Exact phrase:
    Enclose the phrase in double-quotes, e.g., "james williams".
   [Note: Parentheses ( ) and plus + do not work.]
    May be used in combination with single word search terms, e.g., "james williams" musgrove
    [Wildcards (*,?) may not be used inside exact phrase searches. E.g., "musgrove? mill" will not work.]

? wildcard:
    Single character wildcard, e.g., Sm?th will return Smith, Smyth, etc.

* wildcard:   Single or multiple character wildcard, e.g.,
    charlest* will return charleston, charlestowne, charlestown, etc.
    *kalb will return kalb, dukalb, dekalb, etc.
    *k?lb will return kalb, kolb, dukalb, dukolb, dekalb, dekolb, etc.
    m*cfalls will return mcfalls, macfalls, etc.
    *fort* will return fort, fortify, refortify, fortification, etc.

Exclusion/negative search (Boolean NOT)
    Precede the search term (single word or exact phrase) with an hyphen (-).
    [Note: Preceding the term to be excluded with NOT does not work.]
    camden -hobkirk would return any documents containing camden which do not contain hobkirk

Match ANY search term (Boolean AND/OR). [default]
   Search for pages which contain at least one of the given search terms. The results will be sorted in order of number of terms matched, and relevancy score.
   
    [Note: the above "radio button" is the only way this can be done.]

Match ALL search terms (Boolean AND)
   Search for pages which contain all of the given search terms. The results will be sorted in order of the number of terms matched, and relevancy score.
   
    [Note: the above "radio button" is the only way this can be done.]

Sorting order of results
At the upper right of each results page, there will appear a means to change the sort order of the results. The default sort order is "by relevance".
The current sort order, Sorted by Relevance, will be in boldface. The option for "Sort by date" will be in normal face and shown as a hyperlink (underlined).
To change the order of sorting to be by file saved date, click on the "Sort by date" link. The current sort order will now be Sort by date and it will be shown in boldface. The option for "Sort by Relevance" will now be shown in normal face and will be shown as a hyperlink.
If there are multiple pages of results, changing the sort order on any page changes the order on all pages.
If you save a search (see below), the current sort order will also be saved.

Example searches:
    Battle of Camden, 16 Aug 1780, any, sorted by date saved: camden "gates defeat" campden cambden
    Col. James Williams, any, not Otho, sorted by relevance: "james williams" "col. williams" "colo williams" "colonel williams" -otho
    Battle of Cowpens, any, sorted by date saved: "cow pens" cowpens

Revise your searches.
Note that the search form with current search terms appears at the top of each results page.
If your search term were, say,
caldwell
and you noted that several of the returns were for
Caldwell County
you could refine your search by adding the additional exact phrase search term (in double quotes, preceded by a hyphen (-)
-"Caldwell County"
which would eliminate the returns including Caldwell County.

Use of categories.
1. A word of caution on the use of categories: "Wives" and "Rejected" can be misleading. There are a lot of "W" files which contain applications by the veteran as well as the widow's application, and there are some 'R' files in which the veteran's application was granted, but the widow's application was rejected. Anyone who restricts their search by use of those categories might be disappointed in their results.
2. Possible usefulness:
    a. By checking all categories except All and Htm(l) would serve to exclude returns from .htm or .html files. The main page is an .htm file as well as other non-pension supporting files.
    b. Example: By using search terms (any) colored mulatto negro and selective use of categories, it would be possible to compare the percentage of rejected for colored soldiers with those of all soldiers or with those of non-colored soldiers. The use of negative (do not include) search terms could be used in such an effort by preceding each with an hyphen, e.g., -colored -mulatto -negro

Synonyms
1. Synonyms have been entered for common variants or misspellings of words often found in the pension records. a search for camden will also return campden and cambden. Note: It works both ways, i.e.., A search for either campden or cambden will also return camden.
2. A list of all synonyms currently installed can be found here.
3. Other synonyms will be added as their need becomes apparent.

Not indexed.
The following are currently not indexed and cannot be used as search terms.
1. and, or, the, it, is, an, on, we, us, to, of, has, be, all, for, in, as, so, are, that, can, you, at, its, by, have, with, into
2. Southern, Campaign, American, Revolution, Pension, Statements, application (since they appear on all PA's).
3. single letters

The key to making good searches is willingness to modify your search terms and re-submit until you obtain the desired results.
In some cases, one single search may not suffice, and you may need to make multiple searches.

Saving a search
1. One means to save a search is to "bookmark" in your browser the (first) search results page.
2. Another means is to copy whatever appears in the location box at the top of your browser and paste it into an email or into a document as a hyperlink. For the Cowpens search, above, this would look like this:
http://southerncampaign.org/cgi-bin/search.cgi?zoom_query=%22cow+pens%22+cowpens&zoom_page=1&zoom_per_page=100&zoom_and=0&zoom_sort=1
3. A handier way (if you use FireFox) is to install the TinyUrl Creator plug-in, which will convert the above to:
http://tinyurl.com/ynlxo2
This is particularly useful for pasting an URL into an email.
4. In any of the above methods, only the current search is saved. The current order of sorting is automatically saved also.