The fuzzy match looks for names and words which are similar. For example, Thompson and Thomson or Ballimore and Ballymore. The exact match returns results which exactly match your search terms.
You can further refine your search by adding a ? for a single unknown letter, or a * for a series of unknown letters. For example, “Sm?th” will return results for Smith and Smyth. Likewise, searching for place name “*gagh” will return everything ending in those four letters, including Ballybregagh, Cargagh, Unshogagh and everything in between.
If you want a mixture of exact and fuzzy matching across different search fields, then choose the exact match option and add a ~ symbol to the end of each search term which you want to use fuzzy matching.
The “Neighbouring Counties” checkbox allows you to search for records in counties which border the one(s) you have selected in the drop-down list.
