SEARCH TIPS FOR FINDING ANCESTOR NAMES ON THE DATABASE

A few helpful Tips!

When utilizing the Ancestor and or Vital Databases begin with a First and Last name search of the ancestor in the “Search” form

or

Utilize the “Search All Names” box

(The “Search all Names” form will ONLY search ‘exact’ spelling requested)

If an ancestor is not found, try these options

• Misspell the name
• Search partial names
• Utilize the ‘ends with’ option (Where available)
• Utilize the ‘begins with’ option (Where available)
• Spell names phonetically, as in the following examples

Peterson  Petersen Piterson Pitersen,      Murphy  Morfy  Morfi  Morfe,       Oneill Onil Unil Unir

• Substitute letters, as in the following examples

B & V – Belardo Velardo,

C & S – Anastacio Anastasio

G & J- Monje Monge

LL, J, Y & X -Bujeda Buxeda Bulleda Buyeda

I & Y- Goyco Goico Irizarry Yrizarry

I & H- Iginio Higinio

L & R- Albizu Arbizu Beltran Bertran Almodoval Almodovar

S & Z- Vasquez Vazquez  Guzman Gusman

S & X- Exposito Esposito

X& J- Fajardo Faxardo Jimeno Ximeno Jimenez Ximenez

Ois & Oy- Duboy Dubois

ST & Saint- Saint Villiers ST Villiers

• Translate the Name, as in the following example

Arthur Arturo,            Charles Carlos,           Josef Jose Joseph Guiseppe,      Richard Ricardo,

John Juan Giovanni                Anton Antonini Antonio,                   Pedro Peter Pietro

• Search all known names; ancestors may have had up to four first names as well as surnames as depicted in this example:

Juan Jose Carlos  del Santo Lopez de Victoria y Ramirez de Arellano

Pedro Alejandro de la Portilla Lopez  y Puig Menech

Maria Juana de la Concepcion Gonzalez Font y Velasco Pila

• Try dropping  prefixes from names, as in this example; search only the surname  (de, de los, del, San)

de la Cruz, de los Santos, de Rivera, de la Concepcion, del Monte, de los Lobos, del Valle

Search-  Cruz      Santos       Rivera       Concepcion         Monte             Lobos         Valle

Santo Domingo                       Santa Maria                            San Martin

Search-  Domingo                  Maria                                      Martin

• When Searching English surnames beginning with the letter S

Add E before the S, as it was customary in PR to pronounce names beginning with S as Es

as in these examples:         Scott Escot         Smith Esmit

Database Rules

When searching the Database

• Do NOT use apostrophe or accent marks when searching surnames such as

O’neill             O’farell            D’ Imperio

• Do NOT use Tilde (ñ) when searching surnames such as

Castaño           Quiñones         Nuñez              Peña

 

When all else fails Request Help

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