Tip: searching the database will only find the exact words entered in the catalogue, so if you can’t find something, try and find another way of searching.

Search Catalogue
This searches for text only in titles and descriptions across archives and Local Studies items..

This is how it works:

• salt cheshire: will search for catalogue records with the words ‘salt’ and ‘Cheshire’ in them
• “salt in Cheshire”: will search for catalogue records with the exact phrase ‘salt in cheshire’ in them
• workhouse*: will search for catalogue records with the word ‘workhouse’ or ‘workhouses’ in them, while 'Na*wich' will search for any words with Na at the beginning and wich at the end. The asterisk (*) is a 'wildcard’ which takes the place of letters or other characters.

Advanced Search
This gives you more options that will help narrow down searches, for example, put a place name in Any Text and limit Type of Archive Collection by selecting ‘Church of England parishes’. Use this search if you want to search by date or want to explore the Local Studies collections in more detail, for example.

These tips will help you get the most out of an Advanced Search:

• Title: this can refer to
• the name of a book, journal article or pamphlet
• the ‘title’ of the creator of an archive collection (eg ‘Chester City Council’, ‘Macclesfield St Michael Parish’, or 'Wilmslow Secondary Modern School')
• the ‘title’ of a record (eg ‘marriage register’, ‘register of marriages’, apprenticeship indenture’)
• Reference: this is the unique reference given to a document or Local Studies item (eg ‘P 8/4325/1’)
• Date (Archive collections only): this can be searched in a number of ways (‘1645’, ‘1600-1650’, ‘mid 17th century’, for example)
• Date (Archive collections only): this can be searched in a number of ways (‘1645’, ‘1600-1650’, ‘mid 17th century’, for example)
• Type of Archive Collection: use this field to select a type of collection (eg Schools, Church of England Parishes)
• Format (Local Studies collection only): use if you want to search for eg journal holdings or pamphlets
• Held At (Local Studies collection only): use if you want to specify a library (eg ‘Macclesfield Library’) or if you want to find out which Local Studies items are held at the Cheshire Record Office (type ‘Cheshire Record Office’)