Thank you Anne, I've been using that * more myself, but still use ?. sure helps with the misspellings of names back then. I hadn't known that you could put the * in the middle of a word, is helping with M*ch*l* for different spellings of Mitchell cheers Tammy Anne Brennan wrote: > Hi Tammy, > > you can also put a * in the middle of words where it can stand for any > number of letters(or none at all), so you could enter Rob*erts*n* or > Rob*erts*, which might yield less results than Rob* > I must admit to using a * rather than a ? most times, e.g. *el*en finds > Helen, Hellen and Ellen - very useful as the spelling is often inconsistent! > > Kind regards > > Anne > > > -----Original Message----- > From: cotyroneireland-bounces@rootsweb.com > [mailto:cotyroneireland-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Tammy Mitchell > Sent: 01 March 2009 18:05 > To: aberdeen@rootsweb.com > Cc: mowat@rootsweb.com; CoTyroneIreland@rootsweb.com; > midlothian@rootsweb.com; SCT-KINCARDINE@rootsweb.com > Subject: Re: [CoTyIre] [ABERDEEN] Ideas for Using the Scotland's People > Website > > Navigating scotlandspeople is easy to do. > > The one thing you need to know is how to search when you expect > different spellings of a name. Here are some tips on how to use their > wild card searches. > > ? means mystery letter- can be put anywhere in a name. > * means more letters unknown- can be put at the end of a name. > > examples: > > Sm?th = Smyth, Smith, Smeth > Sm?t* = Smyth, Smith, Smeth, Smythe, Smitty etc.. > > If your searching Mitchell, as I do a lot > I use > M?tch?l* = Metchal, Mitchall, Mitchelle etc. > > An interesting one is when I search Weir. Most of the time I can bet > that the ie-ei are inverted. If I just search Weir, I just get Weir and > visa versa. I can take care of this in once search by searching this: > W??r = Wier, Weir, wear etc... > > Lets not forget Robbertson. > Robbert* = Robbertsone, Robbertsoune etc.. > The hard part is getting past the fact that they might not have doubled > up the bb. In this case I use Rob* > but that returns a great amount of records, so be sure you use a good > first name. > > You can also use this on first names to. I do it a lot when searching a > first name James as we know it could be spelled Jas > Ja* Sm?t* could be James Smythe, Jas Smith or even Jane Smitty, > > so be aware of how you search to get the best returns. > > > I know your ancestors probably usually used one spelling. But they were > at the mercy of the clerks a lot of the time. > > I hope my tips have helped. I use scotlandspeople a lot. At first I > shied away because it was a pay site, but I have really had great luck > there. And the cost is reasonable. > http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/ > > Tammy > Mowat Family International > http://www.tammymitchell.com/clanmowat/international/ > > Ray Hennessy wrote: >> 2009/3/1 Joan Hartman <jet2jeth@earthlink.net>: >> >>> ...I've never tried to navigate the Scotland's People >>> site but a cousin of mine has and perhaps she can >>> teach me the ropes. >> __________________________________________ >> >> Hi List >> >> Some time ago [before my calendar fell into a black >> hole] someone asked me to give them some tips on >> using the Scotland's People website [ScP]. >> I apologise to Rachel Collet and Judy Anderson for >> the delay in responding. >> >> I have been working on a set of ideas which, for want >> of a better hole, I have added to my names website. >> If you go to www.whatsinaname.net and key in "ScP" >> to the name field, you will be led to a set of pages with >> my thoughts on how to use ScP. A direct link is >> http://tinyurl.com/WIAN0003 >> >> NB NB These are only my ideas and may be deficient >> in both rigour and accuracy. But for newbies like Joan, >> I felt that a central pool of Ideas & Tips could be useful. >> >> There are only 5 detailed pages. Each should fit onto a >> normal computer screen so it is by no means exhaustive. >> >> I welcome ANY suggestions, corrections, criticisms >> etc. It may be best if you send your thoughts direct >> to me to save overloading the List with non-relevant >> discussions. >> > > ------------- > Our community web-site: > http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~cotyroneireland > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > COTYRONEIRELAND-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message >