Everyone has argued the need / necessity of combining / separating the possible spelling variations for a surname. Some of the variations are very similar in spelling and some are WAY different. Some people agree on what is a variation and others think they are separate names. How can we deal with that?

In these boards, we presently have a lot of different boards for names which could arguably be the same surname. I am emphatically NOT suggesting we collapse them together. It is very important that a newcomer to the boards find their preferred spelling on the very first attempt.

Once they get that far - how can we help them best? I believe that many of them will not be aware of many spelling variations - certainly not ALL of the ones that exist. And given the wild variations in spelling, even a wildcard or soundex search will not find them all. We need human intelligence to lead them in the right direction --- we need a list of known and / or probable surname variations. Some surnames will only have 1 or 2, others will have 60. This list would be created and maintained by Board Admins requesting the staff to add to this cross-reference table - ie the Admin for JOHNSON might ask that JOHNSTON be added as a known variation, though the Admin for JOHNSTON might not agree or make the same request, that doesn't matter.

Once we have the table, how does that help the newbie? On the search area at the top of the board display there is a link to the Advanced Search. On that advanced page we need a new (additional) checkbox (down near Soundex?) that says "Include all known spelling variations?". If that box is checked, then the search will search the current board AND every other board that is listed as a variant in our cross-reference table.

If you really want to get fancy, use the cross-reference table to populate a list box allowing multiple selection. This allows the searchers to select WHICH of the known variations are to be searched AND it is more informative since the searcher can now see what all the listed variations are.

The Board Admin should be able to determine what the default setting will be for their board - checkbox on or off. If a normal simple search is done, that default setting is the one that is used.

This should help newbies find out about the possible variations and can thus draw them into the main group of people researching a particular surname (and its variants) and that's where they get the real help and real value.

What if you're a focused or experienced researcher and you know that only a particular spelling interests you at this time? If the board's default setting does not suit you, you can use the Advanced Search to change it. You have complete flexibility, and the newbie has the most help possible.

The cost is a little programming to search more than one board at a time, and the effort to create and maintain the cross-reference list of surname variations. What do you think?