Using the West Virginia Memory Project Databases

Navigation Rules

1. There is no longer a need to logout of a search session.
2. Browser Back and Forward buttons may be used for page navigation.
3. The button displays the first record in the current results set.
4. The button displays the previous record in the current results set.
5. The button displays the results table for the current results set.
6. The button displays the next record in the current results set.
7. The button displays the last record in the current results set.
8. Results tables spread across multiple pages have a pager at the bottom of the table.
9. Clicking the column header on a results table will sort the table by that column. The initial sort will be in ascending order. Subsequent sorts will alternate between between descending and ascending order.

Tips for Searching a Database

1. The following wildcard characters may be used at the beginning, middle, or end of words to take the place of one or more characters in a search term in name fields such as those found on the Golden Horseshoe, Militia, and Veterans databases:
   1. * to represent zero or more continuous characters. This is useful when the exact spelling is unknown, or the name being searched may have had a suffix such as Sr. or Jr. (ex. Edwards* will return anyone with the name Edwards, Edwards, Jr., Edwards, Sr., Edwards III, etc.)
   2. [abcde...] to represent a set of characters to search for in a location in the search string.
   3. _ to represent a single character.

2. Certain frequently occurring words and characters generally cannot be searched. In some instances, the search engine will retrieve records despite the use of non-searchable characters. In other instances, however, the search engine may respond with one of these messages: "Your search returned no results. Please try again." or "Your search contained one or more ignored words. Please refine your search by eliminating common words such as articles, conjunctions, pronouns, and prepositions." In the latter case, re-submit a search request without extraneous words or characters. Non-searchable words include articles, conjunctions, prepositions, and pronouns. Fields other than dates, names, and words anywhere may also allow for enclosing the search terms in quotes.

3. Periods and apostrophes may be used in search requests.

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