Genealogy Chat

Hi everyone! I know I've seen it before on here, but I can't remember how to use the wild card option for spelling a surname. Is it usable on family search? I have just found a missing Stradwick registered as Spudwick! I'm running out of ideas and possibilities for mistranscriptions, so thought this wild card would work. You guys always know all the tricks, so any you could pass on would be much appreciated! Thanks

Family search automatically uses the soundex system.........unless you check the box for exact spelling. On Ancestry, you must put in three characters before using an asterisk for 'wild card'. Ancestry also offers a soundex option, but I have found it virtually useless....... Reg

Thanks Reg, so there's no way I can miss out letters on family search? eg S****wick?

No, I don't think familysearch will let you do that.

Is there any chance that you can just put in the first letter and get a list up,even if it means trawling through,to find a link to the name you want..Eg...Only for having the right name of another person in the household did I manage to find my rellie Brierley.She had been mistranscribed as Bruckley due to the line thats drawn through the forms.If you use wild cards you have to get the first 3 right and also the amount of letters that are in the name(not unless im not doing somthing right)....Any ideas? Wanda

nudged for the night shift.....Wanda.X

Bookmarked....Linda

I use *.* after the first letter. Worked for me

Wanda, when you use wildcards, ? stands for one letter and * stands for any number of letters. So when you're searching Ancestry, if you're looking for variations on Matthews, for example, searching for Mat* will bring up Mate, Matty, Matthews, Mathews, Matthew, etc. However, searching for Mat? will only bring up four-letter words like Mate, Mat?? will bring up five-letter words, etc.. Ancestry requires you to put in the first three letters, but you can also leave the surname or Christian name box blank if you prefer. Familysearch won't let you search for part of a word with wildcards. So if you're looking for John Matthews in Yorkshire and don't know the spelling, all you can do is put John in the Christian name box and * in the surname box, which brings up all Johns in Yorkshire at the dates you've specified. Fortunately that isn't often necessary, because familysearch's Soundex function brings up numerous variations on the name you enter. If you search for John Mat* on familysearch you won't get any results, unless there happens to be somebody called John Mat.

Thanks everyone for your replies. Have been away from the compoota for a couple of days, so couldn't check any new replies. (Withdrawal symptoms started to set in!!!) Your help, as always, is much appreciated and valued. Wouldn't have progressed half as far as I have without all the great tips offered by those on these message boards. Keep up the good work!