User's Guide & Site Help
5.4. Biography Search
You can get to the Biography Search page from the Search tab in the Navigation bar. Use the Biography Search to find people in the site that meet specific criteria.
5.4.1. Name
The "Name" field will search on any part of a person's name: first name, last name, nick name, title, etc. For more specificity, use the "First Name" and "Last Name" fields.
5.4.2. Birth Date
Use this area to search specific birth dates or on date ranges. For example:
- Enter "September" in the first Month field and "25" in the first Date field for everyone born on September 25.
- Enter "1866" in the first Year field and "1914" in the second Year field for everyone born between the end of the Civil War and the beginning of World War I.
When entering years, be sure to enter all the (usually four) digits of the year: "1967" instead of "67" or "'67."
5.4.3. Birth Place
The Birth Place field searches against city, state, province, country and sometimes region.
In general, do not use abbreviations when entering place: use "new york" instead of "NY."
5.4.4. Death Date
Searching on Death Date uses the same functionality and rules as searching on Birth Date.
5.4.5. Death Place
See the notes for Birth Place, above.
5.4.6. Sex
The Sex field lets you limit your search to just men or just women.
5.4.7. Activity/Profession
You can select a general activity or profession using the list on the form. To select more than one activity, or to select from a more specific list, click "Open full list." A pop-up window will appear.
The Activity/Profession pop-up window contains a hierarchy of activities and professions. For more specific choices, expand the list by clicking on the plus signs. Select any and all professions you want by clicking on them. When you are done, close the window by clicking on "close this window." Your selections will appear on the search form in a box under Activity/Profession. You can remove those you no longer want by selecting them by clicking "Remove selected."
5.4.8. Place of Origin
Choose Place of Origin using the drop down list.
5.4.9. Full Text, Era & Category
Limit your search to articles that contain specific text using the Full Text field.
As with Main Search, above, you can limit your search to any number of specific Eras and Categories.