Taufschein Database

I am still working on my Taufschein inventory. I am using an Excel file to work with because I feel more comfortable with it than using Access. I have copied files over before from Excel to Access but it is sometimes a hassle and cannot do it all at once. Hopefully it will not give me any problems this time. I am going to read (not sure if i should have already) the database chapter in our computer textbook to try and get a better idea of what I can do with databases. All I really know now is that I am basically entering information based on what I think people will want to search for: names, dates, locations, etc...I want to be able to, first of all, learn how create searches with a soundex so that I can allow pepole to search without exact spellings. Not sure if i can do that with Access??? A big problem is entering the same names with different spellings. I am entering 19th century German names that had no standard spellings, the same name is often spelled differently or names were simply phonetically spelled so that it is difficult to know how to enter the names. I know I could standardize the names (which is what I do with place names) but I also want to record the original spellings in order to be sure I am getting the name correct. It is possible that the odd spelling was retained and that is how it is spelled today.