Alternate Surname Spellings

"Why can't I find my Ancestor's Records?" Have you tried alternate surname spellings? Here are four different records for the same Lindeman family spelled four different ways.

Using Alternate Surname Spellings for your Ancestor can open up a world of records that may not otherwise be found. Being flexible on locations, dates, spellings, and using nicknames or looking for them among relatives can all be useful in finding those missing records. Here is a presentation I put together using Kimberly Powell's outline posted on genealogy.about.com titled Top 10 Search Tips for Finding Alternate Surname Spellings and Variations. Click on this lesson link for tips, examples and other helpful websites that can guide you in your search.

Using Alternate Surname Spellings

Remember--click on the slide to advance the lesson, not on the arrows. Use it just like a PowerPoint presentation.

Another problem I have been having in locating Ancestors by the way their name is spelled is in the digital newspaper collections. OCR or Optical Character Recognition is an amazing new technology being used to index records. Rather than having a human read every page of every paper being digitized to create a searchable index, this technology allows it to be done in a single scan. Characters are recognized and "translated" into searchable text. In essence, the computer can now do the reading and searching for us in seconds, directing us to the exact page and location on that page that has the Surname we are looking for. Amazing, Wonderful, and saves us hours and even days. Read more on OCR

Unfortunately, this system does err at times, especially if the text being scanned is unclear, distorted, or incomplete. For example:
Utah Digitized Newspapers OCR does not read the surname Renstrom for some reason.
When I search this name I get three records, two of them are about the same article and the third is not a relation, yet I have found several more Renstroms in this same database. Why are they not indexed? Probably for the reasons listed above and possibly that the text is often too small to make out this particular letter combination correctly.
This article lists the name Renstrom several times clearly and was found in this database, yet I did not locate this article under Renstrom. I do not know what this name is indexed as, if I did I could type that in and hopefully find more records, but it is likely that it is indexed differently each time.

In the Northern New York Historical Newspaper Collection I am finding it difficult to find a particular family that I know was in the area at the time and should have news articles about them. Here is an example of a mis-indexed name from this database.
Click on this image to see a larger view. This has a wonderful example of incomplete letters confusing the OCR. Notice the top search result on the left and the enlarged image on the right. You will see on the right that the first name mentioned here in the newspaper image is Mrs. John D. Robillard. On the left you will see the OCR indexed this name as JuiiU D. Uobiliarti. Your eyes can fill in the blanks of the incomplete letters to a name that makes sense, yet the computer cannot or did not in this case. I searched the name "Dr. James Garvin" whose name you will see listed next in this news article. Fortunately, the Robillards are a relation and I was able to obtain this record on them despite the index error. I would never guess Uobiliarti as an alternate spelling to search.
Another example is in the next search result. This is an obituary for John Garvin, but I couldn't find it under John. You will notice in the image how a portion of the O is missing in the name John. Look at the word Obituary at the top. It has bled so much that it is difficult to make out. As humans using logic and context clues we are able to decipher it just fine, but not the computer. Luckily I was able to locate this obituary, once again through Dr. James Garvin. This article gave me the connection between these two that I was hoping for and told me of another sister that I did not know about.

Just because a name is not in the index does not mean the information is not there. Use relatives, dates and locations where you think you may find them. It will take a little more digging on your part, but the fruits of your labors will be well worth it.

Double Descended

Here is a photo of the Herman August Thorup Family



Names from Left to Right and Back to Front:
Back: Christine Veronica Thorup (Rasmussen), Hyrum Emanuel Thorup, Nettie Neilsine Nielsen (Thorup), Joseph Thorup, Clara Romney (Thorup), John Theobald Charles Thorup, Johanna Caroline Ostermann (Thorup), Jensine Jensen (Thorup)
Front: Niels Rasmussen, Lara Augusta Marie Thorup (Rasmussen), Herman August Thorup, Mary or Marie Christine Christensen (Thorup), Herman Frederick Ferdinand Thorup, Anne Christine Anderson (Thorup)

This photo is a special one for my family because we are the descendants of two of Herman August Thorup's Children (Christine Veronica and Herman F. F.). In this family photo we see our ancestry come together.

This summer my sister married into my husband's side of the family and we just had our first huge group family photo with both of us in it. I am going to hold onto this photo for our posterity who will once again be double descendants and double related.

Anyone Speak Danish?

My mother has an original passenger contract for our ancestor Herman F. F. Thorup. The bulk of the text is written twice, once in English so that makes it a lot easier. I did make out that it is for passenger: Herman Thorup age: 53 whose occupation is: Missionary. He is traveling from somewhere to Boston Massachusetts and they guarantee to get him there.



In the earlier years of mass immigration, there were several complaints by passengers of being "swindled" by their emigration agents. As a result, various laws were passed requiring agents to be certified by the government and for every passenger to have a signed and stamped passenger contract. They were to carry this with them for the entire journey to protect their rights and ensure they arrived at their desired destination under the terms originally agreed to.



Herman F. F. (Right) with mission companion in Denmark

Been to Park City Lately...?

Do you know you have an ancestor who built two homes on the Park City list of Historic Homes? One is on their famous Main Street Walking Tour called the Durkin Boarding House or the Centennial House located at 176 Main Street. Check it out next time you go!

See How It Looks Today
Click on the red A to see it from the street

This Boarding House was built in 1901 and Joseph Durkin died only two years later.
The Park Record
October 12 1901
This article mentions Joseph Durkin working on the boarding house on Main Street.










The Park Record
April 11 1903
Here is the obituary for Joseph Durkin.

Here is an article on renovating the Boarding House:
The Salt Lake Tribune - Dec 30 2004
A piece of Park City history has a chance to bloom again
The Centennial House: A proposal would turn it into a modern restaurant, with condos and parking

"The Centennial House near the top of Park City's Main Street was built in 1901 as a boardinghouse for miners. The frame structure is aging rapidly, but Parkites Judy Jackson and Chad Carter have a plan to refurbish it."
"Joseph Durkin built the Centennial's frame structure in 1901 during Park City's heyday..."We just wanted to save this piece of Main Street history," Judy Jackson said...Every day when we came to work, the Centennial was staring us in the face," Jackson said. "One day, we looked at it and thought, 'We could turn this into a real jewel.' "
Today, it still functions as a boardinghouse and is home to seven renters. But owner Dale Nelson agreed to sell the Centennial to Jackson for an undisclosed sum if Park City would approve her plan for a historic rehab. The proposal would transform the ground floor into a restaurant and the second floor into two 1,800-square-foot condominiums."


The second home listed with the Historic Homes of Utah is the Joseph Durkin Home located at 22 Prospect Street and was built about 1885.

See How It Looks Today
Click on the red A to see it from the street

Next time you are in town, remember that you are part of Park City's History.

Using Cemetery Records

Why should I use cemetery records? What can they teach me that I don't already know?


The Cemetery is an often overlooked wealth of Family information. Click on the following link to view my lesson on just what and how you can find this "hidden" information:


Using Cemetery Records

Instructions for Lesson Viewing:
Do not use the arrows at the bottom of the screen. When the window opens, wait a few seconds, then click on the page/screen in the box with your mouse to advance the lesson. The arrows at the bottom advance to the next slide, but if you use this you will miss all of the movements that occur on each slide.

Related Links:

Tiptoeing Through the Graveyard by Kimberly Powell

findagrave.com for free cemetery lookups and photo requests

US Newspaper Project for links to newspapers online in the United States

USGenWeb for links to free records posted by state, they often have cemetery records available

WorldGenWeb for links to information and records posted from countries of the world, sometimes have cemetery information

Here is an example of a Sexton's Record:
Sexton: "the person paid to care for a church and/or cemetery, to toll the church bell, dig graves, etc." from A to Zax
Sextons' Records are often kept at the office or church in charge of a particular cemetery. You can see from this document that there is a wealth of information here that is often not included on a headstone. These particular records collected: name, place and date of birth, parents names, religion and reputation as well as the date of death. It never hurts to ask the cemetery office if they have more information on your buried ancestors. Even if they only have the name of the mortuary, you can then go to them and ask for records there. Mortuaries very rarely go out of business but they are sometimes absorbed by a nearby mortuary. They would usually have a form for a family member to fill out during this process that you can gather more information from.

Tombstone Rubbing:
Here are a few tombstone rubbings done on Pellon with a crayon. I love doing rubbings as it is a way for me to take home a part of history. It is the next best thing to being at the actual cemetery. I have a part of something that was there and shows the headstone in actual size. I have tried using other materials to do rubbings but I prefer the pellon and crayon. It is less messy and easy to transport and save without fear of damage. Rubbings are also very helpful when the tombstone inscription is faded and worn. A rubbing can bring the text back into plain view and give that important date or relationship you were seeking. Then there are those times when the sun and the headstone or your flash and the stone line up just right to make the inscription not show up on film. You don't always know this until you get home and it is nice to have the rubbing so you can still have record of what is written. Make sure you learn the rules of the cemetery you plan to do rubbings at as some do not allow it.

What I Bring to the Cemetery:
- camera
- extra batteries
- pen and pad of paper
- pellon (found at local fabric store)
- crayons
- roll of butcher paper (found at local craft store)
- scissors
- water bottle or two
- rag
- map of cemetery with plot locations of ancestors

I bring a roll of butcher paper as it is less expensive and I can use one long sheet for the larger tombstones. The water and rag are to clean off the stones which are often not photo ready. The pen and paper are to make notes as I go along. Sometimes thoughts will come while I am there that I want to remember. I may want to write down locations of graves I took photos of that I did not plan on beforehand. I may have questions about relationships revealed that I want to remember to look up later. I may come up with more questions to ask at the local office while I am there. It comes in handy sometimes. The scissors are to cut the pellon and paper to the size I want. I have found that the darker crayons work the best, but you can experiment with different colors. I never use tape to hold the material still for a rubbing. I use another set of hands or brace it myself. I don't like to disturb the stones any more than needed.
For more details and other tips/suggestions on doing Tombstone rubbings,
read How to do a Tombstone Rubbing by Kimberly Powell

If you have any comments, tips, suggestions or links to add, just leave a comment.