CAN-NS-ANNAPOLIS-L Archives

From: "John H.Merz" <>
Subject: [ANNAPOLIS] Re: Variations in spelling of Names.
Date: Mon, 19 Aug 2002 22:34:29 -0400

Hello family researchers -

last nights query about Klein, Kline, Cline, Clyne, Klyne,
did force me to think about the many variations an original
name is being subjected to, and what it does to family research.

I promptly went on the Rootsweb site http://www.rootsweb.com
and checked a few Gedcoms just to see how some family researchers
are handling their names. It's easy, they all have the A to Z click-on
line, where all the names come up alphabetically.

I tried one page where the name B:AR (A as Umlaut) was dominant.
This researcher recorded all the variations as it should be, from
B:ar, Baer, Bar, Bear, Bair, Beer, to Behr.

while another researcher just used the most common variation now
in use and put all under one hat. Not even the original German name
was being mentioned. When asked the researcher answered that this
was done for simplicity.

Just let me say, there is no such thing as simplicity in family research.
In today's electronic age with Internet search engines like Rootsweb,
Google, or even our mail list archives, etc., you will not find what you
need to find if you do not enter the 'precise' keyword - 'Latsha' will not
find you Latscha, neither will it find Latcha, just as an example.

In order to explore every avenue, you have to try every name, every
variation, even if it is time consuming, but you wll have a much better
chance to find the right connections.

So, my advice, no shortcuts,
John Merz

This thread:

• [ANNAPOLIS] Re: Variations in spelling of Names. by "John H.Merz" <>