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Top tip - using the Genes Reunited community

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Colin Cerexhe

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Colin

Colin Report 11 Apr 2003 17:23

Just a quick tip I picked up. If you are searching for a particular name in the 1837online site, but it is pre-1866 and the names are only sorted by first letter, try the following. Find your name once. Divide the page it is on eg, 67, by the number of pages under that letter, eg, 203. This gives a result of 0.33... This means that on average your name is 33% of the way through that letter. To save time and money later, multiply the number of pages in the sample by your number, and it will very often bring you to the correct page, or only 1 or two out. This basically works because on average, there is the same spread of surnames per sample, although if you use it on two samples many decades apart, it may not be as accurate. Sorry if this has been boring to read, it's the mathematician inside me! Hope it is of use to somebody. Thanks to all that told me to search for other spellings on 1837online. It cost me quite a bit, but I've uncovered the people I needed :)