Search within the Full Text: Search within the full text of each document.
Search by Person: Search for authors, senders/addressees, or person(s) mentioned in a document. For example, searching for "George Rogers Clark" (quotation marks included) will retrieve all documents in which the name "George Rogers Clark" is mentioned. If a person's name is mentioned with the last name first (i.e., Adams, John) then the proper search term is "Adams, John".
Search by Place: Search for the place where an event took place by entering the name of the location and selecting "Place" from the pull-down.
Search within Image (captions): By searching within the image captions your search results will be limited to documents in which your search term appears within the text of a caption.
Limit your search results to specific document types by selecting as many document types as desired below. By not selecting any document types, your search results will include all document types that match your search term.
For users that are familiar with the print edition of the Documentary History of the First Federal Congress (DHFFC), the following chart mapping the document types of the Early Republic to the printed volumes of the Documentary History of the First Federal Congress may be useful:
| Early Republic Document Type | DHFFC Volume |
|---|---|
| Senate Legislative Journal | Volume 1 |
| Senate Executive Journal and Related Documents | Volume 2 |
| House of Representatives Journal | Volume 3 |
| Legislative Histories | Volumes 4-6 |
| Petition Histories | Volume 7 |
| Petition Histories and Non-legislative Official Documents | Volume 8 |
| The Diary of William Maclay and Other Notes on Senate | Volume 9 |
| Debates in the House of Representatives | Volumes 10-14 |
| Correspondence First Session | Volumes 15-17 |
| Correspondence Second Session | Volumes 18-20 |
Search within a Date Range:To search within a range of dates, select a start date and an end date using the Date Range pull-downs.
Search a Specific Date:To search for documents from a specific date, select the same start date and end date using the Date Range pull-downs.