Some suggested SOAR search strategies
 

Overall, the process of searching on the SOAR site will involve providing desired search criteria, and based on the criteria entered, search results will be returned with basic information (KEYWORDS and Dates found). From this results list, an image of a source document, associated with each results record, can be viewed and if desired, purchased via a valid Credit Card.

The SOAR web site was created with the goal of supporting multiple platforms / browsers (although it is not warranted to do so).  As a result, when searching SOAR, pop-up windows may appear for prompts and messages requiring that pop-ups be allowed by your browser.  Further, Java applets (requiring a Java run-time environment be loaded on your local device) will be loaded to perform tasks associated with viewing images and downloading purchased images.  Depending on your connection speed, downloading Java applets and viewing and downloading images may take some time.  Please wait for downloads to complete.  

The Search SOAR page of the ahsgrsoar.org internet site provides visitors with the ability to search a specific database, or all of the SOAR databases available on the site by specific KEYWORDS and/or Dates.  KEYWORD search options include using Soundex to search for KEYWORDS, for example, names, that are not spelled as expected but sound similar, and “And/Or” searches, for example, providing multiple KEYWORDS but selecting that all KEYWORDS should exist for results returned (“And” search) or that any of the KEYWORDS should exist for the results returned (“Or” search).  Date search options include providing specific Dates or Date Ranges .  

Search Criteria Fields / Options provided on the Search SOAR page:  

Select SOAR Database – Using this dropdown box allows you to select a specific available SOAR database to search, or optionally to search against all SOAR databases, by selecting “All Databases”.  

Click for Information – This active link appears next to the Select SOAR Database field only when a specific SOAR database is selected from the dropdown list of SOAR databases available.  When clicked, you will be taken to a page providing detailed information about the database selected, including Types of KEYWORDS, Date(s) available, and a detailed database description.  

Containing KEYWORDS – This field is used to enter KEYWORDS to search for. KEYWORDS are typically names of persons, whether first, last, middle, maiden, etc., or places.  For the most accurate description of KEYWORDS available, please refer to specific database information available on the site.  Individual KEYWORDS entered into the Containing KEYWORDS field, can be entered in lowercase, uppercase or combination; exact case matches are not considered during the search.  When entering multiple KEYWORDS, for “And/Or” searches (see Search for All Words option below), KEYWORDS must be separated by a space; do not separate KEYWORDS by using other delimiters such as commas.  For example, to search for the name “John Smith”, enter “john smith” (no quotation marks should be entered – only the KEYWORDS).  In addition, wildcard searches can be performed by placing an asterisk (*) at the end and/or at the beginning of the KEYWORD entered.  For example, to search for any KEYWORDS beginning with “j”, enter “j*”.  To search for any KEYWORDS ending “ohn”, enter “*ohn”.  To search for all KEYWORDS containing “oh”, enter “*oh*”.  In all these wildcard examples, the    KEYWORD “john” would be returned.  Combinations of KEYWORDS and wildcard searches can be entered, for example, entering “smith j*”, would result in all records containing a KEYWORD of “smith” and/or containing KEYWORDS beginning with “j”.   

Use Soundex – Use this option, by clicking to place a checkmark in the box in front of “Use Soundex”, if you are unsure of the exact spelling of the KEYWORD you are searching for.  For example, typing “smyth” will return KEYWORDS that sound similar, such as “smith” and “schmidt”.  If checked, all KEYWORDS entered will be Soundex searched with the exception of wildcards searches, wildcard entries are not subject to a Soundex search.  

Search for All Words (“and” Search) – Use this option, by clicking to place a checkmark in the box in front of “Search for All Words (“and” Search)”, when entering multiple KEYWORDS, to specify that all KEYWORDS must exist within the record for it to be returned in the search results list.  For example, with this box checked a search for “john smith” will yield records in the results list that contain both “john” and “smith”.  The same KEYWORDS without this box checked will yield records in the results list that contain “john” or “smith” or both words.  This option is used to toggle between “and” searches on all KEYWORDS entered (box checked) and “or” searches on all KEYWORDS entered (box unchecked).  

Date Search – Specific dates searchable for a given SOAR database will appear when a database is selected.  If “All Databases” is selected, only the Publication Date will be searchable.  All databases will contain at least a publication date for all records.  The availability of second and third dates will depend on the database; for example, the Obituary database has Birth Date and Death Date as the second and third dates available.  If an exact date is known it may be entered in the first date field in each of the, at least one and up to three, dates available.  If the exact date is not known, a date range can be entered by entering a beginning date in the first date field and an ending date in the second (“to”) date field.  Dates entered must be in the format mm/dd/yyyy (include slashes (/) in field entry).  Optionally, by clicking on the calendar icon to the right of each date field, a date may be selected from a calendar via a pop-up form.  

Find – Click this button to find all records within the database, or all databases, selected while considering all criteria (KEYWORDS entered, options selected, and Dates specified) entered on the page.  When returning to the Search SOAR page, from within the site, the last search criteria entered is retained and will be displayed, so it can be easily modified / refined as required.  

Reset – Click this button to reset the Search SOAR page so all previous search criteria is cleared and can be entered again.  Only the database selected from the Select SOAR Database dropdown list will be retained.  

The volume of records returned will depend on the search criteria entered.  The more information and the more precise the information entered, the fewer the records that will be returned, but likely these records will be the information you are searching for.  Please enter as much criteria as possible when searching SOAR.    

Please refer to the “Some suggested SOAR search strategies” section below for additional information and examples on searching SOAR.  

Some Suggested SOAR Strategies
Begin by searching for only the surname. If there are too few responses, use the Soundex search for the same surname. If there are a large quantity of responses, add additional terms in the search (e.g. given name, or birth or death date).

For two word locations, try New and Mexico or NM, British and Columbia or BC, La and Salle or Lasalle, etc.

State descriptions: Be inventive and remember that abbreviations need special attention – NE or Neb or Nebr or Nebraska; Sask or Saskatchewan; South Dakota or SD or sodak or sdak (ND or nodak or ndak for North Dakota); Manitoba or MB (do not use Man) – MB may return Mennonite Brethren related records as well; ONT or Ontario; WI or Wis or Wisconsin; ORE for Oregon (not OR); IND for Indiana (not IN); etc.

Some names might be listed as one or two words: e.g. La and Verne or LaVerne, etc.

Do not use single initials as part of search criteria. This means J.P. Doe would be searched as JP and Doe.

Hyphenated words (two words separated by a -) are considered to be two separate words and must be searched for accordingly (e.g. Word A AND Word B).

Birth or Death date entries: enter exact (or with range) date using the date search windows or yyyyb or yyyyd (where yyyy is the year) as part of the general search criteria

If a woman’s obituary cannot be found, consider the following - sometimes a woman’s obituary would not list her given name, but only refer to “Frau or Mrs. xxxxx”. (The word Frau is not indexed as a keyword.) Consider searching by using the husband’s given name. If that is unknown, use only the last name and a death date range if known.

Do not include an apostrophe in any of the search words. When looking for a town such as Coeur d'Alene, enter Coeur and dAlene (or Coeur and Alene) as two separate words with an “and” logic symbol. A name such as O’Hara should be entered as Ohara, and St. Luke’s as St. and Lukes

Scottsbluff, Nebraska (the town) is sometimes listed as Scotts Bluff (which is also the county).

Be inventive when searching. An obituary might use Mt. or Mtn. Lake for Mountain Lake. Conrad might be Konrad. Louise might be Luise. Catherine might be Katherine, Katharina, Kathrine, Katarina or Katherina. Elizabeth might be Elisabeth or Elisabet. George might be Georg. Jacob might be Jakob, John might be Johann or Johannes. Edward might be Eduard. Oscar might be Oskar. Victor might be Viktor. Kindsvater might be Kindsfater or Kindsfather. North Colorado Medical Center might be NCMC. Carl might be Karl (or vice versa). Philip might be Phillip, Philipp, or Philip.

The researcher may desire to hand copy or print a record of the list of keywords available for a given retrieved obituary. This can be useful if the original image is faint or in German text. To print the list of keywords for a selected obituary: Select the “View All Keywords” option on the IMAGE VIEW and PURCHASE page, then perform a screen print by selecting File/Print (upper left hand corner of the menu bar for the Internet Browser being used).