There are two main problems in searching for anything:
| 1. finding too many matches |
| 2. finding no matches |
Too many matches
Example: search
Drum as
START of name (any Year): more than 2,000 matches
Step 1: search Drum as EXACT name (any Year): fewer than 20 matches
Step 2: search Drum as EXACT name (any Year) by Province:
| North: | Ulster | fewer than 10 matches |
| East: | Leinster | 0 matches |
| South and South-west: | Munster | fewer than 10 matches |
| West: | Connaught | fewer than 10 matches |
No matches (usually a problem with spelling)
Example: search
Drumryland as
EXACT name (any Year): 0 matches
Step A: search Drumryland as START of name (any Year): 0 matches
repeat the search, deleting characters off the end of the name:
search Drumry as START of name: 1 match, but no "L" in it
search Drumr as START of name: more than 100 matches
Step B: reduce the number of matches in any or all of the following ways:
inspect the results: only Drumraighland is like Drumryland
search Drumr as START of name (any Year) by Province
search Drumr as START of name AND land as END of name