• 1.
GUIDED TOUR
• 2. INTRODUCTION
  • 2.1 INTRODUCTION
  • 2.2 UNDERSTANDING THE STRUCTURE OF THE DATABASE
  • 2.3 SEARCH NAVIGATION BAR
  • 2.4 TABLE OF CONTENTS NAVIGATION BAR
  • 2.5 NOTES ON MARK-UP CONVENTIONS
  • 2.6 ABOUT THE SEARCH SOFTWARE
• 3. FIND AUTHOR AND FIND SOURCES
  • 3.1 FIND SOURCES
  • 3.2 FIND AUTHORS
• 4. SEARCHING
  • 4.1 SEARCH OVERVIEW
  • 4.2 FULL-TEXT SEARCHING
    • 4.2.1 Full-Text Searching
    • 4.2.2 Wildcard Characters in Full-Text Searching
    • 4.2.3 Wildcards and Boolean Operators in Full-Text Searching
    • 4.2.4 Punctuation and Full-Text Searching
    • 4.2.5 Selecting a Search Option
  • 4.3 FIELD SEARCHING
    • 4.3.1 Searching in Specific Fields
    • 4.3.2 Advanced Field Searching with Regular Expression Operators
    • 4.3.3 Punctuation and Spacing in Fielded Searching
• 5. FIELDS AND THEIR DESCRIPTIONS
  • 5.1 LIST OF ALL FIELDS THAT CAN BE SEARCHED
  • 5.2 FIELD DESCRIPTIONS WITH SAMPLE SEARCHES
    • 5.2.1 Age at First Childbirth
    • 5.2.2 Age at Marriage
    • 5.2.3 Age When Writing
    • 5.2.4 All Author Forms
    • 5.2.5 Author
    • 5.2.6 Day of Month
    • 5.2.7 Document Type
    • 5.2.8 Editor or Translator
    • 5.2.9 Historical Events
    • 5.2.10 Marital Status When Writing
    • 5.2.11 Maternal Status When Writing
    • 5.2.12 Month Written
    • 5.2.13 Nationality
    • 5.2.14 Notes
    • 5.2.15 Number of Children
    • 5.2.16 Number of Marriages
    • 5.2.17 Occupation
    • 5.2.18 Personal Events
    • 5.2.19 Place of Birth
    • 5.2.20 Place of Death
    • 5.2.21 Previously Unpublished
    • 5.2.22 Publisher
    • 5.2.23 Race
    • 5.2.24 Recipient
    • 5.2.25 Recipient's Gender
    • 5.2.26 Record Number
    • 5.2.27 Relationship to Author
    • 5.2.28 Religion
    • 5.2.29 Source Type
    • 5.2.30 Subject Headings
    • 5.2.31 Subject Headings (Source)
    • 5.2.32 Title (Source)
    • 5.2.33 Where Sent (Geographical)
    • 5.2.34 Where Sent (Region)
    • 5.2.35 Where Written (Geographical)
    • 5.2.36 Where Written (Region)
    • 5.2.37 Where Written (Setting)
    • 5.2.38 Year of Birth
    • 5.2.39 Year of Death
    • 5.2.40 Year of Publication (Source)
    • 5.2.41 Year Written
• 6. RESULTS
  • 6.1 OCCURRENCES WITH CONTEXT/CONTEXT DISPLAY
  • 6.2 LINE-BY-LINE DISPLAY
  • 6.3 SORTING RESULTS BY AUTHOR
  • 6.4 SORTING RESULTS BY SOURCE
  • 6.5 SORTING RESULTS BY YEAR
  • 6.6 NAVIGATING DOCUMENTS FROM WORD SEARCHES

A basic 10 minute guided tour that shows the major features of the database is available. Please CLICK here for more.

2. INTRODUCTION

2.1 INTRODUCTION

North American Women's Letters and Diaries provides sophisticated searching across large numbers of primary documents, as well as table of contents access to a wide array of primary sources.

For novices who wish to get quick access to key documents, we recommend using the Tables of Contents and the Simple Search tools.

For scholars who wish to conduct in-depth searches we recommend using the Advanced Search, Diaries Search, and Letters Search tools.  The search value of some of the fields in the database will not become apparent until more documents are added.

2.2 UNDERSTANDING THE STRUCTURE OF THE DATABASE

There are three basic ways to use the database.

• Tables of Contents -- Use these to see what's contained in the database. This is the best way to check whether an author, a source, a date is included. It's also the best way to examine what personal or historical events are in the database. To use this tool, simply click on the appropriate table of contents button on the navigation bar.
• Find Tools -- The "FIND" tools let you search for specific authors or specific works in the database. Find Authors returns a list of all authors that match your specific criteria. Find Sources returns a list of all sources (works and manuscripts) in the database. The difference between the "FIND" tools and the "SEARCH" tools (explained next) is in the results they give. The "FIND" tools do not return documents, but rather lists of sources and authors. Note the difference between a source (a collection of documents) and the documents themselves (items within a source).
• Search Tools -- The "SEARCH" tools let you analyze words and documents that meet your search criteria. The "SEARCH" tools return documents or bibliographic citations or both. In this database a document is defined as a month of diary entries, or a letter, or editorial matter.

The Search Navigation Bar lets you move around the database retrieval tools, including the Search tools. It is the same as the Tables of Contents tool bar, except that the Search tools are expanded, and the Tables of Contents tools are reduced. You can toggle between the two by clicking Tables of Contents or Full-Text Search in the mauve section indicated above. (The graphic above is just an illustration; it does not have live links.)

The Search tools are divided into four separate categories, all of which search the texts in the database and return documents:

• Simple Search - for novice users or those wishing to do a quick search. It provides basic searching
• Diaries Search - a moderate number of fields, restricted to diaries
• Letter Search - specific field searching for letters only
• Advanced Search - all fields, except specific letter fields

The Tables of Contents Navigation Bar lets you move around the Tables of Contents tools. It works in the same way as the Search Tool bar. When using these tools, the Tables of Contents are expanded and the Full Text Searches are collapsed. You can toggle between the two by clicking Tables of Contents or Full-Text Search.

The Tables of Contents are divided into six separate categories, all of which provide quick access to specific documents within the database.

        Table of Contents

• Authors - a list of every major author in the database
• Sources - a complete list of every source (work or manuscripts) in the database
• Year - every letter and document organized by year
• Place - A list of Places where letters or diaries have been written, sent or discussed
• Personal Events - a list of key life events in the life of a woman, with all documents pertaining to each event
• Historical Events - a list of key events in history, with all documents pertaining to each event

        Find

• Sources  - The ability to search the database for a particular source.
• Authors  -  Search for Authors that are in the Database by a criteria.
• Full Text Search - A Simple search for text in the database.
• Help - The Help for looking for help on a topic.

2.5 NOTES ON MARK-UP CONVENTIONS

Materials in the database have been transcribed using original spellings and grammar. In some documents spelling is inconsistent, even within a sentence.

For more information on mark-up conventions, contact the .

2.6 ABOUT THE SEARCH SOFTWARE

PhiloLogic, a suite of software developed by the ARTFL Project at the University of Chicago in collaboration with The University of Chicago Library's Electronic Text Services, provides sophisticated searching of a wide variety of large encoded databases on the World Wide Web. It is an easy to use, yet powerful, full-text search, retrieval, and reporting system for large multimedia databases (texts, images, sound) with the ability to handle complex text structures with extensive indexed metadata.

PhiloLogic in its simplest form serves as a document retrieval or look up mechanism whereby users can search a relational database to retrieve given documents and, in some implementations, portions of texts such as acts, scenes, articles, or head-words. This same document retrieval mechanism serves as the basis for defining a corpus in a full-text search. One can, for example, either retrieve all documents in a database written by women from 1935 through 1945 or one can search for words or phrases within database which fit those criteria. The typical PhiloLogic search is broken down into five distinct stages: 1) defining a corpus (i.e. limiting a search), 2) word expansion, 3) word index searching, 4) text extraction, and 5) link resolution and formatting (e.g., SGML to HTML conversion). In other words, after defining a corpus (or one may search an entire database), one can execute a single term, phrase or proximity search. By looking up indices of the word(s) in a relational database, PhiloLogic extracts blocks of text containing the search term(s) with links to larger blocks of text. These extracts are formatted to display on a Web browser and sometimes include links to images, sound recordings, other texts, or even other databases.

In addition to simple word and phrase searches, users can perform more sophisticated searches by using extended UNIX-style regular expressions for complex wildcard searching and, in some implementations, morphological and orthographic expansion. All of these mechanisms to expand words can be combined using Boolean operators such as OR (the vertical bar "|") and AND (a space) within a variety of searching contexts.

Its functions were originally designed for scholarly research in databases of literary, religious, philosophical, and historical collections of texts as well as important historical encyclopedias and dictionaries. PhiloLogic handles notes so as not to interfere with phrase searching. Users can easily search words with diacritics (either by specifying accents or ignoring them by typing in uppercase) and non-Romanized scripts. At present there are some fifty databases on the Web under PhiloLogic containing languages such as ancient Greek, Latin, Hindi, and Urdu as well as nearly all Western European languages. PhiloLogic can also be set up to recognize or ignore manuscript notations such as different brackets, which can indicate spurious text or editorial emendations. Because the software recognizes typical text structures as real data objects, it understands units, such as words, sentences, paragraphs, sections, and pages, permitting very flexible searching and retrieval of these textual objects. Other full-text engines on the market search for strings of characters. Rather than searching for two words within the same sentence or paragraph (intellectual units), other engines must search for two words within a certain number of characters regardless of sentence or paragraph. With PhiloLogic scholars always know where they are in a given text since pagination can be displayed along side other objects. Such a high degree of indexing can lead to decreases in speed, PhiloLogic indexing has been maximized such that it is still incredibly fast on the Web.

For more information on PhiloLogic, contact Catherine Mardikes, ETS Coordinator, The University of Chicago Library.

3.1 FIND SOURCES

The Find Sources tool lets you find all the original works in the database that match your specific criteria. For example, you can find out all the sources published by the Pennsylvania Historical Society or see whether a particular edition is included.

Practical Example:
Find all sources that have slavery as a subject.

• Click on the navigation bar to get to Find Sources.
• Enter slavery in the Subject field.
• Click on the SEARCH button.
• The system responds with a list of all sources that meet the criteria.

Note: For a detailed discussion of the fields in Find Sources see the section on Fields and their Descriptions below.

3.2 FIND AUTHORS

The Find Authors tool lets you find authors in the database that match your specific criteria. For example, you can find all the authors in the database that were born between 1850 and 1870.

Practical Example:
Find all wives of Ministers who are mothers in the database.

• Click on the navigation bar to get to Find Authors.
• Enter Clergyman's wife in the Occupation field.
• Enter 1-15 in the Number of Children.
• Click on the SEARCH button.
• The system responds with a list of all authors that meet the criteria.

Note: For a detailed discussion of the fields in Find Authors see the section on Fields and their Descriptions below.

4.1 SEARCH OVERVIEW

There are two basic kinds of searching in the database.

• Full-Text Searching enables you to do keyword searching for occurrences of words or phrases in the database.
• Bibliographic Searching allows you to create a set of documents for subsequent full-text searching. Bibliographic searching is when you use descriptive fields to search.

4.2.1 Full-Text Searching

Full-Text Searching is when you search for specific words or phrases that occur in the texts themselves.

PhiloLogic supports wildcard characters and Boolean (logical) operators, which are modeled on UNIX regular expressions to perform "pattern matching" in full-text searching. Pattern matching allows identification of a large number of words corresponding to a defined pattern. Wildcard characters can be useful, for example, in identifying cognates made obscure by affixes and vowel weakening, inconsistencies due to irregular orthography, and variations on account of word inflection as well as for discovering potential emendations for uncertain readings. The most commonly used regular expression operators (wildcard and Boolean) are listed below.

4.2.2 Wildcard Characters in Full-Text Searching

. (period): matches any single character (e.g., gentlem.n will retrieve gentleman and gentlemen).

* (asterisk): matches any string of characters, anchoring the match at the beginning of a word (e.g., cigar* will match cigar, cigars, cigarette, etc.).

* (asterisk): matches any string of characters, anchoring the match at the end of a word (e.g., *habit will retrieve habit, cohabit, and inhabit), or in the middle (e.g., c.*eers matches compeers, cheers, and careers).

.? (period question mark): matches the characters entered or the characters entered plus one more character in place of the question mark (e.g., hono.?r matches both honor and honour and cat.? matches cat and cats, but not cathedral, Catherine, etc.).

[a-z] (brackets): matches a single character found in the specified range (e.g., [c-f]at will match cat, dat, eat, and fat) or any letters within the brackets (e.g., civili[zs]e will match both civilize and civilise).

# (hash mark): matches capitalized words only (e.g., #bacon will retrieve Bacon, but not bacon). Otherwise word searches are case insensitive. Please note that this operator does not work properly in conjunction with the vertical bar (e.g., searching #hamlet|#bacon will not retrieve accurate results).

E (capital letter): matches all accented and non-accented forms (e.g., to search naïveté regardless of accents type naIvetE).

Note: If you are using wildcard characters and would like to see a full list of the words matching your search-term, then run your search as a Frequency by Author search. The results page of a Frequency by Author search lists all the terms found in a database that match your search-term.

4.2.3 Wildcards and Boolean Operators in Full-Text Searching

• The vertical line ( | ) is the OR operator (e.g., avarice|greed or holy ghost|spirit).
• Space: serves as the AND operator in sentence and paragraph Proximity Searching (e.g., church state retrieve all cases where church and state appear in the same specified context; this is not the case in phrase searching).
• These expressions can be combined for more sophisticated searches; for example, searching
  old|aged|ancient m.n|fellow*
  finds any of the three adjectives together with the nouns man or fellow in the singular or plural.

4.2.4 Punctuation and Full-Text Searching

• Hyphens: Hypens act as word separators. Thus, one should treat hyphenated expressions as separate words excluding the hyphen (e.g., if searching for all-powerful, type in all powerful).
• Apostrophes: One must include apostrophes when searching words with apostrophes in them (e.g., only by typing God's will one find "God's"). In this database apostrophes do not act as word separators. Therefore contractions and elisions must be entered without spaces before or after the apostrophe.
• Ampersands: The ampersand (&) is not a searchable character. Avoid Phrase Searches where an ampersand may be used as a conjunction and realize that &c must be entered as simply c.

4.2.5 Selecting a Search Option

PhiloLogic at this time offers two kinds of searches: "Single Term and Phrase Search," which is set up as the default, and "Proximity Searching in the Same Sentence or Paragraph." One may select and deselect a search option by clicking on the "radio" buttons.

For a fuller discussion see the PhiloLogic User Manual

4.3.1 Searching in Specific Fields

When entering search terms in bibliographic fields, as opposed to the full text search box, use the following Boolean operators: uppercase AND, OR, and NOT. One can use a NOT operator by itself (e.g., in the Type field enter: NOT editorial). It must be the first term in the box with no spaces preceding and it cannot be used with other Boolean operators

4.3.2 Advanced Field Searching with Regular Expression Operators

As in full text searching, one can use regular expression operators for more specialized searching. The caret sign (^) at the beginning of a word anchors the match at the beginning of the entry (e.g., ^child will find the personal event "Childbirth," but not "Adoption of Child). One can also use the verticle line (|) as a Boolean operator OR. With this operator one can exclude two terms from one's search (e.g., NOT adams|burr).

4.3.3 Punctuation and Spacing in Fielded Searching

When entering terms, punctuation and spacing must match exactly that in the fields. The following marks of punctuation produce a "Nothing found" message: ampersand (&), parentheses, question mark, and double quotes (""). If necessary for searching, replace the mark of punctuation with a period, which stand for any single character. 

5.1 LIST OF ALL FIELDS THAT CAN BE SEARCHED

Here is a summary table of all fields in the database, showing which tool they can be found on. Detailed descriptions can be found below.

5.2.1 Age at First Childbirth

Description: This is the age of a woman when she first delivered a child, whether or not the child survived. It is optional.

How to use this field: Key in the age or range of ages in the box Age at First Childbirth. For example, 15 or 40-50.

Practical Example:
Find documents by women who had children after the age of 40.
Click on the navigation bar to Search Texts

• Click on the navigation bar to get to Advanced Search
• Key in 40-60 in the Age at First Childbirth field. This will restrict the search to items written by women aged 40-60.
• Click on the SEARCH button.
• The system responds with a list of all occurrences in context.

5.2.2 Age at Marriage

Description: This is the age when a woman got married for the first time. It is optional. This field can be searched using Advanced Search and Find Authors only.

How to use this field: Key in the age or range of ages in the box Age at Marriage. For example, 10-15.

Practical Example: See Age at First Childbirth.

Note: To search for occurrences of letters or diaries where the woman was never married, or where we have been unable to determine the age, key in 9999 in the field Box.

Description: This field is the age in years of the author when a document was written.

How to use this field: Use this field when you want to restrict a search to materials written by women of at a particular time in their lives. It is particularly useful for examining changing perspectives over time, to explore differences in the vocabulary and preoccupations of the young and the old.

Practical Example:
Give me writings by girls aged 10-15 where they discuss their schools

• Click on the navigation bar to Search Texts.
• Click on the navigation bar to get to Advanced Search.
• Key in school* By keying in the asterisk you will retrieve all words that begin with school - like schools, schooling, school, schoolmate, schoolmates.
• Key in 10-15 in the Age When Writing field. This will restrict the search to items written by girls aged 10-15.
• Click on the SEARCH button.
• The system responds with a list of all occurrences in context.

Note: To search for occurrences of letters or diaries where the woman's age is not known, key in 9999 in the field Box.

5.2.4 All Author Forms

Description: This field includes all forms of the authors' names. It includes variant names, such as maiden name, professional penname, aliases, other married names and nicknames. The same official form of the name is used for display for all occurrences of that name, regardless of the form the author used at the time of writing.

How to use this field: Use this field from Find Authors. If you want to see whether an author is included in the database, you should click on the Terms button ajacent to the All Author Forms field.

Practical Example:
You are looking for Mrs. John Adams:

• Click on the navigation bar to Find Authors.
• Key in John AND Adams in the All Author Forms box.
• Click on the SEARCH button.

5.2.5 Author

Description: This is the name of the author of a letter or diary entry. It includes variant names, such as maiden name, professional penname, aliases, other married names and nicknames. The same official form of the name is used for display for all occurrences of that name, regardless of the form the author used at the time of writing.

How to use this field: Use this field when you want to analyze word usage or materials by a single author or authors. If you want to see whether an author is included in the database you should click on the Table of Contents: Authors entry on the navigation bar. Names are entered surname, first name, initial. This is a mandatory field.

Practical Example:
Find all the words used by a particular author:

• Click on the navigation bar to Search Texts.
• Click on the navigation bar to get to Simple Search.
• Key the word or phrase you're looking for (e.g. love) into the Search Word or Phrase box.
• Key in the name of the author you want to restrict the search to, last name first in the Author box. If you're not sure how the name is spelled click the Terms button to the right of the author field for a list. Use your Browser's back button to go to the Simple Search screen and key it in.
• Click on the SEARCH button.

Description: This contains the day of a month in numerals. It is only used for letters. It is optional. How to use this field: The main use of this field is to determine what was written on a specific day or days. It should be used with caution, because the field can only be used with letters (see note below). Do not key in anything other than numerals into this field.

Practical Example:
Does the database contain any letters written within in the 20 days following January 7th, 1830?

• Click on the navigation bar to Search Texts.
• Click on the navigation bar to get to Search Letters.
• Scroll down to Year Written - enter 1830.
• Enter 1 in the Month Written box.
• Enter 7-27 in the Day of Month box.
• The system responds with a list of all occurrences in context.

Note: This field is only available for letters because the diary entries are considered as months. So the most specific searching possible for diaries is by month.

Description: This field details the type of document. Every item in the database has been categorized as Letter, Diary, or Editorial. Editorial matter includes prefatory matter from the original sources, appendices and other commentary.

How to use this field: This field can be used to restrict a search to include Editorial matter, restrict a search to exclude Editorial matter or restrict a search to letters and diaries only.

Practical Example:
Find me all occurrences of the word "Cambridge" in introductory matter.

• Click on the navigation bar to Search Texts.
• Click on the navigation bar to get to Simple Search.
• Key in Cambridge into the Search Word or Phrase box.
• Use the pull down menu to select Editorial Only.
• The system responds with a list of all occurrences in context.
• You'll see a list of your results, showing every time the word Cambridge occurs in the Editorial matter.

5.2.8 Editor or Translator

Description: This field describes the compiler, editor, translator or author of the source title. The name is entered surname, first name, followed by a comma, and the abbreviation of the function filled (i.e. ed., comp., tr., introd., notes) if not the author.

How to use this field: This field is only available in the Find Sources section of the database. It allows users to find works translated or edited by specific individuals.

Practical Example:
Find me all sources edited by Caroline Gilman.

• Click on the navigation bar to Find Sources.
• Key in gilman in the Editor or Translator box.
• Click on the SEARCH button.
• The system responds with a list of all occurrences in context.

5.2.9 Historical Events

Description: This field allows you to search the controlled vocabulary of Historical Events. It is a controlled field with a special vocabulary. To see a list of terms go to the Historical Events Table of Contents.

How to use this field: This field can be used to restrict a search to a specific historical event or events. If you want to browse a list of all entries in this field, go to the Table of Contents navigation bar.

Practical Example:
Find me all occurrences of the word "holy" in documents that have the Civil War as their subject.

• Click on the navigation bar to Search Texts.
• Click on the navigation bar to get to Advanced Search.
• Key in holy in the Search Texts box.
• Scroll down to the Historical Events box. Key in Civil War.
• Click on the SEARCH button.
• The system responds with a list of all occurrences in context.

Description: This field indicates whether a woman was married or single when she was writing.

How to use this field: Use this field when you want to restrict a search to materials written by married women or single women.

Practical Example:
Compare views on children from single women.

• Click on the navigation bar to Search Texts.
• Click on the navigation bar to get to Advanced Search.
• Key in Child* into the Search in Texts box.
• Scroll down to the Marital Status When Writing box. Enter Single.
• Click on the SEARCH button.
• The system responds with a list of all occurrences in context.

5.2.11 Maternal Status When Writing

Description: This field indicates whether a woman was a mother at time of writing.

How to use this field: Use this field when you want to restrict a search to materials written by mothers.

Practical Example:
Compare views on schooling from mothers.

• Click on the navigation bar to Search Texts.
• Click on the navigation bar to get to Advanced Search.
• Key in school* into the Search in Tests box.
• Scroll down to the Maternal Status When Writing box. Select Mother.
• Click on the SEARCH button.
• The system responds with a list of all occurrences in context.

Note: Possible maternal status types are: Mother; Childless; not indicated.

5.2.12 Month Written

Description: This field enables you to view all letters or diaries written within a particular month.

How to use this field: Use this field when you want to restrict your searches to all letters or diary entries sent in a particular month or group of months.

Practical Example:
Find me letters sent in the last quarter of years from prior to 1800.

• Click on the navigation bar to Search Texts.
• Click on the navigation bar to get to Advanced Search.
• Scroll down to the Year Written box. Key in 1500-1800.
• Scroll down to the Month Written box. Key in 9-12.
• Click on the SEARCH button.
• The system responds with a list of all occurrences of letters written between September and December for the years 1500 to 1800.
• Click on the Titles to go directly to the letters.

Note: To locate materials where we have been unable to determine the month written, enter 9999 in the Month Written field.

Description: This field enables you to find materials written by individuals of a particular nationality. This field is primarily "American" or "Canadian".

How to use this field: Use this field when you want to restrict your searches to all materials written by women of a particular nationality.

Practical Example:
Find me letters written by Canadians.

• Click on the navigation bar to Search Texts.
• Click on the navigation bar to get to Advanced Search.
• Scroll down to the Nationality box. Key in Canadian.
• Click on the SEARCH button.
• The system responds with a list of all occurrences.

Note: This field is primarily "American" or "Canadian". Occasionally authors may be citizens or subjects of another country and still qualify for inclusion in the database. For example, English women who are wives of Royal governors who qualify for inclusion by the length of their residence.

5.2.14 Notes

Description: Many records within the source database have annotations. This field enables you to perform keyword searches of these annotations. This field can only be accessed through the Find Sources section of the database.

How to use this field: Use this field to find sources based on keywords for concepts not indexed in the Subject heading field.

Practical Example:
Find me sources by or about privileged women.

• Click on the navigation bar to Find Sources.
• Scroll down to the Notes box. Enter privilege*.
• Click on the SEARCH button.
• The system responds with a list of all occurrences.

5.2.15 Number of Children

Description: This field is the number of children surviving childbirth or ever adopted.

How to use this field: Use this field when you want to restrict your searches to materials where the writer has a certain size family.

Practical Example:
Explore whether women in large families had a different perspective to women in small families to the death of a child

• Click on the navigation bar to Search Texts.
• Click on the navigation bar to get to Advanced Search.
• Scroll down to the Number of Children box. Enter 5-20.
• Scroll down to the Personal Events box. Enter death of child. If you didn't know that this was the correct term you could click the Terms button adjacent to the field for a list of possible terms.
• Click on the SEARCH button.
• The system responds with a list of all occurrences.
• Click on the Italicized heading to go straight to the text. Examine.
• Repeat the process for different numbers of children.

Note: Use 0 to find women who were never pregnant, who had only miscarriages or abortions, or who never adopted children.

Description: This field is the number of times a woman was married during her life.

How to use this field: Use this field to find women married more than once.

Practical Example:
Find me letters written by older women who were never married.

• Click on the navigation bar to Search Texts.
• Click on the navigation bar to get to Letter Only Search.
• Scroll down to the Number of marriages box. Key in 0.
• Scroll down to the Age at writing box. Key in 60-100.
• Click on the SEARCH button.
• The system responds with a list of all occurrences.

Note: Enter 0 in this field to find women who were never married or 9999 for occurrences where we have been unable to determine the status.

5.2.17 Occupation

Description: This field describes the author's occupation, if any. It is an Optional field.

How to use this field: Use this field to find documents written by a woman in a particular occupation - for example, all Teachers.

Note: All occupations throughout a woman's life are entered. This is not tied to when a woman is writing. An individual may have several occupations through their life.

Practical Example:
Find me diaries written by missionaries.

• Click on the navigation bar to Search Texts.
• Click on the navigation bar to get to Advanced Search.
• Scroll down to the Occupation box. Key in Missionary.
• Click on the SEARCH button.
• The system responds with a list of all occurrences.

To see what Occupation terms are available click the Terms button. Copy terms that you want and paste them into the box. Be careful to delete any semicolons and replace them with the appropriate Boolean operator.

5.2.18 Personal Events

Description: This is a controlled field that describes key events in a woman's life.

How to use this field: For a full list of all terms used in the database you can either go to the Table of Contents: Personal Events or you can click on the Terms button adjacent to the field. Use this field to restrict your search to documents pertaining to a key event, such as childbirth or the death of a spouse.

Practical Example:
Find all references to the word "joy" in documents that have "Death of child" as a personal event.

• Click on the navigation bar to Search Texts.
• Click on the navigation bar to get to Advanced Search.
• Key in Joy into the Search Texts box.
• Scroll down to the Personal Events box. Enter death of child. If you didn't know that this was a correct term you could click the Terms button adjacent to the field for a list of possible terms.
• Click on the SEARCH button.
• The system responds with a list of all occurrences.

5.2.19 Place of Birth

Description: This field describes the location of the author's birth, if known. It is used only in the Find Author section of the database. It is an Optional field.

How to use this field: Use this field to find women born in a particular place or region.

Note: Use "Not indicated" to find occurrences where we have been unable to determine the place of birth.

Practical Example:
Find me authors born in Virginia.

• Click on the navigation bar to Find Authors.
• Scroll down to the Place of Birth box. Key in Virginia
• Click on the SEARCH button.
• The system responds with a list of all occurrences.

To see what Place of Birth terms are available click the Terms button. Copy terms that you want and paste them into the box. Be careful to delete any semicolons and replace them with the appropriate Boolean operator.

Description: This field describes the location of the author's death, if known. It is used only in the Find Author section of the database. It is an Optional field.

How to use this field: Use this field to find women who died in a particular place or region.

Note: Use "Not indicated" to find occurrences where we have been unable to determine the place of death.

Practical Example:
Find me authors who died in Massachusetts.

• Click on the navigation bar to Find Authors.
• Scroll down to the Place of Death box. Key in Mass.
• Click on the SEARCH button.
• The system responds with a list of all occurrences.

To see what Place of Death terms are available click the Terms button. Copy terms that you want and paste them into the box. Be careful to delete any semicolons and replace them with the appropriate Boolean operator.

5.2.21 Previously Unpublished

Description: This field indicates whether or not the source work has been published or not before appearing in the database.

How to use this field: Use this field to find manuscript materials that have not been published before. It is only available in the Find Sources tool.

Practical Example:
Find me all sources that are from manuscript material.

• Click on the Navigation bar to Find Sources.
• Scroll down to the Previously Unpublished field and choose "Yes" from the pick list.
• Click on the Search button.
• The system responds with a list of materials in the database with no previous publication.

Description: This field indicates the name of the publisher of the source work. It is used only in the Find Sources section of the database.

How to use this field: Use this field to find all source works by particular publisher.

Practical Example:
Find me sources that were privately printed.

• Click on the navigation bar to Find Sources.
• Scroll down to the Publisher box. Key in privately.
• Click on the SEARCH button.
• The system responds with a list of all occurrences.

Note: Publisher names are standardized and may vary from the form of the name that appears on the source's title page.

Description: This field indicates whether the authors was White, Black, Asian, American Indian or Hispanic or not indicated.

How to use this field: Use this field to find all documents written by authors from a particular race or races.

Practical Example: Find me all letters written by Black women to men.

• Click on the navigation bar to go to the Letters Only search screen.
• Key the word "Black" into the Race field.
• Choose "Male" off the Recipient's Gender picklist.
• Click the Search button.
• The system responds with a list of documents that fit the criteria.

Note: If you enter "Not Indicated" the database will respond with all documents where the race of the author is unknown.

5.2.24 Recipient

Description: This is the name of the person to whom a letter is addressed.

How to use this field: This field is only available in the Search Letters section of the database.

Practical Example: Find letters written to Cadwallader Colden.

• Click on the Search Letters button on the navigation bar.
• Key the name "Colden, Cadwallader" into the Recipient field.
• Click on the Search button.
• The system responds with a list of all letters that fit the criteria.

Note: Names are entered surname, first name, initial.

5.2.25 Recipient's Gender

Description: This is the gender of the person to whom a letter is addressed.

How to use this field: This field is only available in the Search Letters section of the database. It is useful for analyzing differences in vocabulary in letters addressed to men as opposed to fellow women.

Practical Example:
Find all letters to men from married women.

• Click on the navigation bar to Search Texts.
• Click on the navigation bar to get to Letters Only Search.
• Scroll down to the Marital status box. Enter Married.
• Scroll down to Recipient's Gender box. Select M.
• Click on the SEARCH button.
• The system responds with a list of all occurrences.

Note: The gender of the recipient may be known even if the recipient name is not known.

Description: This is the mandatory, unique identifier for each document in the database. It consists of the source work identifier and the individual document number, in the form: S1-D001.

How to use this field: This field allows you to go quickly to a specific entry in the entire database. Type in the document number exactly as it appears; the field is case sensitive.

5.2.27 Relationship to Author

Description: This describes the relationship between the recipient and the author of a letter. It primarily describes family and romantic relationships; all other relationships are listed as Other.

How to use this field: This field is only available in the Search Letters section of the database. It is useful for analyzing differences in vocabulary in letters addressed to variant groups of relationships, e.g., siblings or parents.

Practical Example:
Find all letters to brothers from married women.

• Click on the navigation bar to Search Texts.
• Click on the navigation bar to get to Letters Only search.
• Scroll down to the Marital Status box. Enter Married.
• Scroll down to Recipent's Gender box. Select M.
• Scroll down to Relationship to Author box. Enter Sibling.
• Click on the SEARCH button.
• The system responds with a list of all occurrences.

Note: The relationship of the recipient may be known even if the recipient name is not.

5.2.28 Religion

Description: This describes the religious background or beliefs of the author.

How to use this field: This field can be used to analyze the vocabulary, behavior and experiences of women with particular religious beliefs.

Practical example:
Find materials that discuss Sunday written by Quakers.

• Click on the navigation bar to Search Texts.
• Click on the navigation bar to get to Advanced Search.
• Key in Sunday into the Search Texts box.
• Scroll down to the Religion box. Enter Quaker. If you didn't know that this was a correct term you could click the Terms button adjacent to the field for a list of possible terms.
• Click on the SEARCH button.
• The system responds with a list of all occurrences.

Note: Terms in this field are standardized in an authority file. "Not Indicated" is used when we have been unable to ascertain the religion. "Christian" is used where a specific denomination is not known.

5.2.29 Source Type

Description: This field details the type of source.

How to use this field: This field can be used from Find Sources only to restrict a search to a type of source.

Practical Example:

• Click on the navigation bar to get to Find Sources.
• Key in Historical Society in the Publisher box.
• Use the pull down menu under Source Type to select Diary.
• Click on the SEARCH button.
• The system responds with a list of all occurrences.

5.2.30 Subject Headings

Description: This is a composite field consisting of all terms in the Name Subject field, Organization Subject field, Title as Subject field, Topical Subject field, Broad Subject field, Historical Event subject field, and Geographic Subject field.

How to use this field: This field can be used to find a wide range of materials, including specific places, people, works of literature, and historical events.

Practical example: Find materials that discuss Shakespeare and his works.

• Click on the navigation bar to Search Texts.
• Click on the navigation bar to get to Simple Search.
• Key in Shakespeare into the Subject Headings box.
• Click on the SEARCH button.
• The system responds with a list of all occurrences.

Practical example: Find all materials pertaining to Boston. Click on the navigation bar to Search Texts. Click on the navigation bar to get to Simple Search. Key in Boston into the Subject Headings box. Click on the SEARCH button. The system responds with a list of all occurrences.

Practical example: Find all materials pertaining to the Bible.

• Click on the navigation bar to Search Texts.
• Click on the navigation bar to get to Simple Search.
• Key in Bible into the Subject Headings box.
• Click on the SEARCH button.
• The system responds with a list of all occurrences.

Practical example: Find all materials about the Battle of Stono Ferry.

• Click on the navigation bar to Search Texts.
• Click on the navigation bar to get to Simple Search.
• Key in Stono in the Subject Headings box.
• Click on the SEARCH button.
• The system responds with a list of all occurrences.

To see what Subject terms are available click the Terms button. Copy terms that you want and paste them into the box. Be careful to delete any semicolons and replace them with the appropriate Boolean operator.

5.2.31 Subject Headings (Source)

Description: This field includes subject headings for sources.

How to use this field: Use this field from the Find Sources form to search for sources by subject headings.

Practical example: Find sources that deal with Domestic matters.

• Click on the navigation bar to get to Find Sources.
• Key in Domestic matters in the Subject Headings box.
• Click on the SEARCH button.
• The system responds with a list of all occurrences.

5.2.32 Title (Source)

Description: Use this field to find sources by title. It is used only in the Find Sources section of the database. It is a mandatory field.

How to use this field: Use this field to find sources with specific words in the title.

Practical Example:
Find me all sources with memoir in the title.

• Click on the navigation bar to Find Sources.
• Scroll down to the Title box. Key in memoir*.
• Click on the SEARCH button.
• The system responds with a list of all occurrences.

5.2.33 Where Sent (Geographical)

See Where Written (Geographical)

See Where Written (Region)

5.2.35 Where Written (Geographical)

Description: This field is used to identify the location where letters or diaries were written. The names are standardized in an authority file. Generally specific localities will be used (e.g., Boston, MA, but there may also be state or regional locations used. State abbreviations for cities and towns conform to the modern postal abbreviations.

How to use this field: Use this field when you want to restrict your searches to materials written from a particular place.

Practical Examples
Find all letters or diaries written in a particular place.

• Click on the navigation bar to Search Texts.
• Click on the navigation bar to get to Advanced Search.
• Scroll down to the Where Written (Geographical) box.
• Key the word or phrase you're looking for (e.g. Massachusetts or Mass.)
• Click on the SEARCH button.

Find me letters sent from the East Coast in 1849.

• Click on the navigation bar to Search Texts.
• Click on the navigation bar to get to Advanced Search.
• Scroll down to the Year Written box. Key in 1849.
• Scroll down to the Document Type box. Select Letter.
• Scroll down to the Where Written (Geographical) box. Enter East Coast. Click on the SEARCH button.
• The system responds with a list of all occurrences in context.
  
• Click on the Titles to go directly to the letters.

To see what Geographical terms are available click the Terms buttons. Copy terms that you want and paste them into the box. Be careful to delete any semicolons and replace them with the appropriate Boolean operator.

Note: In the case of a diary where the location changes over a month, the where written at the beginning of the month is described.

5.2.36 Where Written (Region)

Description: This field is used to identify the region where letters or diaries were written. The names are standardized in an authority file, with cross references from other forms of name. All Geographic terms in the database are standardized.

Note: Regional terms are restricted to the United States and Canada and have been selected based on contemporary (2001) breakdowns (e.g., West (U.S.) refers to California, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington). Most locations are assigned to two or three regions, based on the state (i.e., all cities in the same state will be assigned to the same regions). Regions assigned to a state are not hierarchical.

In the case of a diary where the location changes over a month, the where written regional at the beginning of the month is described. The terms are standardized in an authority list.

How to use this field: Use this field when you want to restrict your searches to materials, written from a particular place.

Practical Examples
Find me letters sent from the East Coast in 1849.

• Click on the navigation bar to Search Texts.
• Click on the navigation bar to get to Advanced Search.
• Scroll down to the Year Written box. Key in 1849
• Scroll down to the Document Type box. Select Letter.
• Scroll down to the Where Written (Region) box. Enter East Coast. Click on the SEARCH button.
• The system responds with a list of all occurrences in context.
• Click on the Titles to go directly to the letters.

To see what Geographical terms are available click the Terms button. Copy terms that you want and paste them into the box. Be careful to delete any semicolons and replace them with the appropriate Boolean operator.

Description: This field describes the place the author is writing from (i.e., city, town, farm, shipboard, etc.).

How to use this field: Use this field when you want to restrict your searches to all letters or diary entries written in a particular kind of place - e.g. shipboard.

Practical Example:
Do you have any letters written while on board ships in the data