Searching – New Forest Knowledge

Different Kinds of Searches

As mentioned in Getting Started section, you can type a General Search into the Search box at the top of a page, or begin an Index Search by selecting TIMES, PEOPLE, PLACES, SUBJECTS, SOURCES and GROUPS at the top of the page.

Also, when the results of a search are shown on a List Page, you can refine the results by making a further Search from Results. See the List Page section.

Typing a Search

Searching with more than one word

If your search has more than one word, by default the search will look for any of the words.

However, you can type the word NOT into a search to refine your search. The words are shown in capitals here for clarity, but do not have to be typed in capitals. For example:

lyndhurst church will result in items which have either lyndhurst or church

lyndhurst NOT church will result in items which have the word lyndhurst but not church

Alternative Spelling

If a word is misspelt or has a different spelling than is present in New Forest Knowledge content, the search will do its best to find items with the alternative spelling.

More about Searches

‘New Forest’ searches

New Forest Knowledge collects data from some national and Hampshire-wide sources, for example the British Library, National Archive and Hampshire Cultural Trust. These sources may contain thousands of item records. Such large numbers cannot be downloaded to the NFK database, so NFK searches these sources using the words ‘New Forest’ and the names of the 37 parishes within the New Forest area.

This means that if there records in these data sources which are associated with the New Forest but do not contain the words New Forest or the name of one of its parishes, they may be omitted from the NFK search. We recommend you go to the website of the data source and perform a search on their site to be sure you have found the maximum data available.

A difference between General and Index Searches

Using an Index Search does not always list as many items as a General Search. This is because indexes are compiled from tags included in the individual records received from data sources. The General Search however, searches all text present in a record. If your search words appear anywhere in the item, the General Search item will retrieve the item.

So, when an Index Search does not return the items you expected, you can try entering the search words in a General Search. Explore different types of searches to see what you can discover.

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User guide

Guidance is available on the following items. Please click on the relevant link below to read more. If you cannot find what you are looking for please contact us.