{"id":2503,"date":"2016-04-10T17:40:11","date_gmt":"2016-04-10T17:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/?p=2503"},"modified":"2016-04-10T17:40:11","modified_gmt":"2016-04-10T17:40:11","slug":"what-soundex-might-be-when-searching-at-ancestry-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/?p=2503","title":{"rendered":"What Soundex Might Be When Searching At Ancestry.com"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"might\"<\/a>I’ve been reading “guides”\u00a0Ancestry.com\u00a0<\/em>has to their search settings. And I’m a little bit confused.<\/p>\n

From the\u00a0Ancestry.com<\/em>\u00a0discussion of “name settings:”<\/p>\n

Soundex Variations<\/strong>:<\/span> Soundex is a common algorithm used to generate alternate spellings of a surname. If you choose this option, any record that contains one of the Soundex variations for a surname might appear in your results. (http:\/\/search.ancestry.com\/Search\/Help\/SearchForm.aspx?topic=lname)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At the risk of being technical, Soundex goes not generate alternate spellings (sloppy census takers do that!). Soundex is an algorithm that converts last names to a four character “equivalent.” That four character equivalent begins with a letter (the first letter in the last name) and then contains three numeric values based upon the three following non-vowel “sounds” in the name.<\/p>\n

The process generally is as follows:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Keep\u00a0the initial\u00a0letter of the name. Omit subsequent\u00a0references to a, e, i, o, u, y, h, w. This is done because these are “soft” sounds.<\/li>\n
  2. After the first letter, consonants are replaced with numbers (sounds that are similar get the same number):\n