Catalogue Help
>1. QUICK SEARCH
>2. ADVANCED SEARCH
>3. BROWSE
>4. INDEX SEARCH
>5. SEARCH RESULTS
>1. QUICK SEARCH
This facility searches all text in all available catalogues of all Cumbria Record Offices. You can enter one or more words or a date or the reference number of a document or a collection. Words can be entered in any combination of upper and lower case: it will make no difference to the search. Click on the search button or press return on your keyboard and you will see a list of search results.
You can use the asterisk symbol * as a "wildcard" in any part of a word to widen your search. For instance entering *garth would find Lower Garth, Moss Garth, Raygarth and Scogarth. Entering Ravens* would find Ravensworth, Ravenswinder and Ravenstown. Entering Br*ck would find Brick, Brunswick and Brunstock.
You can use the Word options for more selective searching of more than one word by clicking the relevant option. For example if you enter the words "Whitehaven market":
Phrase: will only return results containing the words "Whitehaven market" next to each other as an exact phrase.
And: will return results containing both the words "Whitehaven" and "market" anywhere in the catalogue description. These words may or may not be next to each other and may be in any combination, for example "Market stalls in Whitehaven."
Or: will return results containing any of the words "Whitehaven" or "market".
>>2. ADVANCED SEARCH
This search option allows you to refine your search by using any combination of text, collection reference, title or dates of documents, Record Office and level of catalogue description.
Enter your search terms in one or more field then click on the search button or press return on your keyboard. The "wildcard" (asterisk symbol *) can be used in the any text, reference, title or date fields to widen your search.
Entering a term into a particular box will return all occurrences of that term but only in that exact field. For example entering ‘Cleator’ into the date field will return no records, whereas ‘Cleator’ in the any text field will return several hundreds of results.
You have the choice of a combination of six search fields:
Any text: works in the same way as a quick search and will return the largest number of results. See Quick Search for the best way to use this search field.
Reference: Use this field if you already know the reference number of the record(s) you are searching for. Most collections have a letter code or a letter and number code followed by a series of numbers separated by slashes (/). The slashes in the finding number represent different hierarchical levels. For example YPR 47 is the code for Bootle Parish Church, Cumberland. YPR 47/1 is the code for registers of Bootle Parish Church; YPR 47/1/4 is the code for marriage registers of Bootle Parish Church and and YPR 47/1/4/1 is the code for an individual marriage register for Bootle Parish Church covering the dates 1754-1766.
Title: This field in the catalogue contains a brief description of the collection, of the record or of the person or organisation which created it, for example ‘John Robinson papers’ or ‘Register of baptisms’ or ‘Netherfield Cricket Club’. Searching in this field will return a more limited selection of results than the Any Text field as it only searches one field, but it is useful for a more refined search or if you already know the title.
Date: This field allows you to narrow your search to a specific date or period. A wide range of date formats and combinations can be used within our catalogue but we recommend the following search formats (months should be entered as three letter abbreviations):
By a precise date, for example 12 Nov 1910
By year, for example 1910
By an inclusive date range using any combination of days, months and years, for example 9-15 Nov 1910 or 1 May-14 Nov 1910, or Jan-May 1915 or Nov 1910- Jun 1923 or 1910-1914
By a pre, post or circa date, for example pre 1890 [would search 10 years before 1890], post 1890 [would search 10 years after 1890] or circa 1890 [would search 10 years before and after 1890]. Circa can be entered as ‘c’, ‘c.’, ‘circ’, ‘circ.’, ‘circa’ or ‘about’.
By decade, for example 1920s
By Century, for example1800-1899
By part of Century, using ‘early’ ‘mid’ or ‘late’. For example early 20th century [would search 1900-1939]; mid 18th century [would search 1730-1769]; late 19th century [would search 1860-1899].
By season or law term: For example Spring 1910 [would search March-May 1910], Summer 1910 [would search June-August 1910], Autumn or Fall [would search September-November 1910], Winter 1910 [would search December 1910-February 1911]; Michaelmas 1670 [would search October-November 1670], Hilary 1702 [would search January-February 1702], Easter 1587 [would search April-May 1587] or Trinity 1635 [would search June-July 1635].
Searches using only the date field will tend to give a large number of results as the catalogue will return all records which cover your period of interest. Date searches are best used in conjunction with another search term.
Repository allows you to search across the catalogues of all four Cumbria Record Offices by default or to refine your search by selecting the catalogues of any one of the offices at Barrow, Carlisle, Kendal or Whitehaven.
Level allows you to search on the various hierarchical levels of records available. This is useful if you wish to know what collections we hold, or if you want to exclude certain levels of description. The default setting of level will bring up all levels of record relevant to your search, but by clicking on the drop down menu a list of choices will appear. Click on your choice of level and all other levels of description will be excluded. A brief outline of levels can be found below.
Archives are arranged in a specific pattern with the most general description at the highest level which will describe the whole collection. We call this a Fonds and it refers to the organisation creating the records. This level of description will often be the largest entry, as it will describe in general terms all the types of records that collection includes. For example the Fonds level description for Kendal, Holy Trinity parish church describes all the types of records created by that body and held by Cumbria Record Office Kendal. They are listed under the reference code WPR 38.
The next level down is a Sub-Fonds, which reflects any divisions in the creating body. For example, WPR/38/1 refers to the records of the incumbent clergy, WPR/38/2 refers to the records of the churchwardens, WPR/38/3 refers to the records of the vestry, WPR/38/4 refers to the records of the Parochial Church Council etc.
A Series is a group of records which are linked by similarities; they may have been created for the same purpose such as financial records, or have a particular form such as correspondence or registers. For example WPR/38/2/1 is the reference for the Kendal Holy Trinity churchwardens’ account books.
A Sub-Series is a further separation of records within a series, for example correspondence from a particular person, or minutes of a particular committee. Occasionally, if the collection is very large or very complex it is necessary to create Sub-Sub-Series, such as correspondence from a particular person on a particular subject.
A File or an Item is the actual individual record, for example a file will refer to a file of papers or correspondence or to a volume, a church register or a minute book or diary. An Item will be used for an individual piece of paper, for example a title deed, a will, a single map or illustration. These are the most specific levels of description available.
The Advanced Search offers the same choice of Word options as Quick Search, with the addition of Field options. This allows you to link search terms in more than one field or search box.
AND will return results of all records with each term in each field. For example searching with Shap in the Any Text field and 1530 in the date field will only return records which have both Shap in any text field and records covering 1530 in the date field. This is the default setting as it is more selective and returns fewer results.
OR will return results with either one term in one box or another term in another box. For example searching with Shap in the Any Text field and 1530 in the Date field will return all records with either Shap in any text field or 1530 in the date field. This type of search returns many more results.
>>3. BROWSE
Use the drop down menus to browse particular groups of records held by all or any of the Cumbria Record Offices. These are categorised by the type of organisation which created the records. For example to find records of Poor Law Unions held at Kendal Record Office, select "Kendal" from the repository menu and "Poor Law Unions" from the additional options menu.
>>4. INDEX SEARCH
In addition to the Quick and Advanced searches, which search the text of our catalogue descriptions, it is also possible to search electronic indexes of these descriptions. These are similar to the indexes at the back of a book. Many of our catalogue descriptions have been indexed by terms which correspond to the particular relevance of the records in that collection to significant people, corporate bodies (such as businesses, organisations, families), or to places or subjects. From the indexes it is possible to follow the links to relevant catalogues. It is possible to see national indexes of names and places on the National Register of Archives (external link), maintained by The National Archives.
Please be aware that while index searching is useful for indicating relevant archives, our indexing is not complete or exhaustive. Use of index search should also be done in conjunction with text searching using Quick search or Advanced search.
Person name index: you can search the ‘name authorities’ of significant individuals in our indexes. The name authorities present name and biographical information about significant individuals in a consistent, controlled format. For example if you enter the word Lowther in the person name index and hit the search button or press return on your keyboard, you will see a list of results of individuals who have Lowther as a surname. You can select one of these, for example Sir James Lowther (1673-1755) by clicking on the blue number to the left of the result. This brings up a more detailed description for Sir James Lowther, and also brings up a list of catalogue records associated with Sir James Lowther. It is possible to see a detailed catalogue record by clicking on the relevant blue ‘Go’ link.
Corporate name index: Similarly you can search our name authorities for corporate bodies (significant organisations, businesses, families). For example if you enter the word steel, a list of results containing mainly iron and steel businesses is returned. You can select one of these, for example the Workington Iron and Steel Company Ltd, by clicking on the blue number to the left of the result. This brings up a list of catalogue records associated with the company. It is possible to see a detailed catalogue record by clicking on the relevant blue ‘Go’ link.
Place name index: Similarly you can search our place name indexes. For example if you enter the place name Workington, a list of places name authorities containing the word Workington is returned. You can select one of these, for example Workington Harbour, by clicking on the blue number to the left of the result. This brings up a list of catalogue records associated with this place. It is possible to see a detailed catalogue record by clicking on the relevant blue ‘Go’ link.
Subject index: Our descriptions are also indexed by subjects reflecting a wide range of human activities and knowledge. You would, for example, find archives in the Cumbria Record Offices relating to the subject terms ‘Geology’, ‘Cricket’ and ‘Iron ore mining’. The subject terms we use are based on those to be found within the United Kingdom Archival Thesaurus or UKAT (external link). This thesaurus offers many thousands of subject terms grouped under a few broad categories such as Education, Science, Politics.
For example if you enter ‘iron ore’ into the subject box, two possible subject terms are given ‘Iron ore industry’ and ‘Iron ore mining’. You can select one of these by clicking on the blue number to the left of the result. Clicking on ‘Iron ore mining’ will bring up a list of catalogue records associated with this place. It is possible to see a detailed catalogue record by clicking on the relevant blue ‘Go’ link. The result also shows at the top of the page where ‘Iron ore mining’ fits into UKAT. ‘Iron ore mining’ is a Narrower Term (NT) or more specific subject term of the Broader Term (BT) ‘Mining’. This BT can be found within UKAT at Class 6.45 ‘Civil, military and mining engineering’. The result also shows that ‘Iron ore mining’ is the preferred term and is ‘Used For’ or UF for the non-preferred term ‘Iron mines and mining’.
Please bear in mind that our subject index contains all of the UKAT subject terms but many of these do not link to our archive catalogues. This is simply because our holdings do not contain any relevant material for that subject term or because the catalogue may not have been subject-indexed. You may also find that the subject term in which you are interested does not return any results. If this is the case you should search UKAT for your subject terms at the UKAT web site (external link).
>>5. SEARCH RESULTS
If you search successfully by using Quick Search, Advanced Search or Browse, you will see a page entitled ‘Search results’. This is a list of all records in which your particular search terms appear. It will also show the search terms you used in that particular search at the top of the page. If there are many search results, these will be returned as a number of pages, with 10 results per page. You can navigate forwards and backwards through the pages by using the blue page links above the ‘Search results’ text.
It will give a brief summary of the reference, title and date of the relevant catalogue entry. You can re-arrange the list alphabetically by reference number or by title, or you can re-arrange the list by chronological date order. To do this click on the link ‘RefNo’, ‘Title’ or ‘Date’ in the relevant column heading. This is useful if you wish to see all entries with the same reference, or if you wish to view your search results in date order.
You can see a detailed catalogue entry for one of your search results by clicking on the blue number to the left of the result. You will also see additional information that may help you, such as a fuller description, any restrictions on access to the original records, whether the item is fragile, copies of the material in other formats or relevant material in other collections. The screen will show which record from your results list you are currently looking at, for example record 15 of 64. You should also see your search term highlighted in red within the description.
A detailed description may also display the names, places or subject terms with which the description has been indexed. These, where shown, will be seen at the bottom of the description. If you click on the ‘Go’ link to the left of the index term, you will see a list of other catalogue descriptions which have been indexed using the same index term.
You may also see other items within the same collection. You do this by clicking on the blue ‘RefNo’ or Reference Number of the description which will be found towards the top of the page. You will now see the collection as a hierarchical tree structure with your original description highlighted in red. You can open up higher level descriptions by clicking on the folder icon. If these contain lower level records, the folder icon will open up and you will see a list of descriptions. You can see a detailed catalogue entry for any description within the list by clicking on the blue number to the left.