Tips for Searching

If you are searching for a topic or subject, try various words for it. For example, if you are interested in "education," try also "schools" and "teachers." For "soldiers," try also "military," "servicemen," and the name of particular wars. This search engine thinks that a word with a '-s' on the end of it is different from that same word without a final '-s.' So try searching topic words with and without a final '-s.' For example, "miner" and "miners," or "neighborhood" and "neighborhoods."

If you are looking for a family name, be sure to try all the ways in which it might have been spelled.  The writing of some names changed over time.  For example, Zaragoza was later spelled Saragosa.  The “—ez” at the end of a name could also be an “—es” (Quinones or Quinonez).  The letters “g” and “q” might be used interchangeably (Rodriguez or Rodriquez), as could “a”/“o” and “b”/“v.”  If a non-Spanish speaker was writing down the name—for instance, a Census taker—the spellings could be even more varied.

Here are some examples of multiple spellings from the Longmont City Directory for 1975:

  • Guiterrez, Gutierrez, Gutierriez, Gutierriz, Gutterez
  • Muniz, Munoz
  • Najera, Najero
  • Peres, Perez
  • Roybal, Royval
  • Sandaval, Sandavol, Sandovol