First Names

[Grendlsmother]

Having found an 1855 twin birth on IGI, I though I would view the real thing on SP and get two for the price of one, plus all the other info you get with 1855.

One of the twins was William and I could just not find him no matter what wild cards I used on the Surname. It was then that I realised that I had put three "Ls" in William (my eyes are getting worse!!!) - but then they were lower case with an "i" on each side. But - why did the entry not come up when the "show all surnames starting with this letter" was ticked - surely it should have brought up every name beginning with W and that had the relevant surname. (When I took the extra "L" out, it appeared).

Any thoughts?
Grendlsmom.

[LesleyB]

Hi Grendlsmother

Having a play about with settings it seems as though attention is paid to the last name in conjunction with "Return all forenames that begin with these characters", (I'm not seeing a "show all surnames starting with this letter" option) so that if there is no one with that forename, or the forename is spelt differently, as there is no record matching the two criteria, it does not show any results.

It seems that you need "At least 2 characters that are not wildcards required for search" in the surname box.

Best wishes
Lesley

[Grendlsmother]

Sorry Lesley, I have only just spotted your reply. I have also spotted my typo/error, I should have written that I had selected the option "show all forenames..", which was why I was surprised that, even though I had spelled William incorrectly, it did not bring up the record. The surname was McDonald, which I put in as M*Donald as I often find it spelled MacDonald - I did not select the "sounds like" option. So its still a bit of a puzzle.

Thanks for your reply
Grendlsmother

[AndrewP]

Hi Grendlsmom,

WILLIAM would not show up from a search based on WILLLIAM, even with the Return all forenames that begin with these characters box ticked. That search includes all of the letters that you input, to look for names beginning with these.

As examples:
names starting with WILL would include WILLIAM
names starting with WILLL (3 L's) would not include WILLIAM.

In this type of search, less can give more.

All the best,

AndrewP

[Grendlsmother]

Thanks for that Andrew - I had assumed that it should have brought up all forenames beginning with "W". A useful tip for the future.

Thanks again
Grendlsmom