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Misspellings

One of the most difficult obstacles in search is misspelled names: names of maternity homes, names of places, names of people.

Why do misspellings occur?

The most common reason is probably simple human error; however, other reasons can include the fact that many of us use information based on what we've heard rather than what we've seen written down, faulty memories, and, of course, intentional misspellings.

Some common misspellings involve names of hospitals and maternity homes. St. Margaret's will often appear as Saint Margret's. Florence Crittenton (maternity homes) has been misspelled in several ways, and there are certainly others. Surnames (last names) are also subject to frequent misspelling.

What can you do?

The Web is a wonderful resource for searchers. If you go to a major search engine like Google and type in the name of a maternity home, a person, and the word adoption, it will give you any number of references. Libraries are also a great search resource. However, if you have some information that you believe is correct, but the Web, libraries, and other search resources are not helpful, you may want to consider researching the spellings.

Try Variations

If you have a name spelled P-O-O-L, try Poole, or even Puhl. To help you come up with variations on a name, or the complete name for something you may believe is only a partial name, there are tools you can use, including:

• Soundex for Surnames
  
  Soundex is a "sounds like" system. The RootsWeb Soundex converter uses names from the U.S. Census from 1880 to 1920 as its database. When you type in a surname (last name) the way you think it's spelled, the converter will bring up other possible spellings. Using some or all of these other possible spellings may help.
  
• Specific Directories
  
  Depending on the name you have (hospital, maternity home, doctor's name), group-specific listings and directories may help determine the correct spelling, and help you locate a direct resource. Directories like the physician and attorney locators may allow you to type in partial information. Listings of maternity homes may help you find the correct spelling (and current location) of the home in your information (if you are an AOL subscriber, look for the maternity home listing under keyword "adoption"). And a searchable database like the American Hospital Directory may help you find the correct spelling when you've had no luck with information you have.
  
  For other people- and information-finding tools, visit the Search Resources and Tools section of the site.
  
  
• Support Groups
  
  Online search support groups are a wonderful resource and members are often able to help with misspellings.

Again, as in other aspects of search, even the most experienced searchers may not be able to overcome every obstacle, but realizing that our information may have small errors, including misspellings, might just provide the key to a *find.*

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