The search engine works like most of the search
engines on the internet. However, there are a few "subtle"
differences that warrant mentioning here.
This particular search engine defaults to locating all of
the words in your search phrase. That means, if you type 'Cambria County
Pennsylvania' (without the quote marks) into the search box, all three
words must appear somewhere on the web page to be considered a
"hit". If the search engine cannot find any matches for all
three words, then it will look again, but this time look for any
of the three words typed into the box. When this happens, you will
notice that the search results will contain the following notation (just
under the heading "Search Results from this site"):
No pages found that include all search words.
Found xxx items with one or more search words, now showing 1 - 10
Phrase Searching: |
There is no phrase searching. Putting quotes
around your search words will have no effect on the results of
the search. It will still default to 'find all words' (anywhere
within the web page). |
Wild Cards: |
* is a wildcard character. If a search term ends
with an asterisk, it will look for all words beginning with the
characters before the asterisk. For example, entering 'Johns*'
(without the quotes) will return pages containing the words:
Johns, Johnson, Johnston, Johnstown, etc. |
Wild Cards: |
? is the other wildcard character. This character
is used for substitution when only one character of the search
phrase is changed. For example, entering 'Peters?n' (without the
quotes) will return pages containing the words: Peterson,
Petersen, etc. You can have more than one '?' in a phrase. 'P?ters?n'
will return pages containing the words: Paterson, Peterson,
Patersen, Petersen, etc. |
Boolean Operators: |
The + and - signs are used for Boolean searches.
By placing the + sign immediately before the search word, that
tells the search engine that the word must be on the list
of pages returned. By placing the - sign immediately before the
search word, that tells the search engine that the word must
not be on the list of pages returned. For example, entering
'+Pringle -Cemetery' (without the quotes) will return all the
pages containing the word 'Pringle', but not also containing the
word 'Cemetery'. So, you will get most references to the Pringle
surname, but none of the listings of Pringle burials.
Conversely, entering '+Pringle +Cemetery' should get you
listings of all cemeteries where the Pringle name is found. |
Combining Operators: |
All of the above operators can be combined into
one search phrase. For example, entering '+Johns* +Peters?n
-Johnstown' should get you a listing containing all words
beginning with Johns, that also have the word Peterson or
Petersen on the page, but not the word Johnstown on the page.
So, if there was a web page that had all the words Peterson,
Johnson and Johnstown, that page won't be listed, because we've
excluded (in our search request) pages containing Johnstown.
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