Quote:
Originally posted by leathermang
When searching for last names ... there is something the Census and people like the Mormons ( the real pros on geneaology ) called " Soundex" this helps make it through such silly stuff as a stupid census taker a hundred years ago misspelling something...
|
Soundex was a way of categorizing names phonetically by assigning a number code to similar sounding names using alternating letters of the name. This system was actually used because most people being interviewed were hard to understand due to their heavy accents, and were likely to be illiterate, so they could not even spell their own names. So, for example, Davis and Davidson would likely have the same, or at least similar of a soundex code as Davinski and Davitov.
The U. S. Census Bureau stopped using Soundex after the 1920 Census, and beginning with the 1930 Census, no longer uses it. The only tie to the Church of The Latter Day Saints is that they keep more accurate records on geneology than most other people, so they are used to using the U. S. Govt. Soundex coding system.
There's an old joke about a Chinese laundry in Chinatown called Olaf's Laundry. One day, someone asked what the owner's name was, and was told the owner was Hans Olaf. When the person asked to see the owner, an old Chinaman said that he was Hans Olaf. When asked how he came to be known as Hans Olaf, the Chinese gent replied that Hans Olaf was the name of the guy in front of him in line at the immigration office. When they came to his turn and asked him his name, he said "Sam Ting". . .