Searching for profiles with different spelling

Question

How do you search for possible existing/duplicate profiles when there are many possible spellings of the first and/or last names? The search engine appears to take things "literally".  Is there a trick that I am unaware of?

For example, I have many Llewellyn Davis ancestors in the William Penn era.  They were pretty prominent, so I am surprised to find no profiles using that name. I have found records elsewhere for these individuals under:

Llewellyn

Lewellyn

Llewelyn

Lewelyn

Llewellin

Llewelin

Lewellin

Lewelin

Luellen

Llewelen

Lewlin

Lewllyn

Lewylln

 

 

Answer 1

you can you a wildcard * in a people search - I would go with ll* as most of the varieties of spelling have 2 ll's somewhere in the name

that results in:

• Llewellan Davis - ~ Managed by Ray Moore.
• Llewellyn Davis February 21, 1720 Tredyffrin, Chester, Pennsylvania, United States - July 12, 1794 ~ Managed by Lisa Javorka.
• Llewellyn Davis Ensign May 1, 1759 Charlestown, Chester County, Pennsylvania, USA - July 23, 1803 ~ Managed by Lisa Javorka.

as well as all the Lloyds :)

then you would have to search for Lewlin in a separate search, which I did and there aren't any in wikitree.

 

 

 

Answer 2

The search will work with wildcard *

Try this:

Search for Llewel* and enter last name (You may have to do multiples if lots of variations).

Then do a date sort on results - check to see what is closest to your DOB.

An alternate would be to search for Mother or Father and see if child is attached.

Hope that helps.