Searching in Counties
Colorado county lines have changed over time. If a town’s county changed, CHNC has tried to list that town’s newspaper within its current county. For example, when the Craig Courier was created it was considered to be in Routt County. Due to county line changes that same area is now in Moffat County. Thus in…
LeighBrowsing the Database
If you want to make your searching my serendipitous, you can make use of the Browse functionality within the database. There are three different browse menus: Title, Date, and County. Title Browse: The Title browse option allows you to select a single title or a collection of titles from the title index. The check box in…
ReganBasic Searching
You can perform a simple search by typing keywords in the search box and clicking “Search”. The search engine will return results that include all of your search terms. You can search for an exact phrase by placing quotation marks around your search terms, for example “new plymouth”. Boolean operators AND, OR and NOT can…
Advanced Query Syntax
Query terms can be boosted to increase their importance in the search, changing the order of the search results. This is done by adding “^” and a boost factor at the end of the term, e.g.hamilton river^2 will treat “river” as more important than “hamilton” when ranking the search results returned. Wildcard searches can be…
Keyword Searching
Keyword searching works best when you enter a single word or two words. Search Type Description Examples Connectors Use and to search both wordsUse or to search either wordUse not to exclude words Ludlow and massacre railroad or railway gold not mines Phrase Use quotation marks to search an exact phraseUse a combination of quotation…
General Search Tips
For a really broad topic, it may be necessary to search for smaller subsets of the topic. For example, to find articles about transportation, search for railroads, stage coaches, horses, wagons, or automobiles. To be even more specific, consider searching for names of individual companies, such as the Union Pacific or Denver & Rio Grande…
Searching for Geographic Place Names
Definition: the name of a location on the earth’s surface. It may be a natural feature, such as a mountain, river or the site of human activity, such as a city, town, county, mine, or ranch. Examples: Pike’s Peak, Platte River, Durango, Caribou Mine, Livermore Ranch. Search Strategy Place names and their spellings have changed…
Searching for Obituaries
Consider using date ranges in your search as often the exact dates of death may not appear in an obituary. The date of the death is not the date a death notice or obituary would appear in the newspaper. When searching for obituaries in general you might also try using alternative name spellings and terms…
Searching for Corporations, Churches, Organizations and Government Agencies
Abbreviations were commonly used in names for businesses and government agencies Mer. or Merc. for Merchants, Mercantile (Durango Mer. Trading Co.; Stein Merc. Co.) Bros. for Brothers (Teil Bros. Tailors) Dept. for Department (Labor Dept.) Commerce Dept., Department of Commerce, Commerce Department Variations of the official name of a corporation, church, organization, or government agency…
Searching for Events
The following examples are for one international and one local event found in the CHNC: International: First World War (1914-1918) Local: Ludlow (Colorado) Massacre, April 20, 1914 Definition: For the purposes of the CHNC database, an event is a noteworthy incident resulting in press coverage. In the CHNC, events can be of local, regional, national…
Searching for Proper Names
Proper names for people, corporations, churches, organizations, and government agencies present special difficulties for searching. People First names were seldom used for married women. Typically, the husband’s first name was used Mrs. Herbert Clark Mrs. C. E. McConnell Occasionally, abbreviations were used for some first names Wm. G. Faulhaber for William G. Faulhaber Chas. O….