How are the indexes sorted?
All of the regular every-name indexes are sorted by the person’s call name (the name they used in everyday life, when known); then by their birth year (or birth year estimate or range when the exact year isn’t known).
But, keep in mind that many birth years are not known for sure. I had to have some kind of birth year estimate or range for everybody, so that I could create a Birth Year Index, but some of them are just best guesses.
What should I search for?
When using the Every-Name Indexes, if you don’t find your ancestor under the name that you expect to find them, try looking under Anna (call name) and Mary (call name) for females; and under John (call name) for males. I have tried to index everybody under their call name. However, if all I know about a person is that, for example, their name is shown as Mary M. Erner or Anna M. Freiburg in a census, then I have no way of knowing that M. stood for Margaret, and that their family always called them Margaret. Also, you and I may be spelling their name differently.
Next, you can try doing a text-string search in any of the indexes (using your browser’s Find or Search option) for the person’s known location of birth, residence or death (preferably a city or county). However, this will only work for the ones who moved away from Quincy, Adams, Illinois; there isn’t much point in searching for “Quincy” because you’ll get a hit on 90% of the people in the index. Also, if you want to search by the state, note that all state names in the indexes use the official USPS two-letter abbreviations, to keep the file sizes down as much as possible. So, if you search for IA (for Iowa), for example, you’ll have to page through every name that contains an “ia” anywhere in it. Instead, search for “[space]IA”.
Names indexed under other names or spellings. Different names are indexed separately or together, based solely on whether it makes the indexes easier to use, not on whether the names are etymologically or otherwise related.
Edmund, Edwin (under Edward)
Elisa, Eliza (under Elizabeth)
Francis, Franklin, Franz (under Frank)
Harry (indexed separately). If not found, also check under Henry.
Heinrich (under Henry)
Johann, Johannes (under John)
Katherine, Kate, Katrina (under Catherine)
Lorenz (under Lawrence)
Maria, Marian (under Mary)
The heck with
this, I want answers right now.
If you can’t find your ancestor using these techniques, or if you just don’t have time to look for them, contact me directly and I will try to find them for you. If you present me with a previously unknown person that isn’t on this site, I will even do original research to try to help you find your ancestor. In return, of course, I expect you to send all of the information that you do have on your line (up to about 1920), so that I know where to look and also so that this site will be even more help to future researchers.
Erner Every-Name
Index (Not posted yet)
Freiburg Every-Name Index (in the U.S. only)
Hellhake Every-Name Index (Not
posted yet)
Tips for using the Indexes Last revision: 01 Dec 2003
Allendorf to America: Erner and Related Families in America.
Send e-mail with questions or
comments about this website to:
Copyright © 2003 by Joseph Erner
(see Copyright
Notice)