[Genealib] Genealogy questions asked at the reference desk

[Dinberg Donna]

Jennifer Morrow wrote: 

> Because of misspellings and naming variations it's important 
> for reference professionals to understand the Soundex.  Even 
> if you're not asked about it, you may want to know about it 
> and bring it to the researcher's attention.  

This is excellent advice.  I would add that genealogy desk staff should also
know there is more than one Soundex scheme.  Using an appropriate Soundex to
find name variants can be illuminating.  

Three Soundex schemes are described here
http://www.avotaynu.com/soundex.html  with full detail given on the
Daitch-Mokotoff Soundex.  Jewish researchers with Eastern European ancestry,
in particular, are best served by being able to search nominal databases
using the D-M Soundex; but the D-M Soundex is useful generally for anyone
researching Eastern European names.

To see an example of the variant names the D-M Soundex can retrieve, try
searching a name like Meyerowitz or Kapransky in the Consolidated Jewish
Surname Index http://www.avotaynu.com/csi/csi-home.html .  Make sure you
view subsequent pages to see the full range of variants found.  (This
address seems to resolve faster in IE than in Firefox, so try IE first.)  

Cheers.
Din.

Donna Dinberg
Librarian, Jewish Genealogy Society of Ottawa
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
donna.dinberg at lac-bac.gc.ca

The above is a personal observation, not an official statement from Library
and Archives Canada.