Morgan Index of Ohio People, Businesses and Institutions, 1796-1850 | OhioLINK Home | OhioLINK Databases


Advanced Search Help

All searches on this screen are keyword searches

  • Set search limits before making a search
  • Fill in the Search for: window with the information you seek
  • From the "In this field" drop-down box, choose the index field you wish to search
  • Select AND, OR, or NOT (Boolean operators) to add to the search
  • Select the Search buttons to get results
  • Use an asterisk (*) after a search term to indicate truncation
  • Use quotations marks ("") to search for specific phrases

Search Type
Quick Tip
Any Field - Searches the entire text of records for words or phrases 
Address - Searches address field for street name or where boarding
(Context Code: Board. See below.
Birth Date - Searches for birth date and/or place of birth in birth date field
City -Searches city field
Death Date -Search for death date and/or place of death in death date field
Employer -Searches for where works or for whom in the employer field
Name -Searches name in the Last Name, First Name or Middle Name fields
-Enter last name first for person: Mackenzie, Colin S.
-Enter business searches in direct order: Colin S. Mackenzie.
Notes -Searches the text of notes
Occupation -Searches occupation field (See Browse Occupations on Basic Search Page for list of all occupations listed.)
Race -Searches for race
State -Searches the state field for states and foreign countries


Search Limits (Optional)
Type -Limits are Male, Female, Business or Institution. Default is Not Specified.
Year -Limit to a range of years. If a single year, enter the same year in both boxes.
Sort -Sort by Name, Date, City or Occupation. Default is Name.
Results Per Page -Set results at 10, 30, 60 or 100 per page.


Context Coded Keywords

The Morgan Index of Ohio Persons, Businesses and Institutions, 1796-1850 has designed a cataloguing system it calls "context coded keywords." The cataloguing system adds back keywords that are absent or mentioned elsewhere in a document to make all entries appear in context to search queries.
Many historical documents contain keywords which are invisible to searching. Keywords that appear on the title page of a college catalogue are not added to each student's entry. Take, for example, The Catalogue of the Officers and Students of the Western Reserve College for 1838 (Morgan 141) which contains the keywords "student" and "college" on the title page but not as part of each student's entry. We know that Silas Sawyer comes from Mentor, Ohio (page 8) but not that he is a college student nor that he is a member of the Senior Class. To make Silas Sawyer visible or in context to a search query, we need to add in the Occupation field the context keywords: Student, College, Senior. With these context keywords, he becomes visible to a search query as both an individual, college student, as a member of a group, the Senior Class, and associated with an institution, Western Reserve College.
The schema we have developed for each student entry is:
Student [school] [class]
For Silas Sawyer's four years as a college student, he is catalogued in context in the Occupation field as:
Student, College, Freshman
Student, College, Sophomore
Student, College, Junior
Student, College, Senior
With the addition of the "context coded keywords," we can search for "Western Reserve College" in the year 1838, and occupation as student, college, senior, and retrieve the names of all 8 members of Silas Sawyer's Senior Class.
For a list of the context coded keywords in the Occupation field, consult the Browse Occupation Index.
Below is a list of some of the "context coded keywords" which are added back to each entry in their respective fields.


Context Coded Keyword(s) Hints

Note: All search terms are singular.

Search for
Context coded Keyword(s)
In this field
student - student [school] [class]

Example: student, college, freshman
               student, medical
               student, seminary, female

NOTE: Use comma(s) in Occupation Field. 		Occupation
physician - physician (physician, M.D., Dr.; group keyword) Occupation
boarder - board (boarding houses are listed under occupation) Address
advertisement - advertisement (search for advertisements) Occupation
preceptor - preceptor-medical preceptors for medical students
 Occupation
african american - african american
 Race
gender - see "type" under Search Limits
employer - enter name of company or keyword
Employer
attorney - attorney (attorney, attorney at law, lawyer, esq.; group keyword) Occupation
minister - minister (minister, rev., D.D.: group keyword) Occupation
teacher - teacher (teacher, prof., instructor, tutor: group keyword) Occupation