Family History Tips - Part 2

Index Searching Secrets: Using Truncation and Wildcards to Search for Your Ancestors
 
by Brenna Corbit, Technical Services Librarian

A main hurdle to searching for your ancestors is sticking to the current spelling of a surname. As I have pointed out in the introduction to this series, there are various reasons for name changes. My surname is Corbit, but at times my searches have turned up Corbitt, Corbet and Corbett. They all start with “Corb” and end with “t,” with variations in between. The way to best search that name is to use truncation, the use of an asterisk to represent one or more letters. Thus the search for Corb*t will find any letter variation/s between the letters “b” and “t.”

Truncation also works well because of misinterpreted indexing due to illegible records. But another method is the use of wildcards, a question mark to represent one letter. Once my Corbit name was indexed as Forbit; thus, I could have used a wildcard—?orbit. Another good example of using a wildcard is searching for the name Hoffert, which could also be Hofferd; therefore, the search would be Hoffer?. Sometimes a name becomes so butchered that you have to be creative, such as searching the Polish name Mierzjewski as M*sk?. Of the two, I find truncation most useful, and I often find myself eliminating most of the vowels.

Truncation (*) and wildcards(?) are useful in the beginning, middle and end of names. Most search engines require the use of at least three letters. Always read the advance search tips on a database because some of the rules may vary. Below are a few examples of typical name spellings and the uses of truncation and wildcards.

Typical  Spelling	Variations and Indexed Variations	Suggested Truncation and Wildcard Searches
Flamm	Flam, Pflum	?lamm, *lamm, Fl*m, *lam
Saylor	Sailor, Saler	S*l*r
Pheasant	Phesant, Fesant	Ph*s*t, *s?nt
Brooks	Brook, Brooke, Brookes	Br*k, Br*k*
Scibek	Skibek, Shibec, Sheebek	S*b*k, S*b*c
Eisenhower	Isenhower, Isenhauer, Eisenhauer	Eisenh*r, *
Britton	Brittain	Br*t*n
Negrete	Nigrita, Negreta, Negrette	N*gr*t*, N*gr*
Vasquez	Vazques, Vaszquez, Vazquez	va*q*
Butler	Butter	But*r
Mikkelsen	Michelsen, Mikaelson, Mickelsen	M*k*l?n, M*ls*n
Mulqueen	Mullqueen, Mulgreen, McQueen	M*qu*n, M*l*n
Salzmann	Salsman, Salman, Saltsman	Sal*man, Sal*ma*
Clarke	Clark	Clark*
Lassiter	Lassenten, Lassiler	La*s*t*r, L?s*t*
Miller	Mueller	m*ller
Kendig	Kindig, Kindeg	K?nd*g

In my next column, I will address given names using some of the same techniques.