Beating OCR Errors: How to Search Old Newspapers When Names Are Misspelled

1. Master the Wildcard Operator

If a specific letter in your ancestor's name is constantly misread by scanners, remove that letter from the equation entirely.

• The Strategy: Use a wildcard symbol—usually an asterisk (*) or a question mark (?)—to replace the garbled letters in a search bar.

• The Breakthrough: If your ancestor’s last name was "Schumacher," the "u" and the "a" might be smudged in the original ink. Instead of searching the full name, search Schmcher. This command tells the database to find any word that starts with "Sch," has an "m" in the middle, and ends with "cher." It will pull up the exact article, bypassing the OCR errors completely.

2. Search by Street Address

When a name is hopelessly garbled by a bad microfilm scan, target numbers instead. OCR software is generally much better at reading digits than it is at reading complex, blurry serif fonts.

• The Strategy: Pull your ancestor's exact street address from our Census & Population Collections and search the newspaper for the house number and street name in quotation marks (e.g., "405 Elm").

• The Breakthrough: Local newspapers frequently published the addresses of residents hosting parties, recovering from illnesses, or hosting out-of-town guests. Finding a society column that reads, "A gathering was held at 405 Elm Street," will lead you right to your ancestor's story, even if the computer completely butchered their surname.

3. Use Keyword Proximity Searches

Sometimes, an OCR error splits a first and last name apart, or inserts random punctuation between them. A standard "Exact Phrase" search will miss these completely.

• The Strategy: Use proximity operators to search for a first name appearing near a spouse's name, rather than searching for their exact full names.

• The Breakthrough: Instead of searching exactly for "John and Mary Smith," use advanced search settings to look for the word "John" within 5 to 10 words of "Mary." If the OCR misread their last name as "Srnith," the proximity search will still catch the two distinct first names huddled closely together in the same paragraph.

4. Search for the "FAN Club" (Friends, Associates, Neighbors)

If your ancestor's name was printed on a crease in the newspaper, it might be permanently unreadable to the computer. You need to search for the people standing next to them.

• The Strategy: Stop searching for your ancestor and start searching for the people they interacted with: the attending physician, the local pastor, the defense attorney, or a known business partner.

• The Breakthrough: If you know your ancestor was married on a specific date, but their name is illegible in the wedding announcement, search for the name of the minister who performed the ceremony. Searching for the minister's name on that specific date can drop you directly onto the exact page you need, allowing you to read the announcement with your own eyes.