* [Wish List 633] Name Filtering to handle inconsistent entry or miss slashing of names

[davidf]

Name Filtering

Requirement

The Name Filter Function in the Records Window and Selection dialogues should be able to handle situations where Names have been miss-slashed or inconsistently slashed (e.g. Compound Surnames, Patronymics and Toponymics). It should be more tolerant of miss-placed or miss-ordered name parts and should filter over all Name Parts.

Benefits
This would make it easier to filter and select names (particularly non Anglo-Saxon "Given /Surname/" patterns) as well as catching miss remembered name orders and accidental duplicates due to inconsistent or incorrect input.

If it searched over all Name Parts FH could tolerate name parts in unusual fields. If Geographic identifiers (Norwegian Farm Names or Geographics - "Toponymics") were placed in for instance the Name Suffix they would still be found. Genuine "nobles" (in the Name Prefix) and people with First Name Lord/Duke etc. would be equally found.

Notes:

1. A user switchable (but persistent) option to swap between the current Last Name and First Name input boxes and an "Anywhere" input box (where "Anywhere" could include all Name Parts - suffix, prefix, surname prefix, nickname, used etc.) might achieve this. (Making it user switchable - perhaps via a small icon next to the input box, would keep the current functionality where it is desired to search within one's own tree for people in an external tree who are only referred to by initials - e.g. on a DNA study.)
2. At the same time adding the functionality to handle part matches other than the current "begins with" - either by "contains" or "begins/ends with" or full implementation of wildcards - would enable matching irrespective of "Mc" or "Mac" and similar. The search terms should be input order agnostic.
3. If Soundex could be incorporated into the filter it would allow searching on name variations/miss-spellings (Taylor Tailor, Tailer) and avoid searching on created columns using the Soundex function.

Examples that could be "caught"

• Compounded Surnames: Ralph /Vaughan Williams/ not Ralph Vaughan /Williams/
• Miss-remembered surnames as Christian Names: Stephen /James/ and James /Stephen/
• Miss-remembered name orders: Philip Charles Arthur George instead of Charles Philip Arthur George
• Inconsistently placed patronymics: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky where Illyich as a patronymic is sometimes entered between the Surname slashes with Tchaikovsky
• Given Name, Patronymic, Toponymic (with no "Surname"): Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci
• Given Name, Patronymic, Toponymic (the latter a possibly transitory "Farm name" (e.g. Norwegian usage), again not a "Surname"): Iver Iversen Berge
• "Titles" as first names or in unusual positions: Duke Ellington, Alfred Lord Tennyson

Proposed Changes to Filter Dialogue

Filter Dialogue.png (6.7 KiB) Viewed 2668 times

References to Forum Discussions

Main Discussion - proposal arising near end of page 1Patronymics (& Matronymics/metronymics) (21127)
Data reference for witness (21122)
Surname prefix (SPFX) -- more generally, handling structured names. (20719)

[tatewise]

Interestingly, many other tabs in the Records Window have Filters that use the 'contains' strategy rather than 'begins with'.
Would similar Name filtering options be applicable to the Family tab?

[davidf]

Interestingly, many other tabs in the Records Window have Filters that use the 'contains' strategy rather than 'begins with'.

Whilst I can see that you would want "contains" (at least as an option) for picking up:

• "Mc" and "Mac" - i.e. contains the post Mac/Mc bit
• "Anna" and "Hannah" and "Marianne"/"Mary Anne"- i.e. contains "ann" - case insignificant

Would similar Name filtering options be applicable to the Family tab?

Logically, yes; the Individual and Family tabs on the Records Window contain the filter. The filter is also in any dialogue that requires "Name Selection".

I am not trying to bring Query building into this; I think the above is a "contained scope".

[ColeValleyGirl]

Does this have any support? It's a good specification, but does need support to make it onto the Wish List.

[johnmorrisoniom]

I would support this, a well thought out proposal

[Vyger]

Firstly I want to thank Helen for bringing this important issue to the fore again.

I am in complete support of this improvement suggestion as it is such an important piece of functionality any improvements are very welcome.

Firstly, as a relative new user of Family Historian I found it a little irksome to need to click in the Records Window filter box to begin a filtered search. In an old version of my previous software I just started typing “eagleson,jack” to bring me incrementally to the first ‘eagleson,jack’ the FH "Search By Partial Name" does not work that way. That worked well in my previous software but was still sub optimal on a large database.

A newer version of my previous software has allowed for wildcards which works perfectly for almost all spelling variations. However, I have checked this morning and Prefix, Suffix and Nickname are not currently included in the scope of the search.

The wildcard "_" covers any individual character and multiple can be used in conjunction to overcome known spelling variations.

The wildcard "%" covers any number of characters and can be used in conjunction with underscore, I will illustrate with some graphics.

wildcards-example-1.png (52.4 KiB) Viewed 1523 times

The image above shows how use of the underscore negates the spelling variations of Smith and Smyth and how us of the % wildcard can extract anything with "sm" in the surname and "let" anywhere in the given name, my old Aunt Letty comes to mind. With a little thought and experimentation, it would be easy for any user to achieve the filtered results they desire.

wildcards-example-2.png (57.92 KiB) Viewed 1523 times

Use of sequential underscore wildcard characters either sporadically or contiguous can be used to overcome a lot of character displacement issues.

name-wildcards-combined.png (49.55 KiB) Viewed 1523 times

Wildcards can be creatively combined as shown in the image above to tailor and achieve just the filtering the user desires.

Firstly, I would prefer what Calico Pie refer to as "Search By Partial Name" would encompass the Given Name after a typed comma delimiter, currently it does not.

Secondly, I would prefer the action "Search By Partial Name" to have the option to be either incremental or apply a filter to the Records window. As the Records Window view is often NOT sorted by Name, I personally would prefer a filter whilst maintaining the currently applied sort order.

Should the current First Name, Last Name boxes be combined into a single SMART entry field like in the image examples?, personally I believe that would be preferable.

I'm sure there are many places within Family Historian which could benefit from the upgrading of SMART searching including wildcards, I only use the Records Window as an example here.

Currently Family Historian is not SMART in this respect only applying the Begins with logic to Surname and Given Name fields therefore excluding Middle Name and Name includes logic, that needs improving.

[fhtess65]

I would support this as well...for all the reasons discussed above, especially those in Jackson's comments...

[kimgroothuis]

I also support this. Thank Helen but expressing it so clearly.

[Vyger]

I played some more with this in the other software and whilst it does have areas where what I am calling SMART searching could be improved it is also very useful in the Family context.

If you want ALL couples Henry & Jane, George & Agnes or in this example John & Beth then just enter a Husband and Wife search term (surname or given contains) separated by a comma to receive an informative filtered list.

family-search.png (37.05 KiB) Viewed 906 times

[Vyger]

Wish List item 633 has been created. Please vote for it to let Calico Pie know if you wish to see this feature introduced.