| Free text vs Index searching |
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To search index terms only select the Index radio button and enter your search term in the Search for box. Index terms cover peoples names, placenames, and some other terms on the page.
To search the full text select the Full text radio button and enter your search term in the Search for box. With Full text searching you can search for any single or multiple words. For example, to find references to GLASTONBURY and ABBEY enter GLASTONBURY ABBEY. This will find pages which contain both of these words anywhere in the text. To search for "GLASTONBURY ABBEY" enter the term including the double quotes, ie "GLASTONBURY ABBEY" (similar to a GoogleTM search). Please note: The text version has been created by OCR (Optical Character Recognition), where images of the original pages have been read by software which recognises the printed characters. However, where the original print is difficult to read - as is sometimes the case in SDNQ - the recognised text may be incorrect. Overall, the accuracy of the recognised text is good enough for search purposes, though you may prefer to read the images rather than the text version. |
| Searching for people |
| To search on people's names, enter last and first names - or just the last name - into the search box. It doesn't matter which way round you put the names: "John Smith" or "Smith John" will bring back the same results. Note that many first names are abbreviated. The * wild card can be of great help to make sure you don't miss names of interest (see Using "wild cards" below).
Click here for forename abbreviations present in the index records. |
| Results |
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With either an index or full text search you will be shown a list of relevant records. Click either View text or View image to view the page.
Please note: Although, the accuracy of the recognised text is good enough for search purposes, the text pages may contain errors so you may prefer to read the images rather than the text version. On the text version click the Image button to view the image of that page. On both Image and Text pages you can browse the volume using the Previous and Next buttons, or enter Volume and Page number to go directly to a page. Index records show Volume and Page for the original publication, which may be of value to those of you with access to the original volumes. Where the index entry is in italics, this means that the name or initials in the index record refers to a contributor to SDNQ, i.e. the person referred to wrote the article which is indexed. Where the index entry is ALL UPPER CASE, this entry is for a complete article. |
| Using "wild cards" |
Wildcard - asterisk * can be used at the end of a word to simplify searching, particularly where spellings may vary.
* represents zero or more charactersWhen searching on forename, it will often be helpful to use the * to allow for possibly abbreviations. So "Rich*" will find Rich. and Richard (but will not find "Rd."); "Eliz*" will find "Eliz." and "Elizabeth"; and so on. "Adam*" will find Adam, Adams, Adamss, Adamson, etc. |
| Illustrations |
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Illustrations in the original volumes do not generally have page numbers (except for some line drawings which appear within a page of text). Un-numbered illustrations have been placed immediately following the page which contains the text which refers to the illustration. Thus if you display any illustration, clicking on the "previous" button on the image display screen will take you to the related text page. (In a few cases there is more than one illustration linked to a page.)
Conversely, if the text on a page refers to an illustration, clicking the "next" button will display the illustration. |
| Cross-references |
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There are occasionally cross-references in the index records, eg "see Jeffreys". In such cases, you should search for the word(s) in the cross-reference, bearing in mind that the cross-reference is always (unless otherwise indicated) to the same volume.
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| Direct link to volumes |
| If you are interested in a specific volume, on the View Image page select Volume number, and enter Page number to go directly to that page. If you do not enter a page number, you will go to the title page for the volume. |
| See also: | About Somerset & Dorset Notes and Queries |
| Forename abbreviations |