TipWorld - http://www.tipworld.com The Internet's #1 Source for Computer Tips, News, and Gossip Proudly presents: Genealogy And now for today's tip... THE SOUNDEX SYSTEM --by Diana J. Muir The 1920 census is indexed by the Soundex system, which makes the census easy to use. The federal government, along with Remington Rand Corp., formulated Soundex in the 1930s under Roosevelt's Works Program. The system allowed names that sounded alike, but were spelled differently, to be indexed together. A code number was assigned to consonants, but the vowels were ignored. The code was composed of the first letter of the surname and three numbers. For more information about Soundex, visit http://www.rand.org/personal/Genea ---------------------------------------------- Born and raised in Iowa, Diana Muir began studying genealogy at the age of 18 and has subsequently taught genealogy and conducted research for 30 years. Specializing in the Midwestern United States, she has also done extensive research in Southern and Eastern States, as well as England and Ireland. Diana operates an online K-12 and post-secondary school on the Internet, Porta School, Inc., and maintains her own Web page--Mother Hubbard's Cupboard--at http://www.rootsweb.com/~genclass/ which offers eight online genealogy courses.