I have a confusion of names! Alexander Tennent Mackintosh Berney Ficklin and Alexander Tennant Mackintosh Berney-Ficklin are definitely the same individual. But BK gets as confused as I am when I search for them. Is there a good way of searching so that both forms of final name are regarded as equivalent? What do people usually do about situations like this? (There's the rather different question of which spellings are actually 'correct' - does anyone have views on this please?) Thanks JOHN B

My 'work around' is to use a non-breaking space using "alt 0160" (without the quotes and numbers on the number board). Thus your Berney Ficklin' [two words] tuns into Berney Ficklin' [one word]. As you can see there is no visual change but BK will then sort on Ber rather than Fic. Norma ----- Original Message ----- From: "John Bibby" <johnbibbyjohnbibby@gmail.com> To: <BK@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, June 24, 2012 6:02 AM Subject: [BK] Similar names: 'Tennent ... Berney Ficklin' and 'TennantBerney-Ficklin' >I have a confusion of names! > > Alexander Tennent Mackintosh Berney Ficklin > and > Alexander Tennant Mackintosh Berney-Ficklin > are definitely the same individual. > > But BK gets as confused as I am when I search for them. > > Is there a good way of searching so that both forms of final name are > regarded as equivalent? > > What do people usually do about situations like this? > > (There's the rather different question of which spellings are actually > 'correct' - does anyone have views on this please?) > > Thanks > > JOHN B > Remember - Use the Archives at > http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/search > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > BK-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in > the subject and the body of the message

To John Bibby In your case, you have a last name with either a - or without a - The problem is that BK normally thinks the last word is the last name. So the space tells BK that the last name for the first one is just Ficklin So for the first person the last name is Ficklin And for your second person the last name is Berney-Ficklin When you do the search it can not match different last names of "Berney-Ficklin" and "Ficklin" If you want, you can give them both the same last name and then the search will work better Go to the person with the two part last name. On the Edit screen click on the Names tab in the middle of the screen. There you will see a field for Last Name and for Sort Name Type: Berney Ficklin in the Last name field and also in the Sort name field. Then when you search for this person, type a ? instead of the - So search for Alexander Berney?Ficklin Then it will find both of them The ? means it will match any character in the first or last name. John Steed ----- Original Message ----- From: "John Bibby" <johnbibbyjohnbibby@gmail.com> To: <BK@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, June 24, 2012 9:02 AM Subject: [BK] Similar names: 'Tennent ... Berney Ficklin' and 'TennantBerney-Ficklin' >I have a confusion of names! > > Alexander Tennent Mackintosh Berney Ficklin > and > Alexander Tennant Mackintosh Berney-Ficklin > are definitely the same individual. > > But BK gets as confused as I am when I search for them. > > Is there a good way of searching so that both forms of final name are > regarded as equivalent? > > What do people usually do about situations like this? > > (There's the rather different question of which spellings are actually > 'correct' - does anyone have views on this please?) > > Thanks > > JOHN B > Remember - Use the Archives at > http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/search > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > BK-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in > the subject and the body of the message >

Thanks John. This all requires you to know that the ambiguity exists. Is there any way globally of allowing for such situations e.g. to always take "A B" and "A-B" as equivalent? JOHN B On 24 June 2012 19:44, John Steed <brothers_keeper@msn.com> wrote: > To John Bibby > > In your case, you have a last name with either a - or without a - > > The problem is that BK normally thinks the last word is the last name. > > So the space tells BK that the last name for the first one is just Ficklin > > So for the first person the last name is > > Ficklin > > And for your second person the last name is > > Berney-Ficklin > > When you do the search it can not match different last names of > "Berney-Ficklin" and "Ficklin" > > If you want, you can give them both the same last name and then the search > will work better > > Go to the person with the two part last name. > > On the Edit screen click on the Names tab in the middle of the screen. > > There you will see a field for Last Name and for Sort Name > > Type: Berney Ficklin   in the Last name field and also in the Sort name > field. > > Then when you search for this person, type a ? instead of the - > > So search for > > Alexander Berney?Ficklin > > Then it will find both of them > > The ? means it will match any character in the first or last name. > > John Steed > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "John Bibby" <johnbibbyjohnbibby@gmail.com> > To: <BK@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Sunday, June 24, 2012 9:02 AM > Subject: [BK] Similar names: 'Tennent ... Berney Ficklin' and > 'TennantBerney-Ficklin' > > >>I have a confusion of names! >> >> Alexander Tennent Mackintosh Berney Ficklin >> and >> Alexander Tennant Mackintosh Berney-Ficklin >> are definitely  the same individual. >> >> But BK gets as confused as I am when I search for them. >> >> Is there a good way of searching so that both forms of final name are >> regarded as equivalent? >> >> What do people usually do about situations like this? >> >> (There's the rather different question of which spellings are actually >> 'correct' - does anyone have views on this please?) >> >> Thanks >> >> JOHN B >> Remember - Use the Archives at >> http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/search >> ------------------------------- >> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >> BK-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in >> the subject and the body of the message >> > >  Remember - Use the Archives at http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/search > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to BK-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

On Sun, 24 Jun 2012 14:02:24 +0100, John Bibby <johnbibbyjohnbibby@gmail.com> wrote: >I have a confusion of names! > >Alexander Tennent Mackintosh Berney Ficklin >and >Alexander Tennant Mackintosh Berney-Ficklin >are definitely the same individual. > >But BK gets as confused as I am when I search for them. > >Is there a good way of searching so that both forms of final name are >regarded as equivalent? > >What do people usually do about situations like this? > >(There's the rather different question of which spellings are actually >'correct' - does anyone have views on this please?) > you can use * in the name for search as Alexander Ber* or you can use the Alternative name and add both name there. So whether you search for Alexander Tennant Mackintosh Berney-Ficklin OR Alexander Tennant Mackintosh Berney Ficklin you have the person as result -- Otto Jørgensen http://www.bkwin.info/ All email is checked by NORTON