Problems using new search

[susan-y]

For some reason I can't get the search or advanced search to work for me. I want to do a search for a name.i.e. John Doe.... I have used (--) and tried "--" so both the 1st and surname are included. I either get 40 pages with one, or the other names in the post or both ...i.e. either John or Doe or John Doe but who wants to troll all those posts? OR ELSE I get this message..
"The following words are either very common, too long, or too short and were not included in your search:"
I just want any post that has the full name.:cuss: On the old search I put brackets around the 2 names and that's what I got.
The person I was looking for, if indeed they were oin any of the posts.

Then, because I couldn't find a "help" button/link I put help in the search box.................. you can imagine what I got.
"The following words are either very common, too long, or too short and were not included in your search: "

Help, please!

Sue

[Procat]

Hi Sue,

I don't think it likes the usual conventions for searching and there is nothing in the help screens that I can find.

I tried searching for two different names such as Mary Jane Doe or John Henry Doe and in both instances it returned numerous hits (as you have found) however it sorted them with the most complete result at the top of the results. That is, the thread with Mary Jane Doe as a phrase was at the top followed by results where the words appeared in a post but were not next to each other eg Mary married Doe

Not much joy I am afraid.

[susan-y]

Thanks for that, Doug...... I don't feel so stupid now! I just hate posting about someone and then finding out they are already mentioned in someone else's thread and I could have posted on it or pm'd them. Guess I will have to search the hard way!

Sue:smile5:

[N@alie]

Hi Sue


I want to do a search for a name.i.e. John Doe.... I have used (--) and tried "--" so both the 1st and surname are included.

Try using that search method in, say, Google followed by the words site:british-genealogy.com and the search engine will search that site only. (Thanks to Peter Goodey for that tip!)