Surname variations – a valuable tool for genealogists

March 12, 4:24 PMGenealogy and Technology ExaminerThomas MacEntee

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Have you ever hit a "brick wall" in your genealogy research?  Ever felt like you've exhausted every possibility?  But have you looked at every possible variation of the surname you are working on?

I ask these questions because the research for one of my biggest brick walls – the parents of my great-grandmother Frances Pressner (abt 1889 – 1960) – relied upon the surname Pressner or variations that I could conjure up in my head.

I wanted more surname variations and not being familiar with the German language (Grandma Pressner came to the United States from Germany as a child), I needed some assistance.  And I found it in the form of Surname Suggestion List by Matthew Combs.

Surname Suggestion List is an application that you download (for free!) and when activated you see a screen asking for the surname:

Once you click Search, you will see many variations of that surname under the Excellent, Close and Longshot columns:

As explained by Matthew, the variations in the Excellent column are very similar to the surname used in the search.  The Close variations are only similar and the Longshot variations are "somewhat" similar.

There is no way I would think of variations on Pressner like Bresner or Pruessner without this application.  And while I am a huge fan of web-based applications and tend to shy away from anything I have to download, Surname Suggestion List is one of those "must have" tools for my genealogy toolbox.

Besides generating variations, Matt has also programmed in the ability to click on a surname variation and then perform a Google search with that data.  You can also specify Book Search, Image Search and Blog Search.

Worried that Surname Suggestion List won't cover the foreign names you are looking for?  Don't worry.  From the version list provided, Matt has included the following surnames besides those commonly found in the United States and the United Kingdom: Armenian, Belgian, Czech, Danish, English, French, German, Irish, Kurdish, Lithuanian, Maltese, Norwegian, Pakistani, Persian, Polish, Scottish, Spanish, and Swiss.  And Matt also updates the program to include surnames suggested by users.

Check out Surname Suggestion List and you'll be surprised at where your research takes you.  As they say, "variety is the spice of life" and of surnames in genealogy research.

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