Help - Search Our Collection

QUICK SEARCH GUIDE – BASIC SEARCH
Other search options
1. SELECT EVENT(S)
Approximate Search function unavailable
2. ENTER NAMES
3. SEARCH WITHOUT DATE RANGE, OR
4. ADD DATE RANGE
1.
SELECT EVENT(S). Select which type of event or events you wish to search. Default is all types.
Click on box to deselect if checked.
2. ENTER NAMES. Use upper or lower case. Note that it is not necessary to enter both first and
last names.
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Enter first, or given, names in the box labelled First Name(s). If you enter more than one
name and you want to match all the names, select All in the drop down box. The default
Any means only one of the names needs to be present for a record to be retrieved.
Enter last names in the box labelled Last Name(s). If you enter more than one last name,
only select All, if you know that all the entered names are in the Last Name field. In most
cases, you would search with the default Any.
Note that Approximate Search is currently NOT AVAILABLE so use wildcard or letter
substitution described below if you are not certain about spelling.
3. SEARCH WITHOUT DATE RANGE. If you do not wish to limit the search by year(s), hit Enter or
click on the SEARCH button. The search will find at least one of the first names or all of the first
names (depending on whether Any or All is selected) in combination with at least one of the
entered last names (assuming Any is selected).
4.
ADD DATE RANGE. To limit a search to a specific year or years, enter the years as listed. Note
the date ranges for the various event types as searches for dates outside those ranges will yield
no results for those events.
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Range of years: enter earliest year in Start Year box and latest year in End Year box.
Single year: enter year in Start Year Box and same year in End Year box.
Before a specified year: enter previous year in Start Year box. Leave End Year box blank.
After a specified year: enter next year in End Year box. Leave Start Year box blank.
Once a year or years have been selected, hit Enter or click on the SEARCH button. Only events
matching the name criteria within the specified date range will be selected.
The search criteria in the search results will show the date(s) selected.
Wild Card and Letter Substitution Searches
If you are uncertain about the exact spelling of a name, or if it is a name known or suspected to
have variant spellings, a wild card (*) or letter substitution (#) search may be helpful.
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* This symbol represents any value for a variable number of characters, including zero
characters. Example: smith* would match smith, smithe, smither and smithson. The * can be
used at the start of, in the middle of, or at the end of a word. To match a sub-string use
?name?. For example, ?connell? would match Connell, Connelly, Kirkconnell, McConnell,
MacConnell.
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# This symbol represents any value for exactly one character. Each repetition of the symbol
represents exactly one masked character. It can be used multiple times with a name. For
example, g#lli#an would retrieve Gilligan, Gulligan, Galligan, Gallivan, Gullivan, Gulliman,
Gillihan, etc. Note, however, that sm#th# would only retrieve smithe and smythe, not smith
or smyth.
For information about displaying and printing search results see
Quick Search Guide – Search Results
For more information about searching see Vital Events Search Guide
BC Archives – Genealogy
Quick Search Guide – Basic Search
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