|
Reference: Soundex 101
Soundex Explained
What Is Soundexing?
An old legal principle states that if a reasonable person would use the same pronunciation for names that are spelled differently, the names are the same. Robert C. Russell of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, realized that it should be possible to apply this principle to indexing—in other words, to index names by their sounds rather than their spelling. Russell was issued patent number 1,261,167 on April 2, 1918 for inventing "certain new and useful Improvements in Indexes" that came to be known as "soundexing."
"American" Soundex
The so-called "American" Soundex system is an improvement on Russell’s invention, and was used by the National Archives and Record Administration to index the 1880, 1890, 1900, 1910, and 1920 U.S. Censuses.
The Soundex code consists of the first letter of the name followed by three digits selected from the table at right, using four simple rules:
- Double letters are coded as one letter
-
Letters of the same code not separated by other letters are coded as one letter
-
Zeroes are added to the end of the code to make up three digits
- Vowels are not coded - they are ignored.
NOTES Soundex exercise for TARVER: - First letter of Tarver is T,
- ignore the vowels,
- next consonant is R,
- the third consonent is V,
- and the 4th is R (again).
From the graphic chart above. we find the R and use the corresponding number 6. Likewise for V. Locate the V. Use the corresponding number, which is one. Then 6 again for the final R .... The soundex for TARVER is thus T616.
|
|
