USGenWeb Search Engine Help, Tricks and Tips

This search engine supports phrases enclosed in quotes: "John Smith" will return files that contain the words John and Smith together in that order. It will not return files with "Smith, John" To be sure that you get all files use ("John Smith" or "Smith John") - the parentheses in this case are optional and punctuation is ignored

The advanced options allow for searches of a single state or county or a particular type of record.

Here are some examples: Search within our site:
Search Area What to put in Site search box
All States and Counties files.usgwarchives.org
One state, example Texas files.usgwarchives.net/tx -- use 2 letter postal code for state
One county within a state, example Sangamon County, Illinois files.usgwarchives.net/il/sangamon -- Hint: go to files.usgwarchives.org and traverse to the state and county to be sure of the spelling (or use * for a wild card)
One county, in any state, example Saline County, state unknown files.usgwarchives.net/*/saline
One type of record, any state or county, example 1850 Census files.usgwarchives.net/*/*/census/1850
Vital Records, example California Marriages, any county files.usgwarchives.net/ca/*/vitals/marriages - replace marriages with births, deaths or divorces to get other vital records