Search Tips for the New Collections

This week's blog features tips on how to get the most out of the Deceased Online database

We hope you are finding the new collections on the database useful for your family history research. Thank you very much to all those who have emailed or tweeted. We really appreciate your comments and would like to respond with some up-to-date tips on getting the best from the Deceased Online website.

Advanced Search Facility
To narrow searches down to an area or to a specific cemetery or crematorium use the advanced search facility. 

For example, to search records in Sandwell, select the following:

Country - United Kingdom
Region - West Midlands
County - West Midlands
Contributor - Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council (for all Sandwell records)
or Cemetery - Uplands (for Uplands only)

Once you click on a name in the search results it will show the information that is available to view. 

Search Results
Common types of information include:

• The scan of the relevant burial or cremation register page. This will show the handwritten entry made in the original register and will usually include details such as the age, dates of burial/cremation and death, and address.
• How many people are in the same grave as the record you've searched, their names, dates and the full grave reference
• A section map showing the area where the grave is located or the ashes are buried/scattered
• Some record collections also contain headstone images

Above: Viewing the other occupants of the grave

Useful search tips:

The wild card is a % and can be inserted anywhere that there may be a variation in the spelling of a name. Typing "ab%" will return all the people whose name starts with Ab, such as Abbott, Abberley, 
Abbey, etc. Typing M%cDonald will return both McDonald and MacDonald.

For all variants on one letter in a name, use an underscore: _. Typing "H_ywood" will return both Haywood and Heywood.

Above: Searching a cemetery with the surname Ab%

For more search tips, do take a look at Deceased Online's help page.

Do you have any questions about finding your ancestors in the database? We love to hear from you. Feel free to contact us via the Comments section below or on our Facebook and Twitter pages.