Solution
Each of our databases has associated with it a listing in alphabetical order of the names in the database. This is called a Names List and is found by clicking the Names List button near the top of the page.
The purpose of this Names List alphabetical listing is to assist readers check the spelling of a name. It might be, for example, you Search the database for the name Ainslie but get zero results. If you look in the Names List you may see there is someone called Aynsley, and this may indeed be the person you were looking for.
These Names Lists are offered as an additional service to readers. They have to be made manually and each takes time. Since most of our databases are being added to regularly, and these changes are not reflected in the current Names List, it will be inevitable that names exist in the database itself, but not yet in its Names List.
This will remain the case until we find time to perform the manual functions required to bring the list into agreement with its database. We would like to automate the process but haven't figured out yet how to do this.
If you find an example, please raise a ticket in the Helpdesk and we will prioritize bringing the listing into agreement with the database.
The following may help:
Search Tips are found here .
Our database software utilizes MySQL on our host servers. It is the most widely used database software in the world. It's fast and very reliable. All MySQL searches you make pass through what is known as a Stopword List, essentially a list of words MySQL does not recognize, it just ignores them. These are generally programmer-centric (or unimportant words such as 'the') and the reason they are on the Stopword List is related to performance efficiency and database security. If you try to Search on any word in the Stopword List, your search will fail. Therefore if the name you are looking for just happens to be the same as a word in the Stopword List, it will actually be in the database but a Search will not find it. The name WILL be in the Names List (found via the Names List button which is found on every database: the purpose of which is to show all the names in this particular database, so you can check the spelling) but you won't be able to Search for it. You can see the Stopword List here.
Unfortunately the Stopword List used by our hosting service includes at least 6 words which can also occur as valid names (there may be others in the Stopword List which can also be valid names, but we haven't noticed any being used in our databases). To overcome this problem, we have changed the relevant names in the database so you can find them.
If you search for the name 'Down' use 'Downe' instead If you search for the name 'Else' use 'Elsee' instead If you search for the name 'Just' use 'Juste' instead If you search for the name 'Little' use 'Littlee' instead If you search for the name 'Much' use 'Muche' instead If you search for the name 'New' use 'Newe' instead Where we have made such changes, we have noted this in the database entry itself so there is no room for confusion as to what the correct name really is. If you find a Name in the Names List that doesn't show up when you make a Search, let us know via the Helpdesk and we will perform a manual Search for you and make the necessary adjustments to the database.
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