Can you add the ability to search two surnames at once?

Question

It is very cumbersome to look for possible matches when there are alternate spellings. I know it will be difficult to implement a "soundex' like ability, but I have a suggestion for a first step that could help greatly.

Currently the ability to list a surname and then sort by birth date is my preferred way to work on severely duplicated surnames. If I could enter TWO surnames, and list all of them both, and then sort that group by birth date it would make working on surnames that have multiple spellings much easier. This does not do the same thing as searching for "Other last names' , but it might well be a move in the right direction, and much easier to implement.

Just wondering.

Comments

Toby, Lindt-1 sent me this link...I don't know whether is uses the "soundex" code and I have only used it once but it did give a bunch of information.  He used this example:  http://www.geni.com/people/William-Carpenter-of-Providence/6000000006713541159 with this explanation:  "....que them up here. And, this is just an example; http://www.geni.com/people/William-Carpenter-of-Providence/6000000006713541159 But the work on this line has been going on for years there, and there are so many with the same names, born near the same place, with the same common children names it's a must to que them up on Geni.com first. And use that Of Providence, or Of the Bevis in their names to get it sorted out in your head....."

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I have metioned this problem more than once in this forum.  It WOULD help if the display name in a list included more than one last name.  Most of my merges have required opening each profile in order to see all the names (I agree, very cumbersome.)

My recommendation of eliminating accents and non-roman symbols in name searches was met with accusations that I wanted to "anglicise" the names, which was not my intent at all.  I would just like to see if the brothers and sisters of the same parents showing different last names are needing research or are well-matched, without me having to open ALL the siblings profiles in search a common name.

Answer 1

Its just a work-around, but could you cut and paste the chronologically sorted Smyths with the active first name and date into an Excel file, do the same for the Smythes, the Smiths, then sort on the date of birth? 

Until Wikitree becomes so cumbersome that it will do your multi-name search this would do the job. 

We are struggling now with 6,287,040 profiles; 117,279 members. Whats it going to be in six months, a year?

I tried this, and it works, but it's useless, there are no ID number with the names. 

Comments

I am currently 'hooked' on cleaning up after GEDCOMs and are appalled by all the corrupted data going around mainly caused by 1) Names - both place-, birth- and surnames - having been spelled phonetically by dfferent people hundreds of years ago 2) Historical context missing (seen from a too modern contemporary prespective 3) Huge geographical mistakes - Germany being mixed up with Holland and Denmark for example; Amsterdam being in the province of South-Holland instead of North-Holland 4) The algorithmic falsification that facilitates this unfamiliarity with the historical context by using other ureliable sources such as GENI.

There are many ways that one surname can become morphed: Frans Sijmonsen (son of Simon) has a son named Adam whom on emigration to New Amsterdam (coming from  Berckoven - the town) gets the second name Berkhoven and his surname gets his occupation Brouwer (Brewer) which evolves over time into Brower and then Bowen. This is the historical context.

Difficult to get unless real research and not only GEDCOM bombing are fed into the profiles. And then the spelling rules differ from country to country, from period to period ...

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The modern countries didn't always exist when our ancestors were born.  Part of what was once Denmark is now part of Germany, part of what is now Romania was part of Austria, etc.  They had to get official permission to emigrate to other areas that are now Germany.  And it has changed in our day too. So all of that is naturally confusing.  Then, when they did emigrate, their names changed more to fit with the local spellings.

Many of our ancestors could not read or write, which compounds the problem of spelling their names.  It wasn't until relatively recently in history that most people were literate.  So the name on official documents is pretty much what the official decided it was....Meier, Mayer, Maier, Meyer, or....

I've noticed in my tree that some of the German females have an "in" ending to their last names.  Becker becomes Beckerin for them, for instance, while the males stay as Becker.

Answer 2

Toby,   Hi!  Yes, I agree.  The 'soundex' system leaves a lot to be desired.  Might not be the one to give you the ok to do it, but  you will never know for yourself if you don't try it out on your own.  I believe necessity is the mother of invention.  If, nobody ever tryed to come up with something better we would be doing without a lot of very important things today.

Answer 3

In some cases, there are more than 10 alternative surnames.

My solution: use a common "working" CLN, then proceed as usual.

Comments

I agree, I agree, I agree:  common last name!  If not, at least two last names (one being the modern name) so they can be matched more easily.

Answer 4

I believe there is a way you can "Categorize" as many surnames as you want. I for one created a Carrocci descendants category where any children, g-children etc go there in which case all surnames get sorted. It helps organize your tree and aids research.

Comments

There is a "to do" for the tech team that would allow searches that have wildcard, but are limited by date.   I had been working Young/Yonge/Youngs/Younges....and asked for this capability....will it help you?