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Archiver > GENMSC > 2001-03 > 0984591130


From: Singhals <>
Subject: Re: Wuerttemberg index: end of the line for print?
Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2001 09:32:10 -0800
References: <G9zqwD.MFv@freenet.buffalo.edu>, <j93mat0143hu9idgi0nbc4si2jr3lpj0ve@4ax.com>, <GA620u.8wo@freenet.buffalo.edu>


Cynthia M. Van Ness wrote:
>
> On Sat, 10 Mar 2001, Dennis P. Harris wrote:
>
> > It's also a lot faster and easier to search a CD-ROM.
>
> Yes, it sure is, if you know the exact name you want. But if there is no
> Soundex/phonetic search capability, you may well miss the name you need if
> it is spelled differently that you expect. I think back to the patron I
> had who spent years looking for an ancestor named BORLAND only to find out
> it was MORLAND (both are approximate names--only the first letter is
> unchanged to make the point). She discovered her error using print
> sources. She would never have done had she consulted only CD-ROMs.
>

I search for CRESAP and all reasonable variations. Until I
stumbled across them in a handwritten source, though, Cruewsp and
Cursoop had never occurred to me as variations, let alone
reasonable variations.
More, by the time I key in 24 or so "reasonable" variations ...?

OTOH, Soundexing doesn't do Cresap any good at all -- it shares a
code with Crazy Bear and Crosby. (g)



> Print enables many more of the serendipitous Eureka moments, because 100%
> of the contents of whatever you are reading can be examined. You know
> where the source begins and ends. With print, you are more likely to find
> something that you were *not* looking for, because you didn't know you
> needed to spell it differently. Or look in a different county. Whatever.
>
> But, having said all of that, this was *never* an either/or question, it
> was a request to urge the publisher to release the index in *both* print
> and CR-ROM. Check my original post.
>

Cheryl

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