Saturday, 27 July 2013

An advanced search on The National Archives Discovery Catalogue


This follows on from last weeks blog post about searching The National Archives Discovery Catalogue online. We're now going to look at performing an advanced search.

Advanced search

On the homepage (first image) under the green search button you can see "Advanced search" in blue below it...

The National Archives - Discovery Catalogue - HOMEPAGE

...if you click this link it takes you to the Advanced search page.

The National Archives - Discovery Catalogue - Advanced Search

On this page you can search:
  • a specific phrase, omit or include other words, or all or any of these words
  • a specific date range
  • all or online collections
  • within a specific government department or a reference number
  • using a tick box for subject
  • catalogue levels
  • opening date
  • closure status
  • and former reference

These extra search options can help you find more specifically the document you might be looking for.

For example, I want to find my ancestor John Davidson who was in the Royal Marines but definitely not in the navy in the early 1800s. The document will most probably be found in the War Office (WO) department.

The National Archives - Discovery Catalogue - Advanced Search

The above search actually produces no search results as being too specific is not always helpful.

Once you have your list of search results you can look at the details of the documents in exactly the same way as when doing a basic search and order copies as well.

Please feel free to add more tips for other users or questions, which I may have overlooked then feel free to leave a comment and I will aim to respond as soon as I can.

Next week we will look at another way of using the Discovery Catalogue.

Copyright © 2013 Ruth Hogan

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