DEAR SUN SPOTS: On July 26 you mentioned to a person that she could send you the name of a deceased person and you would try to help her find the obituary.

Could you please help me with this deceased person? Armand L. Jutras, 86, of 2 Penny Lane, Lisbon, who died either in 2009 or before April 30, 2010. I found out that he had died only by the probate court notices that appeared in the Sun Journal on that date.

I think it takes quite a few months before it appears in the probate notices. I either missed his obit or was gone on an extended trip when he died. If you could please send me the write-up, I would appreciate it much.

My problem is when I can’t find an article of a day or two old, it always refers me to the archives. I do go on the archives but still cannot find anything.

I wonder if you could explain to all of us who are not too savvy on the Internet on how to find things in archives in a Sun Spots column? I think it would be a service to many people.

We read Sun Spots every day and enjoy the advice you give people. The columns on reverse mortgages and Maine’s tough warranty laws were excellent. These types of questions and answers are very valuable to many people. Thank you for your services. — No Name via email

ANSWER: Sun Spots searched every way she could think of but was unable to find Armand’s obituary. There are three possible reasons for this:

The first is that no obituary was placed in the Sun Journal. Whether or not to publish one is up to the family, and some families choose not to. 

Another possibility is that the obituary was placed at a time when the Sun Journal was undergoing changes to its website and content management system. There are a few gaps that were never recovered, although efforts continue to be made to rectify the situation.

Or finally, Sun Spots messed up and overlooked it.

She did find Armand’s date of death on another website: Jan. 23, 2010, and searched the days after that for an obit but did not find one. However, the system showed no obits for Jan. 25, 2010, which is a bit unusual, so there may have been a technical glitch. You might want to check that date on the microfiche at the Lewiston Public Library.

As for the archives, any time your search fails to find a result, the archive will be presented as an option for continued searching. There are actually several archives. There is one each for the Lewiston Evening Journal and the Lewiston Daily Sun pre-1988 (they merged in 1988), another for the Sun Journal in the early days of the Internet from 1988 to 2002, and finally for everything from 2003 on.

The archives for the Daily Sun and Evening Journal and for the Sun Journal from 1988 to 2002 are provided courtesy of Google, which scanned all available editions and put them online. Keep in mind that there are gaps, as not all old papers were preserved on microfiche.

There are also gaps in the current Sun Journal website, due to technical difficulties as described above. But if you put your search term in the box at the top of the sunjournal.com home page, it will search the current archive, from 2003 on.

If the story you seek is older than that, you will be bumped over to the Google archive, which is not as easily searchable. Sun Spots has had little luck searching for terms in it. Looking by date is much more viable.

Searching can be rather difficult. In fact, some experts say that googling is better exercise for your brain than crossword puzzles. Even a small change in wording can bring up vastly different results.

For example, in the search above, using quotes around “Armand L. Jutras” will give you no results. A search for “Armand Jutras,” also in quotes, brings up three results. Take off the quotes and you get nine stories, but six of them are irrelevant references to others named Armand or Jutras, but not Armand Jutras.

Sometimes you can turn up something by putting in the most general term — in this case, Jutras — and then searching manually through the pages of results. But it is very time consuming.

You can also search by date. For example, at sunjournal.com/archive, you have the option to put in a date and select a section. Say you select, for example, Jan. 24, 2010, and obituaries. With those results, a calendar will pop up with your results (on the right side of the page), and you can select other days for obituaries you wish to check.

Searching efficiently takes time and practice. Don’t be afraid to experiment. The worst that will happen is you won’t get the results you seek. But your search may take you interesting places.

This column is for you, our readers. It is for your questions and comments. There are only two rules: You must write to the column and sign your name (we won’t use it if you ask us not to). Please include your phone number. Letters will not be returned or answered by mail, and telephone calls will not be accepted. Your letters will appear as quickly as space allows. Address them to Sun Spots, P.O. Box 4400, Lewiston, ME 04243-4400. Inquiries can also be emailed to [email protected].