ffs and Fs resulting in duplicates, how to avoid, how to remedy

+9 votes
140 views

I've been trying to work on the error database for people in Dorset and accidently came across several  duplicate profiles caused by the use of F and Ff (and even ff)

There are Footes and Ffootes and Ffootes of Fifehead Neville and    Ffootes of Ffyffehede  Neville

http://www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Special:Surname&s=FFOOTE&cln=0&order=dobup&u=

http://www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Special:Surname&s=FOOTE&order=dobup

There are Frekes and Ffrekes.  I've adopted http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Freke-19 and proposed a merge with http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Ffreke-3

Presumably these are not the only such duplicates.

a) not sure how to make sure that Freke is the preferred name in the merge (assuming that others agree) and of course changing one of the LNABs in a family may result in other, non duplicated members with name spelled differently.

b) Is there any way this 'ff' error, (at least when it represents a capital F)  can be prevented or detected?

 

in WikiTree Tech by Helen Ford G2G6 Pilot (462k points)
edited by Helen Ford

List here

http://www.wikitree.com/indexes/person/F/30.html

Includes CLNs as well as LNABs.

Presumably they all need to be fixed if they can't be merged away.

A lot of surname issues can be picked out by eye from these lists, if anybody wants to take on the job of policing them.

 

1 Answer

+1 vote

Unfortunately, this is a problem that isn't going to be fixed (at least not in the near term) by the new searching arrangement for variant surnames. I submitted freke and ffreke as a matching pair at http://www.werelate.org/wiki/Special:Names and got the message "The following rare names have the same soundex code, so they will be matched automatically: ffreke." That means they won't be added to the werelate database that's used here.

But if you add the alternative spellings to individual profiles as "Other Last Names," the WikiTree search should find them and prevent some duplicates from being created.

To ensure that Freke (or Foote) is the merge destination, I suggest that you request temporary project protection for the individual profiles that you want to merge to. 

by Ellen Smith G2G Astronaut (1.5m points)
edited by Ellen Smith
Thanks,

I looked at the list  from RJ and it's also clear that there are some modern names which start with a double ff so it isn't always an error in any case.  I'll have to see if the profile manager is still around to  discuss changes in LNAB. The earliest pages of the register do use ff as a capital (though not in the middle of Fifehead ) but by the 17th century the clerk was using a single capital F.

I created a profile for Rose Dillon-2040 and set the CLN to ffrench and it changed it to Ffrench.  So I changed it back and it changed it back again.  But we have loads of de Quincys and van der Walts, so what's happening?

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