Some search engines allow you to choose "Soundex" equivalents in your search. In my case, a Soundex equivalent for Ellen would be Allen. It can dramatically increase the number of hits on your surname.
Message #107 from KLP at Apr 16, 2004 9:04 PM
One of my lines is German as well, and a very rare name at that. The way others spelled the name might make one think that his one person had at least 50 alias'es.... Don't forget, when we think of their name, we also have to think of the background of the person trying to pronounce it...makes some interesting combinations! And don't forget about vowels...i.e. Brace could be found as Brice, Brece, Bruce,or Broce, and actually derived from Bracy or Bracey.
Also, sometimes I've found things with double letters in the name, could be misspelled any number of ways...."nn", could be found as "mm" or "mr", etc...
And then, we have to look at the old handwriting....MANY curliques, high German spelling, etc. "s's" were sometimes printed to look like "f" or "p's"
Genealogy is certainly a hobby where you will learn all sorts of things you didn't start out intending to...<g> |
