Search help

Search the Findbuch database

Where does the Findbuch search?

The Findbuch scans through all of the relevant fields of the files it contains, in particular name, address, date of birth, file number, remarks. Recurrent information that is not specific to a file, such as the name and contact details of the archive or the file type are not included in the search.

The search results

The Findbuch displays the search results according to relevance. At the top of the table you can click through the pages of results and re-sort them. You can filter the results according to archive and file type and each record leads to an extensive detailed view with further information, particularly the information required to retrieve the file from the archive.

You can mark records as favorites and makes notes in both the overview and the detailed view. You can find your list of favorites under My Findbuch / Favorites.

How does the Findbuch search?

Enter one or more search terms, separated by spaces, and click on search. The results will display records that contain all of the search terms (regardless of order and whether a whole word or just a part of a word). A search for “mülle fer” produces the result “Ferdinand Kemetmüller”. It is therefore not necessary to place an asterisk before or after the search term. You can, however use an asterisk mid-word to indicate unknown letters. For example, a search for “Si*rger” produces the result “Sinalberger”.

The search function does not take capitalizations into account. It does take ambiguous spellings into account (such as f/ph, s/ss, accents, etc.) and certain symbols not available on every keyboard (umlauts, ß). The search for “gerngrosz” also produces the result “Gerngross” and “Gerngroß”, a search for “muller” also yields “Müller”.

Searching for dates of birth

You can also search for dates of birth or parts thereof. To get the best results, enter them as follows (without spaces):

• Day, month, year, e.g. “13.3.1885”
• Day, month, e.g. “13.3.”
• Month, year, e.g. “3.1885”
• Year, e.g. “1885”
• Several years, e.g. “1885-1888”

Search the digitized books

You can search in the digitized books available on the Findbuch using Googles Custom Search Engine. This can be accessed through the menu item “Books” and will search within all digitized books.

You can also search within a digitized book. Select an book and a chapter from the table of content. The PDF will open automatically in the viewer. Once the PDF is open you can search it by clicking on the search-button in the viewer or by using Ctrl-F (Apple: Cmd-F). It is better to use short, relevant letter combinations rather than long search terms as the text recognition function has certain limitations due to the historical font (Gothic type) and poor picture quality.