Hi, folks . . . Forwarding this from TheShipsList. Appears to have been written by someone who works at NARA in answer to a Lister's simple question: What is the Soundex? It's an excellent explanation and contains just about everything you wanted to know about Soundex Systems and were afraid to ask. Kathy W-F woodside1728@qwest.net ----- Original Message ----- From: <SmithinDC@aol.com> To: <TheShipsList-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, October 15, 2000 5:42 AM Subject: Re: [TSL] Soundex An excellent question <name snipped>. And one we should all ask ourselves occasionally, just to stay in touch with reality. First, a brief but direct answer to your question: The Russell Soundex System is an algorithm (sp?) that assigns numerical values to certain sounds in a word, no matter what letter produces that sound. "Soundexing" a name results in a Soundex code consisting of a Letter and 3 numbers. This is the actual first letter of the last name followed by the first three "sound numbers" following that letter (i.e., R###). So Smyth and Smith, Muller and Miller, Collins and Cullens all come out with the same code. This is a useful system for indexing/arranging individual records since even two brothers might spell their name differently, or because the census taker spelled everything phonetically rather than asking for a correct spelling, etc. I'm sure you see the value already. Mr. Russell saw the value and even got a patent on his system, I think just after WW I or in the early or mid-1920's. He sold it to businesses, he sold it to governments (he may have sold the rights to Remington Rand Corporation). Today it is in the public domain and most computer programs include soundexing formulas (I think they are "fuzzy searches"?). Anyway, I'm afraid the Soundex system has become another victim of inadequate historical perspective. Searches on the internet turn up a variety of explanations of the Soundex system, most of which have invented a strange history for that system. And in my opinion that strange history is the product of an optical illusion one sees when looking backward in time. Go read all the Soundex descriptions for yourself. They all go something like this: It was the 1930's and the government needed access to or information from the Census or from other records (in some versions they are under pressure to produce "reports," in others they need to access age data in old records in order to process Social Security applications). Whatever the reason, either the WPA or the National Archives invented the Soundex system to solve the problem and to save the world for democracy. No one mentions how private industry was already using the Soundex system before the National Archives "invented" it, nor how the WPA or National Archives applied their Soundexing to records not in their possession. Of course there is a kernel of truth here. Various U.S. Gov't agencies did purchase the Russell Soundex System in the 1930's to be used in several large-scale indexing projects performed by the WPA. Those projects came about because 1) the New Deal sponsored a variety of "make work" programs during the Great Depression, and the "white collar" projects often involved records management issues, and 2) the new Social Security program needed age data from other government records to process applications. So it all came together--indexing certain government records at one agency to support the operations of another, new agency. At the National Archives, we generally run into the Soundex system when consulting indexes to Census records and Immigration records. And here is where one encounters great danger if they assume that the National Archives invented the Soundex and Soundexed all these records. The danger lies in thinking that one agency, following one set of rules, Soundexed everything. If that were so, then one would not find any variation among all the Soundexed records. Since there are cases where people do find the same name under different Soundex codes--depending on the record set--we know the assumption is false. Researchers usually attribute this difference in coding to "error." Surely some of it is error, but some of it is easily explained by the fact that the Census records Soundex project followed different coding rules than the Immigration records Soundex project. And just because the WPA created all these indices does not mean the WPA was in charge of everything--rather, the WPA acted as contractor to different agencies, and followed the rules dictated by their employer. The rules issued to researchers at NARA are the Census Soundex rules, and these will result in the wrong Immigration records code in about 3% to 8% of names. This is especially true in the case of Eastern European names--a problem so troublesome that a separate algorithm for coding Jewish names was developed by Jewish genealogists. So, <name snipped>, this is more information than you ever wanted. Suffice it to say that when you encounter a Soundex index, you will first have to follow instructions on coding the surname in question before you can actually use the index. If you go to the Soundex index cards and do not find even one example of the surname you seek, go looking for some alternate Soundex Coding Rules. The Soundex before you may not have been created using the Census rules distributed by NARA.