Search¶
PastPaths has two kinds of search: the search box at the top, which searches your whole family history at once, and the search fields in the lists, which search one kind of record at a time — persons, places, events, and so on. Both follow the same rules, so the same search text finds the same records wherever you search.
The search box at the top¶
The search box at the top of the window searches persons, places, events, sources, and blog posts at the same time. Type at least two characters and the results are shown in a box below the search field.
The tabs¶
At the top of the box there are tabs with the number of results:
- All shows a few results of each type.
- If you choose a type, for example Persons, only that type is shown, with more results — the box can be scrolled.
- A type without results is greyed out and can't be chosen.
The box stays open when you switch tabs. It closes when you click outside it, choose a result, or press Esc.
Open a result¶
Click a result to open it. Enter opens the first result that's visible.
| Result | Opens |
|---|---|
| Person | The person's page |
| Place | The place's page |
| Event | The event's page |
| Source | The Sources tab under Administration, with the source's title as the search term |
| Blog post | The post |
Events are shown with the same heading and date as in the events list — also events without a title of their own, for example "Anna Andersson born".
Show all¶
If there are more results than those shown, Show all … results is shown under the type. The link opens the list for the type with your search text filled in. The number in the search box is the same as in the list, since they search in exactly the same way.
Search by event type¶
Events can be searched by type, both in the search box at the top and in the search field on the Events page: "death" and "died" find deaths, "baptism" finds baptisms, and "burial" finds burials. It's enough to type the beginning of a word in the type's name or in the heading.
Searching by type requires at least three characters. Shorter search texts, for example a name like "Bo", only search the text — otherwise every event of a type that starts the same way would be included.
Name and type together
A search text with both a name and a type, for example "olle died", gives no results, since the heading is only built when the event is shown. Search for "olle" — then Olle's events are included, the death too.
What is searched¶
| Where | Searches |
|---|---|
| Persons | first name, last name, full name, place of birth, place of death, tags, and categories |
| Places | name, address, city, parish, county, region, country, and description |
| Events | title, description, notes, location text, place, the participants' names, tags, categories, and event type |
| Media | title, description, file name, tags, and categories |
| Sources | title, author, repository, call number, and abbreviation |
| Blog | title and content |
The search box at the top searches the same fields as the lists, but not media — the media library has a search field of its own.
The rules for the search text¶
The search ignores upper and lower case, accents, dots, and rings — both ways:
- "asa" finds "Åsa", and "ÅSA" finds "asa"
- "orebro" finds "Örebro"
- "elise" finds "Élise"
- "lundstrom" finds "Lundström"
Also, ø becomes o, æ becomes ae, and ß becomes ss, so "oberg" finds "Øberg" and "strasse" finds "Straße".
The search text can be anywhere in the field: "berg" finds both "Bergström" and "Lindberg". The characters % and _ are searched as ordinary characters — "50%" only finds text that contains exactly 50%.
Letters that aren't folded
Some letters from other languages are currently only found if you type them as they are: ł, đ, œ, and similar. So "lukasz" doesn't find "Łukasz" — type "łukasz". It is part of the plans.
The pickers¶
Wherever you choose a person, place, source, event, or file — for example in the event form, the family tree's focus person, or Link existing — the picker searches the whole database with the same rules. The results are shown one page at a time, and more are loaded as you scroll. At the bottom it says how many were found, for example "Showing 30 of 412".