Algorithm not cross-matching common spellings of names

Question

A not uncommon occurence, unfortunately, which makes it likely that searches will miss existing profiles and cause creation of duplicate profiles. It certainly causes frustration! Just one example, as I was searching for profiles in connection with a question posted here in G2G. Separate searches had to be done for "Phoebe" and "Phebe," which are extremely common spellings of the same name, and a name that was very common among our ancestors.

I would imagine there are numerous other names with the same common variation in spellings, which many of us would not think of doing a double search for (I know I have often overlooked that possibility!)

Just posting a note of momentary frustration.

Comments

Unfortunately, the WikiTree name search algorithm does not recognize variant spellings of first names. It will only find a name by a variant spelling if the spelling has been recorded in one of the profile data fields.

But the asterisk wild card is available, so you could enter "Ph*" in the first name field on the search form, and find all first names starting with those two letters.

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Thanks to you, Ellen, I learned something today. I wasn't aware that the asterisk wild card was a possibility in WikiTree. I'll remember it going forward. Or I hope I'll remember it!

Answer 1

Hi Jim thank you for venting, this is sometimes very good for the heart, I know, I do it some times and it does wonders, and even more importantly thank you for the reminder, yes it it very easy to overlook possible duplication due to spelling of names, as you say one must check check and double check. Names I think are one of the most difficult part of research, I have some names like this in my family and at first I did create some duplicates which I later did merge. I' not saying I won't make a mistake in the future, but I do now double check everything before I hit save.