Name variation option
Please add the ability for users to add variations of their last name so they can have a better chance of connecting to parent nodes if none exist for an ancestor couple. Ancestors may have had a different spelling of their last name in a new country, it may have been misinterpreted during documentation or altered to better integrate into a new country. An example is the name "Alex Sampsun" in the Great Britain may have been changed to " Alex Sampson" in the US colonial days.
Answers
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Add variants where - in Family Tree? The option does exist in Tree already - on person page Details: Other Information use Alternate Name.
Just click +Add Information and you will see Alternate Name (it's the first option at the top of the list)
If you mean in an index of a record - it depends upon whether Names are currently editable in that indexed collection. But if editable - there is the Edit button available below the primary person name (in the banner).
When you click Edit you will be presented with the editable fields for the Record and you can insert Alternate Name/spelling there.
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FamilySearch uses a fuzzy search technology in all search routines. That is why you see a wide variety of results when searching. To take your example of Sampsun vs Sampson, if I search for Sampsun, my results include Sampsun, Samme, Sampsonson, Sampson, Sam, Sams, and many more:
You can broaden the search further by including up to four names in your search:
You might be wondering how Fulcher showed up on the list. This is because Edna Fulcher has Edna Jones included as an alternate name on her profile name. Edna Jones is her married name. That is where genthusiast's information plays a roll. The search routine looks at all alternate names on a person when compiling the results.
For greatest flexibility in your searches use wildcards (see: https://www.familysearch.org/en/blog/searching-with-wildcards-in-familysearch). If you search using s*mp* you are going get a huge range of possible matches:
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