NB. In the examples which follow, the data to be entered in the Query or Search Field of the Form are in "quotes". Don't enter the outer set of quotes. Similarly, the options to be selected are also in "quotes".
- What Constitutes a Successful Match?
- Word or Key must be an Exact match.
- This is what we've been dealing with to this point.
- But this is usually tempered by ignoring the Case, IE. "A" versus "a"
- A Match or Hit can occur on a Partial of the Key
- The Key is satisfied
by the First Part or Partial of the Word. Eg. "East" as the Search Key will match on "East" as well as "Eastwood",
"Eastman", "Eastern" and "Eastburn". This can be of use when
you don't know how to spell a name in full such as
"Jenson" or "Jensen". Use a Partial Search with the Key "Jens" to find
either.
- Search Form at Find A Grave
- Exercise for the student
- Enter Your Surname, and restrict the search
geographically to an area where you expect some hits. Note all hits are exact
- Now enter the first three characters of
your surname, restrict to the same geographical area. Then check the "Do partial name search on surname" box. And "Search".
- Most likely outcome, many other surnames including yours.
- Key Includes a Wild Card, often but not always represented by the "splat", "*".
Where "*" stands for any string of characters of
length 0 or longer. Eg. The Key "East*n" will
match "Eastern", "Eastman" and "Eastburn" but obviously will not
match on "Fasten" or on either
"East" or "Eastwood", since neither have the letter
"n" at the end of the word.
- Go to New York City Death Records Search
- This exercise illustrates the usefulness of a Wild Card.
- Enter "V*L*w*n" for "Last Name" and check "Wild Card" and
Search. (Don't worry about the other fields.)
- There are 14 returns on the first page which are variant
spellings of our target "Van Leeuwen".
- Note also that the search ignored the Case of the "L"/"l".
- This is a marvelous capability, especially for names which
so easily get misspelled and modified.
- Key Includes a Single Character type of Wild Card
- At the same NY City Death Record Site, above notice the "_" Option
- The Soundex Code Used in Census Record Indexing
- Go to
Soundex Converter by RootsWeb Entering "Campbell" Will Return the
"Soundex" Code C514 as Well as 8 Surnames Which Satisfy This Code.
- World Connect at RootsWeb
Can use "Soundex" keys, but without requiring you to enter them.
But be careful, just reversing the subject and
the spouse field contents may yield a different
result.