn up. Otherewise, you could be missing the very record you want most to find!

And sometimes the chapel isn't what you would expect either, so don't always limit that too early in the game.

Just play with it a bit, and you'll be comfortable with it soon enough. Even though I thought I had finally more or less mastered it, I fell for the W[illia]m issue and missed two of my ggg aunts and uncles this week (sorry Thomas and Harriet). . .

Have fun!