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Tips for Locating Genealogical Resources in the Library of Congress Online Catalog

Browsing by Exact Subject Phrase

To retrieve publications about...	Enter the words below as a subject search:
Family history and genealogy (example: Walsh family)	Walsh family
Counties (example: Berks County, Pennsylvania)	Berks co (Note: entries may be displayed under both "co." and "county" in an alphabetical list by state. Highlight the appropriate state and useful subdivisions.)
Cities or towns (example: Livonia, Michigan)	Livonia (Mich.)
Coats of arms (example: Germany)	Heraldry Germany
Passenger lists	Ships passenger lists
Pension records for the United States	Military pensions United States
Pension records for states (example: Georgia)	Military pensions Georgia
Records from a state or locality (Examples: Birth, death, marriage records; church records for states; land records; wills)	Registers of births, etc. Virginia Church records and registers Virginia Land grants Virginia Wills Virginia Fairfax County

Command Keyword Searches

Note: Search syntax for keyword searching in the Library of Congress online catalog is similar to that of some Internet search engines--use double quotes for phrase searches and type Boolean operators in UPPERCASE.

To retrieve publications about...	Enter the words below:
Wills from Virginia	Wills AND Virginia
Pension records for Georgia	"military pensions" AND Georgia

Command Keyword Searches For Known Items

To retrieve this book...	Enter the words below:
American Presidential Families by Hugh Brogan	Brogan AND presidential
The A to Z of Genealogy by Janet Reakes	"A to Z" AND Reakes

Command Keyword Searches For Long Subject Headings

To retrieve this book...	Enter the words below:
United States-history-civil war, 1861-1865-women	"civil war" AND women AND 1861

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September 21, 2010

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