Digital Family Tree Eindhoven

Standard search

In general: the more precisely you define your question, the more accurately the computer can search for you. Do not select too many sources simultaneously, and keep the period in which you are searching limited.

It is not necessary to complete all the fields/spaces. A familyname is usually sufficient.

Very general inquiries (e.g.: the first name “Jan” from 1600 to 1900) will give too many matches, rendering the information value to be virtually useless. Only the first 250 matches are displayed.

When searching, you can make use of so-called “wildcards”. For example, if you do not know wheather the exact spelling is Elizabeth or Elsbeth, you can enter El*beth,so that both first names will be included in the search. With “wildcards”, the * replaces one or more letters, while ? replaces merely one letter. For instance, when searching for Jan or Jans, then you can formulate the enquiry as Jan?. If you are looking for Jan, Jans, Jansen or Janssen, then Jan* will be more appropriate.

Advanced search

Within this screen you can search within a specific period, within which the day and month are also specified. When completing the fields, you can only use the numbers 1 to 9, with or without a number 0 before them. Wildcards are therefore not permitted.

Should you select the option statistical search, then you are searching for a quantity of sources available, and not searching on the basis of contents. This means that you receive a number as your result. The advantage of this option is that you will always see a specific result, which may exceed 250 matches, while a standard search is limited to a maximum of 250 matches.

With advanced search you can also search according to function (performed by the person stated in the source), or descendency (place or region of descent). Within the field descendency, you may use wildcards.

In the summary of results you can sort the list by clicking with the cursor upon the underlined titles above the columns. By that you can sort the search results according to name, date, source, function, and place.