Standard search

The standard search form appears throughout the Crockford web site, to the left of the screen.

To use it, simply follow the three-step process.

1. Into the Find... box, type in the name of the place or benefice for which you are searching (e.g. CARSHALTON), or the surname and initial of a clergyperson (e.g. WILLIAMS R). You can use upper or lower case letters.
2. Choose what type of records to search In... from the drop-down menu. You can search just clergy records if you are looking for a person and know their name, just benefice records if you are looking for a place or benefice and know part or all of its name, or All records if you know a combination of details or want to conduct a wider search.
3. Finally, choose Search to begin the search and see the results.

Sorting through search results

If a number of results are returned for your search, you can sort them by any column to help you find the details you need more quickly.

Alternatively, if you find you are getting far too many results, you could try the Advanced search, which will allow you to perform more detailed searches, for example, to restrict your search to a particular diocese. The Advanced search is only available to subscribers.

Can't find what you're looking for?

If your search returns no results, you may find that you are asked if you would like to Widen your search. If you follow this link, the search engine will look for other matches for the surname you listed but ignores the initial and returns anyone with that surname, which may help you to find what you are looking for.

Alternatively:

• Do not use Christian names as they are unlikely to find good matches. The person you are looking for may be listed in the database as CHRISTOPHER when you search for CHRIS, or you may come across people whose Christian name is also a surname like LLOYD. Use a combination of the person's initial and their surname for the best result.
  
  
• In general terms, using the location of a benefice is better than the name of the church. There may only be one place called CARSHALTON but hundreds of churches called ST MATTHEWS.
  
  
• Try typing in a shorter form of a placename to get more results, for example CARSHALTON rather than CARSHALTON BEECHES.
  
  
• You can use a wildcard by adding a * at any point in the search terms. If you searched for BROWN*, you will find anyone called Brown, Browne, Browning and so on. However, first letter wildcards are disabled to prevent large result sets, so B* will not work.
  
  
• Try searching in ALL RECORDS rather than just in clergy or benefice, as this search works in a different way and may return more results.

What else does the search look for?

There are a number of additional factors working behind the scenes that you can take advantage of.

• If you type in "Bishop of XXX", then the search will bounce you directly to the right person. So if you are looking for Rowan Williams, a search for "Archbishop of Canterbury" works equally well.
• Maiden names are cross referenced so if you do not know a person's married name, you can search under their maiden name to find a match.
• Preferred names are indexed so if the person's preferred Christian name is not their first initial, you can search under one or the other (or both).