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Reference: Brad & Kathy Genealogy (http://www.bradandkathy.com/cgi-bin/yasc.cgi)

First applied to the US Census in 1880, a Soundex-coded surname is an alpha-numeric indexed based on the way a surname sounds, rather than the way it is spelled. The intent was to help researchers find a surname quickly even though it may have received different spellings.  In generating a Soundex index for a name one follows these basic rules:

Prefixes
If the surname has a prefix, such as D', De, dela, Di, du, Le, van, or Von, code it both with and without the prefix because it might be listed under either code. The surname vanDevanter, for example, could be V-531 or D-153. Mc and Mac are not considered to be prefixes and should be coded like other surnames.

Double Letters
If the surname has any double letters, they should be treated as one letter. Thus, in the surname Lloyd, the second l should be crossed out. In the surname Gutierrez, the second r should be disregarded.

Side-by-Side Letters
A surname may have different side-by-side letters that receive the same number on the Soundex coding guide. For example, the c, k, and s in Jackson all receive a number 2 code. These letters with the same code should be treated as only one letter. In the name Jackson, the k and s should be disregarded. This rule also applies to the first letter of a surname, even though it is not coded. For example, Pf in Pfister would receive a number 1 code for both the P and f. Thus in this name the letter f should be crossed out, and the code is P-236.

American Indian and Asian Names
A phonetically spelled American Indian or Asian name was sometimes coded as if it were one continuous name. If a distinguishable surname was given, the name may have been coded in the normal manner. For example, Dances with Wolves might have been coded as Dances (D-522) or as Wolves (W-412).  The the name Shinka-Wa-Sa may have been coded as Shinka (S-520) or Sa (S-000).

If Soundex cards do not yield expected results, researchers should consider other surname spellings or variations on coding names.

Female Religious Figures
Nuns or other female religious figures with names such as Sister Veronica may have been members of households or heads of households or institutions where a child or children age 10 or under resided. Because many of these religious figures do not use a surname, the Soundexes for the post-1880 censuses frequently use the code S-236, for Sister, whether or not a surname exists. So far as can be determined, though, the Soundex for the 1880 census does not use the code S-236 for this purpose.

Because of the limitations of the 1880 Soundex, the number of cards mentioning a nun or comparable person is likely to be very small. If this person was the head of a household or institution with children, indexers may have coded the head's surname. If no surname existed, the indexers may have used the Not Reported (NR) surname option discussed later. In either case, if the household or institution headed by a female religious figure included a child under 10, the researcher also can code the child's surname and seek an Individual Card. No Individual Card, though, applies to a nun or any other person 10 years or older.

Single-Term Names
In 1880 many individuals, especially in Alaska or areas with many Native Americans, may have used only a single-term name such as Loksi or Hiawatha. Perhaps not until the 1900s did their descendants use a surname. Some researchers, therefore, may need to code a single-term name as though it was a surname. If this rule applies to the head of a family and other family members have different names, Individual Cards will also pertain to those members age 10 or younger.

H and W Rule
The letters H and W do not act as separators between letters having the same code value. As a result, such letters are treated as adjacent and are condensed into a single code. For example, the letter sequence "CHS" would be coded as 2, whereas without this rule, it would be coded as 22. Note that this rule has often been omitted in descriptions of Soundex.

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