Sorting last names with variant spellings

[D Jiles]

Hi.

I have searched the archives and read the manual but I find no joy solving this problem.

Back in the Middle Ages when I used The Master Genealogist there was a nice feature that I found very helpful. I have one particular surname whose spelling has changed several times over the generations. TMG would allow me to designate one primary surname spelling for purposes of sorting such as in the Reunion 10 sidebar for "People."

Is such a feature available in Reunion 10? For example, I have Eckroth, Eckenroth, Eckrode, Eckenrode, Eckroat, Eckroate, etc. I would like to choose one spelling that would apply to all such variations (without actually changing the surname on the person view) so they would sort all of these folks in order but with given names being the primary sort. Here's what I mean:

Eckroat, Adam
Eckenrode, Becky
Eckroat, Carl
Eckenroth, David
Eckroat, Elijah

You get the idea.

Any help appreciated.

Darrel

[theKiwi]

Re: Sorting last names with variant spellings

Have you tried the sorting option of

Soundex, Last Name, First Name

You can get to that by opening the People list in a new window and then clicking on the Sorting Options button at the bottom.

I'm not sure how much different your list would become, but give it a shot.

Roger

[D Jiles]

Re: Sorting last names with variant spellings

Roger,

Thanks for the lead. I tried your suggestion but it still sorts the surnames alphabetically rather than treating them all as E263 and then sorting further on the give names. Either I am not doing this properly or the problem has no solutions.

Darrel

[Barnbarroch]

Re: Sorting last names with variant spellings

In the case you quoted, it seems to me that it suffices just to put Eck into the index box and you'll get all the people you listed above, won't you? Of course, that won't work if the first few letters have changed over the years but that must be a less common case, I guess.
Jamie.

[D Jiles]

Re: Sorting last names with variant spellings

Thanks Jamie.

Excellent solution! It's one of those 'Why did I think of that?' ideas. It doesn't catch the VERY few outliers but I'm not concerned about that.

Thank you.

Darrel

[Robert Godfrey]

Re: Sorting last names with variant spellings

This issue can be resolved perfectly using relational database coding. I'll add a request to the Reunion wish list.

[Deb]

Re: Sorting last names with variant spellings

...I have Eckroth, Eckenroth, Eckrode, Eckenrode, Eckroat, Eckroate, etc. I would like to choose one spelling that would apply to all such variations (without actually changing the surname on the person view) so they would sort all of these folks in order but with given names being the primary sort. Here's what I mean:

Eckroat, Adam
Eckenrode, Becky
Eckroat, Carl
Eckenroth, David
Eckroat, Elijah...

Hi Darrel,

I believe what you are wanting can be accomplished by doing a manual sort for "Soundex (Last Name)" as the Primary sort and "First & Mid Name" as the Secondary sort. This is slightly different than the suggestion made by "theKiwi."

1. Open the "List - People" window. An easy way to do this is to press "Command" and "L" on your keyboard.

2. Add a new column to the "List - People" window.

(Information on how to add/work with columns in a list window can be found in your manual by searching for "add column list." To access the manual, click on the "?" in the lower left corner of any Reunion window or choose Help -> Contents.)

3. Select "Name -> Soundex (Last Name)" as the column heading for that new column.

4. Finally, click on the "First & Mid Name" column heading, then "Soundex (Last Name)" column heading (in that order).

The end result should be what you are wanting.

[Galvao]

Re: Sorting last names with variant spellings

It seems a good solution, but how can I sort the Name sidebar? I would like to see 'first name, lastname'

[Deb]

Re: Sorting last names with variant spellings

It seems a good solution, but how can I sort the Name sidebar? I would like to see 'first name, lastname'

I'm sorry, the People sidebar (on the right) can only be sorted by Last Name, First & Mid Name.

For more flexibility with sorts, I recommend opening the List window.

[Galvao]

Re: Sorting last names with variant spellings

I feared that. Maybe next update deals with it, it should not be very difficult to arrange for a sorting option on the sidebar.

It is a fact that the "last name, first & middle name" concept, does not accommodate very well many of the complete names of our ancestors in Portugal, Spain and others, hence the reason most people I know use in their databases complete names sorted by first name.
So it gets a bit odd to read them on the sidebar in a way we are not used to.

[theKiwi]

Re: Sorting last names with variant spellings

I feared that. Maybe next update deals with it, it should not be very difficult to arrange for a sorting option on the sidebar.

I'd agree with that too - it should be easy enough to allow the sidebar to display based on any of the sort options chosen, including the currently not possible "Soundex (of last name), First and Middle Names" - this would help immensely in my Clan Moffat Society file which has 15,890 people whose last name has soundex M130.

Roger

[Deb]

Re: Sorting last names with variant spellings

...Maybe next update deals with it...to arrange for a sorting option on the sidebar...

I will add your request to our internal wish list. Our programmers go over the wish list when deciding which new features to include in future version upgrades. While I cannot promise when or if this request will be implemented, I can promise it will be considered:-)