diff --git a/gramps/gen/soundex.py b/gramps/gen/soundex.py
index 412cd9f4c..6040b8f14 100644
--- a/gramps/gen/soundex.py
+++ b/gramps/gen/soundex.py
@@ -29,17 +29,23 @@ Provide soundex calculation
 # Standard python modules
 #
 #-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-import string
+import sys
 import unicodedata
+if sys.version_info[0] < 3:
+    import string
 
 #-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 #
-# constants 
+# constants
 #
 #-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 IGNORE = "HW~!@#$%^&*()_+=-`[]\|;:'/?.,<>\" \t\f\v"
-TABLE  = string.maketrans('ABCDEFGIJKLMNOPQRSTUVXYZ', 
-                          '012301202245501262301202')
+if sys.version_info[0] < 3:
+    TABLE  = string.maketrans('ABCDEFGIJKLMNOPQRSTUVXYZ',
+                              '012301202245501262301202')
+else:
+    TABLE  = bytes.maketrans(b'ABCDEFGIJKLMNOPQRSTUVXYZ',
+                             b'012301202245501262301202')
 
 from .constfunc import conv_to_unicode_direct
 
@@ -55,9 +61,14 @@ def soundex(strval):
         conv_to_unicode_direct(strval.upper().strip())).encode('ASCII', 'ignore')
     if not strval:
         return "Z000"
-    strval = strval.encode('iso-8859-1')
-    str2 = strval[0]
-    strval = strval.translate(TABLE, IGNORE)
+    if sys.version_info[0] < 3:
+        strval = strval.encode('iso-8859-1') # Really?
+        str2 = strval[0]
+        strval = strval.translate(TABLE, IGNORE)
+    else:
+        strval = strval.decode('ASCII', 'ignore')
+        str2 = strval[0]
+        strval = strval.translate(TABLE)
     if not strval:
         return "Z000"
     prev = strval[0]