This is important because there are many examples of collectors recorded as "Mrs. John Smith". Ignoring the "Mrs." erases women from our data. For what it's worth, I use this in a ruby gem:
TITLE = /\s*\b(sir|count(ess)?|(gen|adm|col|maj|capt|cmdr|lt|sgt|cpl|pvt|prof|dr|md|ph\.?d|rev|mme|abbé|ptre|bro|esq)\.?|docteur|father|cantor|vicar|père|pastor|rabbi|reverend|pere|soeur|sister|professor)(\s+|$)/i
This is important because there are many examples of collectors recorded as "Mrs. John Smith". Ignoring the "Mrs." erases women from our data. For what it's worth, I use this in a ruby gem:
TITLE = /\s*\b(sir|count(ess)?|(gen|adm|col|maj|capt|cmdr|lt|sgt|cpl|pvt|prof|dr|md|ph\.?d|rev|mme|abbé|ptre|bro|esq)\.?|docteur|father|cantor|vicar|père|pastor|rabbi|reverend|pere|soeur|sister|professor)(\s+|$)/i