BROWSE lets you sort [organize] the database by any of several different fields.

Click on the specific record link from the BROWSE results page to go to a detailed record with expanded information.

To browse all levels of an archives database in a hierarchical arrangement, click the Hierarchical Archives Browse button at the bottom of the Browse Archives page. The Hierarchical Browse allows you to view all levels of the archives database with each level indented under its corresponding parent record. Click on the + in front of an entry to expand it and view the associated subrecords. To view the details of a specific entry, click on the title link for that record.

• Phrase Search: Place double quotation marks around any words you want to search as a phrase. For example, “Bull Run”. Search will find records where those words appear in that combination. Without the quotes, Search will search for Bull AND Run, finding records that contain both words, but not necessarily in combination.
• Date Search: You can use two formats to search for a range of dates. 1959..1962 will retrieve all records that include the years 1959, 1960, 1961, and 1962. Or, 19th century will find records that include any year from 1800 to 1900.
• * or ? (wildcards): Use asterisks and question marks as wildcards to expand the scope of your search. This is helpful when you are unsure of the spelling. For example, fac* will find face, facade, factory, faculty, etc. Or, *graph will find phonograph, photograph, stereograph, etc. Use question marks in place of letters. For example, Min?r will find Miner and Minor. Or, Acet??? will find all 7-letter words starting with 'Acet', such as acetate or acetosa, but not acetabulum.
• OR: Use OR when searching for dog OR cat to find all the records that contain dog, cat, or both words.
• AND: Use AND when you want to find records that contain both words. For example, dog AND cat will only find records that contain both words. You can also use the + (plus sign) in place of AND.
• NOT: Use NOT when you want to find records that exclude a word. For example, Virginia NOT "West Virginia" will find records that contain Virginia, but not records that contain West Virgina. You can also use the - (hyphen) in place of NOT. Note: the NOT clause has to be the second clause in the search string. You cannot begin the search with NOT.
• TO: Use TO to search for an alphabetic or an alpha-numeric range. For example, B TO F will find every word that begins with B, C, D, E, and F. Searching for 3 TO 49 will search for every word (or string of characters) that begins with 3 through 49 so it will find 30003, 48FN6, 47", 6, 10/31/1963 (because of the 31 in the date), etc. The TO function is best used when searching for a word or number range, e.g., band TO bandwagon or 1935 TO 1945 when using the Advanced Search to limit your search to a specific field.
• Combine conditions using parentheses: For example, (brass OR silver) AND button will find records with the word button, but only those that also contain the word brass or silver.
• Adjacent: In addition to searching for whole words, and phrases, you can also search for words that are close to one another. Use the expression “WITHIN 10” to define how close the words are to one another. For example, camera WITHIN 5 digital will find all records where digital is found within 5 words of camera.

Click on the specific record link from the SEARCH results page to go to a detailed record with expanded information.

For archives databases, you can search All Levels or limit your search to a specific archival level by selecting the level from the pull down menu at the bottom of the Advanced Search page.

Click on the specific record link from the ADVANCED SEARCH results page to go to a detailed record with expanded information.