Our Combs-Coombs &c. List Archives, consisting of over 50,000+ back postings to our Combs &c. Mailing List, are undoubtedly the most "out-a-site" single surname collection on the web, except not just Combs, Coombs, Combes (and all other variant spellings), but including records for thousands of Combs-associated families as well (friends, neighbors, fellow-churchgoers, in-laws, etc.). Our List Archives serve as a reference library for our Combs-Coombs &c. Research Project, a collection of over 2,500+ on-line Research Reports (also searchable).

Important! Copyright Restrictions for our List Archives are much more stringent than our Research Report Copyright Restrictions.   NO materials in our List Archives may be reprinted or re-posted in any format without the Specific Permission of the Individual Poster and/or Special Permission from the Combs-Coombs &c. Research Group - without exception (Distribute our address, not our material).


New: Due to the ever-growing size of our Combs &c. List Archives, you now have your choice of searching all (slower) or by year (faster if you already know the year you want):

Use the drop down menu to specify the year you would like to search or All Years to search the entire Archive.


Search Tips


Search Rules

This search engine helps you find documents on this website and related sites. Here's how it works: you tell the search service what you're looking for by typing in keywords, phrases, or questions in the search box. The search service responds by giving you a list of all the Web pages in our index relating to those topics. The most relevant content will appear at the top of your results.

How To Use:

  1. Type your keywords in the search box.
  2. Press the Search button to start your search.

Here's an example:

  1. Type archdale lovett in the search box.
  2. Press the Search button or press the Enter key.

Tip: Don't worry if you find a large number of results. In fact, use more than a couple of words when searching. Even though the number of results will be large, the most relevant content will always appear at the top of the result pages.

More Basics - An Overview

What is an Index?

Webster's dictionary describes an "index" as a sequential arrangement of material. Our index is a large, growing, organized collection of Web pages and discussion group pages from around the world. The 'index' becomes larger every day as people send us the addresses for new Web pages. We also have technology that crawls the Web looking for links to new pages. When you use our search service, you search the entire collection using keywords or phrases.

What is a Word?

When searching, think of a word as a combination of letters and numbers. The search service needs to know how to separate words and numbers to find exactly what you want on the Internet. You can separate words using white space and tabs.

What is a Phrase?

You can link words and numbers together into phrases if you want specific words or numbers to appear together in your result pages. If you want to find an exact phrase, use "double quotation marks" around the phrase when you enter words in the search box.

Example #1: If you type the phrase "archdale lovett" (including the quotation marks), the result will be a list of digests that include only the exact two-word phrase, archdale lovett. You can also create phrases using punctuation or special characters such as dashes, underscore lines, commas, slashes, or dots.

Example #2: If you type the date 17-May-1998, the result will be a list of only digests that include the exact phrase 17 May 1988 (handy for when you unsubscribe for the weekend, etc., but remember, the list will not include digests if the date is written May 17, 1998).

Simple Tips for More Exact Searches

Searches are case insensitive. For example, a search for Combe will match lowercase combe and uppercase COMBE.

By default, all searches are accent insensitive as well, but administrators can change this setting. Accent sensitivity relates to Latin characters like õ.

Matching All Or Any Of The Search Terms

To match all the search terms within a query select ALL from the dropdown list in the search form (returns fewer results). To match any term with a search query select ANY from the dropdown list in the search form (returns more results).

Including or excluding words:

To make sure that a specific word is always included in your search topic, place the plus (+) symbol before the key word in the search box. To make sure that a specific word is always excluded from your search topic, place a minus (-) sign before the keyword in the search box.

Example: To get results that include archdale and butler and not include lovett, try "+archdale +butler -lovett".

Expand your search using wildcards (*):

By typing an * within a keyword, you can match up to four letters.

Example: Try comb*, the result will be a list of digests that include any of the words, comb, combe, combs, combes, combed, combine, etc.

If you type *comb*, the result will be a list of digests that include all the above examples plus descombe, liscomb, liscombe, etc.

Note: The asterisk (*) is a powerful search tool, but has some limitations: (1) it cannot span words; i.e., archdale*lovett would not result in a list of digests that include the exact phrase, archdale lovett; (2) it can represent a maximum of four letters or numbers (cord* won't match cordwainer); and (3) to avoid overly broad searches, the asterisk can only be used in words or phrases which have at least three alpha-numeric characters; i.e., a search for th* would be ignored.


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