To employ the search, enter a keyword or keywords into the field and click the "Search" button. The tool will search the pages of ExplorePAhistory, including informational stories, historical markers, lesson plans, Pennsylvania region pages and tourist attractions.

The search will return only the pages that contain every keyword. Also, the search will return only exact matches, so be sure to use complete words and words that are spelled correctly.

When you use more than one keyword, word order is ignored. For instance, a search for "civil war" will retrieve all results that contain both "civil" and "war." It will not be limited to items containing "civil war" although those items will appear, too.

If the search retrieves more results than desired, try entering two or three broad keywords that give more definition to your search. Instead of doing a search for "war," try "war independence" to be more specific. Or, instead of "abolitionist" try "abolitionist underground railroad" to narrow your search.

If the search tool retrieves fewer results than you expected, try using fewer keywords. For instance, if "pickett's charge" returns too few results, try "pickett" alone. Or, try a broader term such as "gettysburg battle" for example.

Common words, such as prepositions and articles, are not searchable (i.e. "to", "for", "of", "a", and "the"). Also, single digits, capitalization and most punctuation marks, including quotation marks, are ignored. However, an apostrophe such as "pickett's charge" is searchable.

The search results are displayed in order of relevance. Pages that appear first in the search results contain your keyword either the most often on the page or within the title of the page.