Some words about wildcard searching:

You can place a wildcard character -- the asterisk * -- anywhere within your search term to broaden your search. Where you place the wildcards can have a profound effect on your search results. For example, if you wanted to search the database for all instances of the name "Angus MacIntyre" and wanted to make sure that his brother "Andrew MacIntyre" was also included in the results, you would enter your search term as "An* MacIntyre" and choose one of the two search methods. Both Angus MacIntyre and Andrew MacIntyre would appear in the results, as well as Anna MacIntyre and all others whose name begins with An.

If you wish, you can place more than one asterisk in the search term. If you wish to broaden the earlier example to return the surname "McIntyre" in the search results, you would replace the "a" in "Mac" with an asterisk, "An* M*cIntyre". Feel free to experiment with this powerful search tool.

Some words about the access points:

Archival descriptions are often identified and searched by assigned access points which reflect the contents of a particular fonds. Archives P.E.I. utilizes three types of access points: Provenance, Other Author and Subject.

Provenance access points are the names of the individual(s), families, or corporate bodies responsible for creating a particular fonds or collection.

Other Author access points are the names of individual(s), families, or corporate bodies, other than the name of the creator of the fonds or collection, responsible for creating documents within a particular fonds or collection.

Subject access points are headings assigned to a particular fonds or collection which indicate the main topics covered by the material in the fonds or collection.