Search parameters
Why is it that when I enter an exact year or place for my search, I get results from everywhere and every date? I'm giving the search engine my parameters, and it's ignoring them!
Answers
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Have you used the available fields and filters to narrow your search?
I usually start by restricting to a place or even a specific collection to narrow the results. Those bubbles at the top and the type record options will do a good job of narrowing your parameters.
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The search engine doesn't ignore your parameters, but it also doesn't absolutely honor them. For most of the parameters, the values you give will certainly affect the ranking of the search results. But entering a year of 1860 and a place of Virginia should certainly give a higher ranking to records from around 1860 and in Virginia, all other things being equal. But you might also get matches on the name you provided for other years or places. That can often be very useful, since it's always possible that you made a mistake or relied on inaccurate records in choosing 1860 and Virginia, or there might be records that are somewhat inaccurate that you still want to find because everything else in them matches.
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