> Is it possible to create a list of surnames that would all have the > same soundex. I'm trying to cover various spelling of Searle or > Searles and thought that this may help! > > Mark In Sydney at [email protected] If you want an all encompassing list, no, that's impossible. If you have access to Ancestry.com Census you can do a search in the 1930 census (the census that has the most entries in it) by inputting the last name and then changing the SPELLING section from "Exact" to "Soundex." Your local LDS Family History Center may have access to Ancestry.com, or possibly a local university or large public library may have the access. A caveat, I input my surname as well SEARLE in a test and both came back with just under 45,000 hits (or course, many are duplicate Surnames). It makes me think there's a limit to the number of hits so you may have to go state by state (instead of all states at once) to compile as complete a list as possible. Alternatively, if you don't have access to Ancestry.com, the closest I could suggest is to order microfilm from your nearest LDS Family History Center of the 1920 U.S. Soundex for the state of New York and peruse through the various surnames listed for the soundex codes you're interested in. New York was the most populated state in the U.S. and would therefore (in theory) contain the most variations within a soundex code. Since Searle = S640 and Searles = S642 you would have to order at least two microfilms. Here's the URL for the page containing the two microfilms you'd need to order. http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/fhlcatalog/supermainframeset.asp?first=750&display=titlefilmnotes&titleno=534331&disp=New%2BYork%252C%2B1920%2Bfederal%2Bcensus%2B%253A%2Bsoun%2B%2B&last=849&columns=*%2C0%2C0 Regardless of which method you're able to use, it's a pretty intimidating task. Make sure the effort is worth it. Good luck, LGO LGO <[email protected]>