Question

Is WikiTree able to recognize that Þorunn Hafstein and Thorunn Hafstein are the same person?

Answer 1

No, it does not seem to be able to.

I attempted to add a new person under the

Þorunn

name and WT found no matches for her.

Comments

Thanks Lois, I think this is why we need an Iceland Project, because I have noticed people using both Icelandic letters and Latin ones, which could lead to issues

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I wonder how general this failing is.  Does WT also fail to recognize Cyrillic letters?

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Yes, in my experience the search is based on Latin writing and the American SoundEx. That algorithm is most sensitive to the first part (sound if you like) of the name. It will not like the Þo as a start of a name at all.

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And to add: Yes, please an Iceland project. It is the only country I know with such an impressive genealogy tree for everyone available. So strange not to have it here on WikiTree.

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The Nordic Project has just begun working on sub-project for Iceland.

I will add some tags to the question to get more to see it.

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I will be adding a bunch of Icelandic people in the next while, the fruits of my father's labors, which can serve as some sort of a beginning.  There is other Icelandic lines also already here.

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Yes, it is the first letter that has me concerned.  That can lead to some duplication of people that our program will not catch.

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I hoped that Aleš would have seen this and responded.

What you can do is to add one spelling in the field for "Proper first name" and the other in the field for "Preferred name". Not a perfect solution but it should work.

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Thanks, that makes sense.  SOrt of.

I am not sure that I will catch all of the times it is needed but it is a solution.  Einar