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Search tips when exploring records in The Social History Archive

The Social History Archive uses different types of search fields in its records. Choosing how to use them depends on how structured or uncertain your information is.

Searching records in The Social History Archive involves balancing precision and flexibility. This guide explains how different search fields work, when to use wildcards, and how the name variants tool can help account for spelling variation, transcription differences, and changes in naming over time.
 
 

Understanding search fields

The Social History Archive uses a combination of free‑text search fields and faceted search fields, each suited to different research situations.

  • Free‑text search fields allow you to enter any term you choose. These fields are useful when information is uncertain, loosely recorded, or likely to vary over time. Examples include last name or occupation fields in census searches. Results are returned wherever the entered term appears in the relevant transcription.

  • Faceted search fields rely on controlled lists of valid values drawn from the underlying data. Examples include registration district or county fields in census records. To use these fields, either select a value from the available list using the Browse option or begin typing a term and select it once it appears as a valid option. Faceted fields improve precision but only accept recognised values.

Understanding this distinction helps avoid false assumptions about why certain searches return no results.

Using wildcards to handle variation

Wildcard searching helps account for misspellings, evolving surnames, transcription inconsistencies, and incomplete information. A wildcard tells the search engine to treat certain characters as flexible rather than exact.

The Social History Archive supports two wildcard characters: the asterisk (*) and the question mark (?).

  • An asterisk (*) replaces one or more characters. It is best used when you want to broaden a search as much as reasonably possible. For example, searching for Fo*kes will return a wide range of surname variants, including Foakes, Fokes, Folks, Fookes, Forkes, Foukes, Foulkes, and Fowkes. Multiple asterisks can be used within a single search term if needed.

  • A question mark (?) replaces a single character. It is more restrictive than an asterisk and useful when you expect limited variation. In the same example, using Fo?kes would return fewer variants, such as Foakes, Fookes, Forkes, and Fowkes.

Wildcards are not limited to names. They can also be applied to keywords and occupations. For example, searching for piano* will return all occupations containing that term, such as piano tuner, piano teacher, and piano stringer.

Using the name variants tool

The name variants tool is designed to broaden searches automatically by accounting for common derivatives, abbreviations, nicknames, and linguistic variations.

When name variants are applied, the search includes not only the exact term entered but recognised alternatives. For example, a search for William with name variants enabled may return results such as Will, Liam, Billy, Wm, and Wilhelm.

Name variants can be applied to first names, last names, or both, and are available across category, subcategory, and individual record set search pages. This tool is particularly useful when researching individuals across long time spans or in records where spelling conventions were not standardised.