Search Help
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Search Help |
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You can search for keywords within the databases by typing a complete word, a partial word, or a combination of words separated by spaces (punctuation marks are not necessary in keyword searches). For example, if you are looking for John Smith, typing "Smith John" will return all the entries that contain the words "Smith" and "John". Or you can broaden your search further by selecting the [Any keywords] radio button to find all entries containing "Smith" or "John". If you are looking for records containing a maiden name, perform a keyword search rather than a surname search.
If the initial search returns a large number of entries, you can type an additional keyword to search through just those entries. The search can be further narrowed by excluding a word or words from the search results by entering the text in the Exclude box.
Events in towns and villages surrounding Burlington are also currently included within this database. To limit your search of events to only those in a surrounding town or village, type the name of the town or village in the Source Name box. Town and villages included are as follows:
| Bassett Bloomfield Booth Lake Bowers (once known as Grove Corners)(see also Spring Prairie) Brass Ball Corners Brighton Bristol Caldwell Camp Lake Delavan Dover Eagle Lake East Troy English Settlement Fox River Franksville Gardner's Prairie Genoa City (formerly Genoa Junction) German Settlement High Street Honey Creek Honey Lake (formerly Vienna) Kansasville Lake Beulah |
Lake Geneva Lily Lake Lyons New Munster Norway Paddock Lake Paris Pell Lake Powers Lake Rochester Salem Silver Lake Slade's Corners Somers Springfield Spring Prairie Sturtevant (previously Corliss & Western Union) Trevor Twin Lakes Union Grove Vienna Waterford Wheatland Wilmot Wind Lake |
Almost everyone has at one time played a game, such as poker, that uses wildcards. If you hear the dealer say, "Deuces are wild!" you know that the cards having the number two printed on the face can be substituted for any other card in the deck.
Database searches can also utilize wildcards. When you enter search terms, you can use wildcards to narrow or widen your search of existing records. The search utility will recognize two wildcard characters: the question mark(?) and the asterisk (*). (Note that the database will also recognize the conventional database wildcards. An underscore is the equivalent of the question mark and the percent symbol is the equivalent of the asterisk.)
The question mark (?) represents any single character. Since variations on spellings have been incorporated in the database (such as Smith, Schmitt, and Schmidt or Katherine, Catherine, and Kathryn), wildcards can be useful in finding different spellings . For example the following keyword would find all entries containing Schmitt and Schmidt: Schmi?t
Another tip for searching: Even if your family spells a surname with an ending 'S,' that doesn't mean you shouldn't also look under the singular version, and vice-versa. (PERKINS, PERKIN); therefore, the following search term displays all records with the name PERKINS or PERKIN: PERKIN?
The asterisk represents any string of characters. For example, CH* would show all records with names or other words starting with "CH". The asterisk (*) can be useful for finding different suffixes on a base surname. Silent letters such as 'E' and 'Y," which may alternate over time with the spelling of a particular surname, may also be checked.
However, you should be aware that using *CH will not return only those records with words that end in CH. In fact, because the asterisk (*) can represent more than a single letter, you would see all records that contained "CH" anywhere within the record.
Once you have gotten the hang of using wildcards, you will be on your way to successfully refining the scope of your searches.
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Burlington Historical Society
Last modified:
04/25/07