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Subject: New Utility to search census with less than 3 letter wild cards
Date: 9 Jun 2005 22:02:38 -0600

This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.

Classification: Query

Message Board URL:

http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/TUB.2ACI/4562

Message Board Post:

Group,
I've posted this on Ancestry's Census Comment board, but because I haunt the NYC boards, I'll post this message on this one as well.

In order to use wild cards on Ancestry census searches one has to enter at least 3 letters for a name, and those 3 letters must be the starting letters for either the first or last name.

It would be better if one could search on a single or double letter. So if one was looking for Patrick Weckinsklov (made up name), it would be better to search for Pat* We* or even Pat* W* especially if one has a geographical area in mind to limit the number of hits.

Is that possible? It now is at: http://www.stevemorse.org/census/ancestry.html

Steve Morse has just revised one of his existing utilities to do one or two letter searches on the beginning of a name. Although those of you who have used this utility may not detect any difference in the appearance of the starting page, if you experiment with the entry of information you will see, IF YOU FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS, hits from such searches. The wild card option is hidden within the choice of "Starts with" entry boxes, and you can enter any number of letters you want, from 0, 1, 2, 3, or more that start a name within those boxes.

Enjoy....

Joel Weintraub

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